EVENT: The Op-Ed Project in Chicago - April 6th

One of the questions I get asked most frequently from students or aspiring writers (which I still consider myself) is what was my plan. The only plan I've ever had after undergrad was to work on feminist issues and find a way to get my voice heard. Yes, once back in the early days of the internet, when newspapers still flourished (or appeared to be) I dreamed of having a newspaper column. Nowadays I have this blog, a few others where I am welcomed, but also op-eds. Op-ed writing is a science and an art. Which of course means someone needs to teach you the tricks. Lucky for us Chicagoans, The Op-Ed Project has settled in Chicago for long term. The next training session is coming up and if your dream is to have someone hear your voice, then you must go. I plan on stopping by the end of the seminar and sticking around for the cocktail hour (For me that means a beer & snacks).  I hope to see you there!

DETAILS

DATE:: April 6, 2013 (Saturday)

TIME:: Seminar: 10 AM – 5 PM

Cocktail Hour: 5:30 – 7 PM


LOCATION
Medill School at Northwestern University
105 West Adams, Suite 200
Chicago, Illinois 60603


REGISTRATION FEES

Super Early Bird (ends March 6): $325

Early Bird (ends March 27): $375

Regular: $425

See their Pay in Words Scholarship option here.


REGISTER HERE!

Checking in...Here's what's up

As one can tell by the radio silence on this blog, the fall semester has begun.

I started blogging as a way to get all the thoughts in my head out into the universe. Now that I'm back in class, the kid's in school (well, not right now, but soon I hope!), soccer season has begun (we won the first game 6-0, second game 5-0) and a zillion other things, not to mention work, I just don't have the time to always get here to let the words out. It doesn't mean I don't have them. I swear I'm thinking up blog posts all day long. Eleven years of this and you start to think in blog posts. I wonder if columnists do the same thing? I just don't have the time to sit down and write the way I want.

Summer was quite productive for my writing though. I did find time to write up a short piece for the Bitch List on Derby Lite. It's in the current issue, Elemental.

I also reviewed Jessica Valenti's book, Why Have Kids?, for Ms. Magazine and that issue should be out soon. I'll write more about my thoughts once the review is out.

Lastly, I reviewed Practicing Feminist Motherhood for the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement journal. Once that is published, I'll link here and at Goodreads.

I also read some great background stuff for my PhD program.

I did take some time for vacation, but as I enter week four of the semester, vacation seems a million years ago. Oh, the peace of the Northwest, why did you leave me so quickly?
Well back to the grind.

Capture that idea - blogging is about ideas

We know that great things start with a small idea and yet not all ideas that occur to us are able to see the light of day in terms of a considered piece of writing. But if you are into blogging then you will know that once a great idea is there a great blog post is just a little more time away. And we all would have experienced how difficult it can be to come up with an idea on demand. Even for some of the very creative ones amongst us.

Though once we recognize that ideas are of great importance we can learn to respect them and treat them with care so that ideas that occur to us do not evaporate away as other events in our life pile up one on top of the other.

So what can one do to increase our ability to care for our ideas? Well to start with one must recognize that a good idea does not come all fleshed out in great detail, it usually comes along as a seed of an idea that we then build it into a great idea. Once we have a great idea we care for it and perhaps may jot it down, but while it is still a seed we may not be as careful and there would be seeds of ideas that occurred to us but were later forgotten and were never allowed to evolve further. And that is not the best way for a blog writer. A better way is to jot down every seed of an idea as it occurs to us in a fleeting manner. For doing this you can use a pen and paper handy or you could use your cell phone to record a brief line about the seed of the idea which you can use later to refresh your memory.

Later when we have more time we can check out the thoughts that we have jotted down and start to develop them further. This method will allow us to do justice to all ideas that occur to us without worrying about how to remember them.

I often need to write on digital scales and if a fleeting though occurs to me I use my cell phone and speak out the idea briefly. Later I do the research related to the idea and write out the full article. I hope you find this approach useful as well.

Author bio : Mark Floyd has over 15 years experience in the digital scales industry. He has been a part of it, as better products have been launched over the years & have changed how weight is measured around the world. You can know more about floor scale, NTEP floor scale and other scales at his web site www.buyfloorscale.com.

