What is criticism?

Criticism is the application of a deep understanding of a topic or field to the newest creations of that field. Criticism can also place past works of art or creation into a current context by challenging icons, rediscovering lost achievements or redirecting the viewer, reader or participant to new modes of understanding. Individuals who make their living in the field are typically known as critics; those who do it part- time are usually called reviewers.

Why criticism?

Because all fields of human endeavor, in order to advance, need critical judgment to recognize genius, determine quality and otherwise set standards. Criticism should be subordinate to the works themselves, yet should hold equal weight in terms of value to society.

Types of criticism— Criticism can be distinguished, not just by subject matter, but also by venue. Thus, some are created under tight deadlines while others can take years to prepare. By the same token, the majority of reviews deal with a single book, musical or dramatic performance, television show, movie, or recording. But there is also a genre of criticism that looks at the entire oeuvre of an artist, placing him or her in the larger context of an entire era or creative school.

Here is a partial list of types of criticism:

Newspaper reviews— These have the tightest deadlines of any form of criticism. And they run the gamut from books to opera, plays and musical, musical performances, television and movies, audio recordings, video games, and so forth. It is the nature of newspaper publishing— the need to make the next day's edition— that creates the time pressure. Writing newspaper reviews typically involves attending an afternoon or evening performance then returning to the newsroom (or remotely filing via email) to write the story in the hours (or minutes) before the morning edition “goes to bed” (that is, sent for printing). At best— perhaps for a weekend book review section—reviewers may have a few days to prepare their copy. Though there has been some great newspaper reviewing over the last two centuries, it is definitely work in which erudition and strong opinions take precedent over elegant writing. Newspapers that serve large metropolitan readerships typically have full- time staffers as reviewers (though with the decline of newspapers, that is changing), while smaller- circulation papers usually hire freelancers.

Until now, this textbook has been about professional writing careers. We close with a look at the life of a professional writer.

The fundamental question

How should a writer live his or her life and conduct a career in order to achieve the greatest contribution, compensation, satisfaction and happiness? At the beginning of your working life this may not seem like a big deal: you're too busy with just trying to start your career, not worrying about how to finish it. But trust the author: there will come a time when you ask yourself whether it was all worth it, and what will be your legacy. The sooner you start asking yourself those questions, the better the odds that you will find (or more accurately, create) satisfying answers.

The following is the career wisdom of the author, acquired over the course of forty years as a professional writer. It is incomplete and, in some cases, perhaps even wrong— or at least a poor fit for your life. So, take it as you will, and keep searching for answers from every other professional writer you meet.

Recognize that you will change

Appreciate from the start that the person you are at 20 is not the person you will be at 40 or 60 or 80. Not only will your skills change, but also your interests and your dreams. Don't get stuck trying to live out fantasies that are no longer valid to your life— that is, just because at 20 you wanted to be a novelist, and told everybody so, doesn't mean at 50 you are still obliged to write that novel. No one cares. If something else inspires you instead, go after it— don't linger on the past.

Recognize that the world's perception of you changes as well

As you conduct your career, you will gain a reputation. Find out what that reputation is and don't delude yourself that you are seen as someone you are not. If your reputation is the one you want, then figure out how to cultivate and grow it. If it is not the one you want, then develop a strategy to change that reputation. And don't just sit where you are, trying to maintain the status quo, because your reputation will deteriorate if you don't tend to it.

In this chapter we look at two types of writing that appear in very different ways, but structurally, are nearly identical. Both are dialog- driven and both involve actors and actresses who perform the author's words and instructions. Where they differ has less to do with the writing and more with venue, modes of transmission, timeliness (one is “live,” the other not) and cost.

Screenwriting

What is screenwriting?

Screenwriting is designed to be viewed or heard, typically in a reading or performance that involves someone besides the author, and delivered by mechanical/ electrical/ digital means. Screenwriters produce screenplays, which are typically converted into working scripts, which are used to make motion pictures, Webcasts and television shows. Screenwriting can take the form of a monologue or dialog, and may or may not involve instructions to other creative personnel (instructions for camera shots, actor actions, etc. are usually reserved for the “shooting script.”

Screenplays share long- established formats that need to be followed by the screenwriter if she or he is going to have a chance at making a sale. You need to learn that format and be fluent in it. The world will not bend its century- old system to you; you must adapt to it.

Types of screenwriting

Though term “screenwriting” is typically associated with television or film, it actually encompasses just about everything creative you write for the electronic or digital media— even if it is just a few lines to announce the next show on the schedule. Here's some examples:

What is book authorship?

The authoring, co- authoring or compiling and introducing of a fulllength (40K to 300K word count) hardcover, softcover or electronic nonfiction book. Such a book typically takes 12– 15 months to complete, of which the actual writing is about 9 months. Time to publication after completion of the writing can range from days (e- books) to more than a year (traditional hardcover publishers). For the purposes of this book, we distinguish “author,” which we will use for nonfiction books only, and “novelist,” a term used exclusively for fiction.

Why write nonfiction books?

Because some subjects are of sufficient importance and complexity that they can only be treated at book length. Also, putting one's work between covers confers on it a value and gravity impossible in any other publication format. Finally, more than any magazine or newspaper article, books are substantial physical objects that can endure for years, even generations.

Types of books

The range of subjects for nonfiction books is as wide as the range of human interests. In other words, it is almost infinite. Here is a partial list of broad topics. Under each topic you can probably create a list of subtopics just as long. The point is that, especially in the modern global marketplace, there are probably enough potential readers in each of thousands of subgenres of nonfiction to make it commercially viable for you to write a book on that subject. And if you are willing to write out of love (or for reputation building) instead of money, the potential topics are probably ten times that.

The book-writing process

Writing a book is a major effort, one that can take thousands of hours and months out of your life. Too many people become obsessed with an idea for a book, sit down and just start writing from page one, devoting many hours per day for the first couple of weeks. This is a recipe for disaster— which is why only a small fraction of books started are ever finished. Most often, these writers simply burn themselves out. Or other responsibilities call, and they abandon the effort. Or they discover they don't have enough material for a book- length work.

This chapter looks at the many kinds of occasional writing that you, as a professional writer, may be asked to do. It is a varied list, but the writing remains the same. Economical writing, strong phrasing, action verbs, factual accuracy, careful editing; good writing is still good writing, even if it is for a neighborhood brochure.

Some of this writing will be for nonprofits, others for profit- making clients, and still others for small businesses with very limited budgets. Again, as a professional, you should never write for free— the exception being for a nonprofit organization. But with very small businesses you may want to modify your fee to match their budget— balanced by whatever goodwill you may obtain (for example, if you are asked by your favorite coffee joint to help it write a neighborhood flyer, you may want to take your payment out in free drinks).

It is also not recommended that you charge an hourly rate. People can look at a work of art— and because they can't draw themselves, it seems valuable. But everybody can write— though most can't do it very well— and so when they see your completed work they have a tendency to believe they could have done it by themselves, that it wasn't that difficult and as such they undervalue your work. Also, different writers work at different speeds, and many bad writers work much more slowly than good writers. So why charge by the hour? And why try to negotiate a fee after delivery?

Instead, charge by the project and agree upon the price up- front. If possible, also get paid half up front as well. Then, if your client decides that his teenaged daughter could have written that copy as well as you and refuses to pay for the finished writing, you at least have the equivalent of a kill fee in your pocket.

As for working with nonprofits, good for you for being a good neighbor and citizen. That said, nonprofits are in the business of getting good people with special skills to donate as much of their time as possible— and one of the skills they need most is writing.

“Blog” is a neologism created from the phrase “web log.” Strictly speaking, a blog is a web site on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, interesting links, solicited comments and, more rarely, conduct traditional field reporting, on a regular basis. There are an estimated 200 million bloggers currently active in the world. The universe of bloggers is usually called the Blogosphere. While it is possible to earn a living as a blogger, the number of those who do so is extremely small, as the competition for readers is high, and the business model itself not particularly lucrative.

Why blog?

Blogging sits at the nexus of the natural human desire to share our thoughts and beliefs with others, with the hope that our words will live forever, and with the speed and infinite scalability of modern digital technology. Most bloggers get into the profession because of its very lowcost ease of entry (most blogging software is either cheap or free), and they stay in despite the limited financial return because they enjoy both the platform for their writing and opinions and the interaction with loyal and equally opinionated readers.

A brief history of blogs

Blogs began as extended diaries entries (hence “log”) and essays on the pioneering sites of the Internet, such as the Well, Compuserve, BBS sites, and so forth. Successful diarists— usually the most colorful and opinionated writers and experts in tech- related fields— found they were gaining loyal, even obsessive, followers and continued because they enjoyed the response.

Archival data suggests that the first real blogs appeared in 1994– 1995 at Swarthmore College by a student named Justin Hall— and by other pioneers such as science- fiction writer and essayist Jerry Pournelle, who moved his Byte magazine column “Chaos Manor” (founded in 1980) to the Web.

The transformative event in the history of blogging was the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack and the perceived failure of traditional media to keep up with the pace of news. The events of 9/ 11 made the reputation of Matt Drudge, and his news portal, “The Drudge Report,” which would soon have millions of visitors each day, became a model of how much influence a single individual could have using the Web.

For the next two chapters we will look at the practical craft of constructing compelling phrases, sentences and narratives. Think of it as everything you were supposed to learn in language and grammar classes in primary and secondary school— but in only a few thousand words. This time around, we're going to teach you the actual stuff you need to be a professional writer, and make a living doing so.