Meeting Deadlines

As writers, deadlines are a part of life, whether you churn out copy daily for a blog or newspaper column, or you are working on your next best seller.

In addition to other writing work, I cover trends in technology for Via Satellite, a monthly satellite industry publication published by Access Intelligence Satellite Group. Today, after quote checking some details with a source, I made my submission deadline for an in-depth feature I’d been researching for weeks on the small satellite market.

Everyone knows the relief and sense of satisfaction of beating the time crunch – especially if the editorial project poses challenges – as this assignment did -- in terms of topic complexity, hard-to-reach sources and other unexpected delays.  As they say, life often gets in the way of the best laid plans.

Via Satellite Managing Editor Debbie Richards juggles two monthly print magazines (with weekly and daily editions). She told me that writers meeting deadlines are critical to the many publication production schedules she manages. Richards, an editor for the last five years, encourages writers to always keep the lines of communication open.

“Keep your editor advised – if you tell me a week ahead of time I’m having trouble getting this interview then I know you will be a day or two late and I can budget for that. But if you don’t call me at all, then I’m going to hunt you down. It’s much easier if I know ahead of time something is going wrong than having it sprung on me at the last minute,” she says.

In his Nov. 10, 2010 post, “Deadlines keep the paper alive,” writing coach Don Fry estimated that 5 percent of the papers he deals with don’t have deadlines, and all of those come out late. He writes that absent or unmet deadlines further undermine the copy desk, which is under heavy strain with shrinking newsroom staffs.

“A lack of deadlines, or a culture of not meeting them, leads to ‘shoveling’ copy, the norm in most newsrooms after about 9 p.m.” In contrast, properly met deadlines keep the gears meshing. He advises newspaper editors have deadlines, and “that everybody agrees on what they mean, and everybody meets them, including you.”

So, what can you do to meet your deadlines? Start by trying these four steps:

1. Set your own internal deadlines and give yourself cushion to meet your client’s external deadlines.

2. Communicate regularly with your editor or corporate client – let them know if you need more time and why. Two-way dialogue can go a long way.

3. Think twice before taking on a project with unreasonable turnaround times. It will hurt you in the long run from a stress perspective. Also, the final product won’t reflect your best work.

4. Read freelance writer and blogger Leo Babauta’s post, "14 Essential Steps for Meeting a Deadline."

I'm a 2010 Blogher Voices of the Year Finalist!

Back when I thought that I would be going to Blogher 2010, I submitted a bunch of posts for the Blogher Voice of the Year contest. Yes, it's a contest. People read the entries, people vote and only a few get to read their post to the conference. Anywho, I didn't win, but I am a finalist. And as such will be celebrated at the Blogher 2010 Gala and Art Auction. So yeah for not winning!

My not-quite-winning post was one that I wrote for Girl w/Pen on the balance between human life and scientific discoveries/guidelines in light of the new mammogram guidelines.

I'm happy that my writing was honored, giddy that it was something on Girl w/Pen and fucking off the wall that it was in the Geeky/Nerdy category. I'm disappointed that I won't be there for the Gala, but I couldn't do both Bloger and Netroots. A grrl on a budget has to make choices.

URGENT: Music and Mothers entry needed for Encyclopedia on Motherhood....

Andrea O'Reilly, general editor of the first ever encyclopedia on motherhood is in need of a replacement entry for the topic "music and mothers."

The entry is needed by February 1, 2010 and is to be 2500 words including a work cited of approx 5 titles. The entry is to provide an overview of the topic historically but most of the entry should focus on the following: motherhood as a topic/theme in various musical genres of the 20th/21st centuries; rock, blues, jazz, hip hop, country etc; contemporary popular mother musicians such as Courtney Love, Britney Spears, Dixie Chicks etc. (their music, how treated/perceived in the industry); the contemporary motherhood rock movement with special attention to Mamapalooza.

The encyclopedia is being published by Sage Press and will out in April 2010.

Please email aoreilly@yorku.ca directly asap.