For that reason, we aren't going to spend time on grammar: in the real world, the only rule of grammar is that it works in getting the message through to the reader. Nor are we going to discuss rhetoric, other than, once again, what works. Nor vocabulary: experience has shown that working every day as a writer will force you to expand your vocabulary if you are going to be able to effectively explain yourself. Nor punctuation: not least because that field has become increasingly fluid in recent years.

Rather, we are going to use these two chapters to look at how you use language in the most powerful way to capture and hold readers, enhance their emotional response to what you've written, and keep them reading through to the end. Compared to that, whether you've written a sentence fragment or split an infinitive is inconsequential. Indeed, in professional practice, there are good arguments to be made for both. So, let's begin our short course in Real- Life Writing— or, as the author prefers, Writing for Money.

The parts of language and their roles

Sounds are senses

Once, during a safari in Namibia, the author met a man, a tracker and guide, who was one of the most linguistically accomplished individuals on Earth. His father was a member of the Ovambo tribe, the dominant African people in that part of sub- Saharan Africa; his mother was Bushman, a member of the San people. Meanwhile, by the nature of his work, and his own native language skills, this man dealt regularly with people from around the world and had to learn to speak with them in their own languages.

That observation may sound stupid and obvious, but you'd be amazed how many poets, columnists, feature writers and novelists try to force words onto the page without any real knowledge of what they are writing about. Some are even reduced to making up “facts” and sources that aren't real. Such are the demands of money, deadline and ambition. Sometimes they pull it off; but not for long.

Real, honest writing— even if it is fiction— requires real, honest information on what you are writing about. And the only way to get that information is to go out looking for it. That means interviewing sources or eyewitnesses, or visiting the sites of key events, or digging deep into official records, or searching far out into the hinterlands of the Internet. The closer you can get to actual participants or witnesses to the event you wish to describe, including the documents they leave behind— the more legally certified the documents you find, and the more verified and cross- referenced the file you find— the better off you are going to be.

Why do this? Because you owe it to yourself as a professional to get things right. And because you owe it to your readers, your client or your employer not to mislead them or place them in legal or financial jeopardy. Sound overdramatic? Wait until you get a story wrong.

We once worked for an editor who was the very model of a conscientious reporter— including checking and double- checking every factual claim made by his staff of young reporters. At first we thought he was overly careful, at the expense of stripping some of the power out of our stories. Then he told us of an experience from his own days as a young reporter.

It seems that, while still little more than a rookie, he wrote a profile of a fast- growing new company that had a hot new product, skyrocketing sales and the prospect of even better days ahead.

What makes TV and radio news reporting different?

All writing is colored by the medium in which it appears, but with television and radio news, the writing is largely defined by the nature of those media. With television, almost all writing is subordinate to the visual imagery available, and the words almost always precede the image. As a result, television news reporting (as compared to print reporting) is typically more of a headline- and- caption production. In radio, the limitations are almost always due to time, as the spoken word is much slower than the read word. Also, in radio any nonverbal sounds (from real- life recordings to sound effects) are almost always subordinate to the spoken word— or used as a set- up to those words.

Why pursue a TV or radio news- writing career?

One reason is that television and radio news— especially the former— are just more glamorous than print. That's because an on- air face or voice is much more individualized than a simple print byline. Still, as the years pass, the three media are growing closer together as the Web enables television and radio reporters to write in a longer format; and print reporters to go on- air with Web videos.

Television and radio news also typically reaches a larger audience than print, especially in an era when newspapers are fading and dropping editions, and television and radio news is extending across the 24- hour cycle. Also, because of the delays created by press runs, TV and (even more) radio news is typically more timely, with updates and breaking news presented throughout the day.

But perhaps the most important reason for pursuing television or radio journalism over print is the personal connection you make with your audience. This is especially true with television, where viewers can come to believe they actually know you— and will sometimes come up and talk to you in public places as if you are an old friend. That can be irritating, but if you have the right, outgoing, personality becoming a local celebrity can be an added reward. That kind of attention almost never happens with print reporters, even popular columnists.

Every human being knows the definition of rejection in his or her life. “Rejection” in the context of professional writing is the experience of having a proposal or a completed piece of writing turned down by a targeted publication or other media venue.

Like other forms of rejection, literary rejection can be a deeply painful experience, particularly when you take that rejection as a judgment on your writing skills or, worse, your value as a human being. The key is to put that rejection in proper perspective and develop strategies for turning it into acceptance. In this chapter we'll look at those strategies in detail.

(For simplicity, we use “publication” to represent all media.)

Basic rules

We start with some simple (but not necessarily easy) rules for responding to a rejection letter or e- mail from a publication.