Why This Writer Thanks Stephenie Meyer

As a self-professed Twilight Mom, I joined the throngs of screaming teenage girls who converged on my neighborhood multiplex last night for the long-awaited second film in the Twilight Saga, New Moon.

My five buddies and I weren’t the only over-30 faces in the crowd – there were plenty of excited mothers with their girlfriends and daughters. My friend, Amy, 34, a communications manager, described the excitement of the moment on her Facebook Wall as she typed in her iPhone, “Watching Twilight New Moon with three hundred of my closest screaming teenage girlfriends! Fun!” My other friend Cindy, a life coach, returning from the concession stand with a tub of popcorn, overhearing one teen talking about how she was here with five of her best friends, confessed, “Well, I’m here with five of my 40-year-old friends.”

The undercurrent of excitement and excited chatter continued through the previews, until the film’s opening scene (appropriately a yellow moon) was greeted with screams from the teenage Twi-hards. My friends and I just smiled…it’s all part of the Twilight phenomenon – and it took us back to earlier, more carefree times.

So, what is it about this vampire-human love story that has transfixed a fan base of young and mature audiences? Twilight and New Moon screenplay writer Melissa Rosenberg told LA Times Hero Complex blog contributor Gina McIntyre that what’s so great about the story is Stephenie “really explores complex emotions. You could boil it down to girl loses boy, finds boy, but she doesn’t do the easy, black-and-white moves that a lot of young romances do. It’s very complex -- [what happens when] you develop feelings for a friend, romantic love versus platonic love. These are very sophisticated emotions that are very real but also very hard to translate into a film where everything is usually very simplistic and easy to follow. How do you keep that sophistication and complexity? Because that's the book, that's what makes it interesting.”

A writer’s gift is transporting readers to another place where they can feel the emotions of the characters. That’s what Meyer – and by extension Rosenberg – accomplished in print and on screen.

It’s no secret that Meyer, an English graduate from Brigham Young University, loosely inspired each of her books from classic literature. Booksellers from Paris and Prague to Palm Springs are seeing record highs in sales of these classics:
Twilight: Pride and Prejudice 
New Moon: Romeo and Juliet
Eclipse: Wuthering Heights
Breaking Dawn: The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummers Night Dream

I’m grateful to Stephenie Meyers for more than entertaining us and inspiring a renewed appreciation for the classics: I’m grateful that this stay-at-home mother was brave enough to take a vivid dream she had one June night in 2003 about two star-crossed lovers -- an “ordinary girl” and a beautiful, soulful vampire -- and commit it to paper.

Read the story behind Twilight on Stephenie Meyer's official website: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html

Beginnings

Wow, I actually did it - I am a "blogger." It took most of the evening to narrow down what I would call my blog. Given my focus on writing, storytelling and communications, I had tried "The Scribe's Life," "The Wordsmith" (of course), and even "Write Now," only to find that others had beat me to the punch. I am glad I stuck it out and decided on The Writing Well. It's fitting, coming directly from my favorite writer Ernest Hemingway. As Brian Clark (Copyblogger extraordinaire) puts it so well, "Who better?"

While I am no Hemingway, I hope that my experiences as shared in upcoming postings will provide a perspective on writing well -- especially from my unique experiences as a journalist, memoir writer, technology PR strategist and public health writer.

For my part, I am just glad to be a part of a community where everyone can have a voice, a perspective, a story to share. It's an exciting milestone for me -- and I know I am going to learn a lot from all of you who are established in this medium.

Good night.

I'm in the Guardian!

I had my first (yes, I plan on more) op-ed published in the Guardian yesterday and it's about Chicago's Olympic bid. By the time you read this, I'm sure a decision will be made.

If it's yes, us Chicagoans need to hunker down for a bumpy ride.

If it's no, whew!

Why I write what I write

Warning this post is really just a brain dump. I had a great phone call with one of my freelance 'bosses' and really it was great. But they pointed out that I like to write about women's stuff a lot. And it got me thinking...

Yeah, I do write about women a lot. It might be me making up for a childhood of rejecting many girly things. Playing with dolls but scoffing at skirts & pink. For preferring the company of boys to girls because boys played sports and didn't squeal when they were hit. Then when I hit middle school, boys got too weird and girls were mostly catty. The ones who weren't, I was scared of getting too close in case I scared them away.

But honestly I write about women because I don't feel like enough people are really writing about women in the media. If you give me a soapbox, a medium, a platform to talk about something, I'm sure that the first thing that comes to mind is about women.

I know there are people in my life who get tired of it. Who get tired of me wondering if Cat Cora gets challenged as often as the other Iron Chefs and why I don't see many women challengers. Yeah, that's what goes thru my mind when I'm trying to relax with Food Network.

I can't turn off the feminist analysis. I don't look at the world thru a set of feminist glasses, I see the world thru feminist eyes. I can't take them off. I see questions everywhere, I see women missing in a larger story, especially if women are disproportionately affected.

Don't worry, I didn't take the question or rather assessment negatively. Not at all. I just hadn't stopped to really think about it in some time. And I needed that...I need to be more cognizant of what I'm writing, why I'm writing it and what I want to do with it.

OK end brain dump...

Larry Summers Is Not the Change I Was Expecting

Here's my first commentary published on the Women's Media Center's website:

As President-elect Obama moves quickly to assemble his team, women leaders monitoring his choices have put up a red alert about a reported short-list choice as secretary of the Treasury. Veronica Arreola, an educator and advocate for women in the sciences, explains why.
Click here to read the full article:


WMC Reprint & Credit Requirements: The Women's Media Center grants permission to reprint free-of-charge with the understanding that media outlets credit the author of the piece and the Women's Media Center, as in: "by [author's name] for The Women's Media Center (www.womensmediacenter.com)." If the format allows it, please note at the end: "The WMC is a non-profit organization founded by Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, and Robin Morgan, dedicated to making women visible and powerful in the media."

Explaining my freelance work to the kid

My daughter is still in the phase of her life where I'm actually pretty cool (well, except when she's at school), so I try to share as much about myself with her as I can. So when my copy of Ms. came in the mail yesterday I showed her that mommy was in the magazine. *dumb, dumb dumb*

"Mommy, read me what you wrote!" She asked with a huge smile.

"Umm...sometimes mommy writes things that are for grown-ups."

"Well just read me a part of it."

*Mommy scans her book review for one sentence without rape or sexuality.*

"Umm...You know how mommy always tells you that your body is yours. That no one has permission to touch you? (She nods) Well two women asked other people to write stories about how we can keep others from touching their bodies."

"So, what do they do?" She asks with concern.

"Well, a lot of things, sometimes it is saying "NO!" and sometimes they hit them."

"Oh, well, you should always say, "NO!" but you shouldn't hit them."

"Yes, yes..." I respond. Just getting to this point was tough for me, tougher than I thought, so I let that go. One day soon I'll revisit the issue - probably after she has her "Bad touch, good touch" presentation at school and talk to her about justified hitting, especially if some jerk is trying to touch her and won't respond to her NO.

Me thinks I need to start working on my children's book idea so I can just let her read what mommy writes without too much of a lecture.
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Don't forget that VLF is participating in the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge. We already have one class funded, let's get that second one funded! The teacher is requesting funding to buy books by women authors. Also don't forget that I'm giving out goodies to a few select peeps who donate!

Don't miss the fall issue of Ms. Magazine!

And it is not just because Suze Orman is on the cover with that rock star smile of hers. Why should you pick it up? BECAUSE I AM IN IT!

My review of Yes Means Yes! Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti is in there! OK, sorry I keep screaming, but I can't believe that in the last six months my writing (and not a letter to the editor) has been in both Bitch and Ms.

You have to pick up the issue or wait for it to find your doorstep to read the full review, but I want to give some mega kudos to the four of the many authors who bowled me over. Lisa Jervis, Latoya Peterson, Cristina Meztli Tzintzun, and fellow Bronco Kate Harding. Don't take the fact that I know three of these fab writers as bias. First I'd never kiss Lisa's ass, she could see right thru it. While Kate & I did go to high school together we didn't hang in the same circles. As for Latoya, well, she'd kick my ass if I lied about her writing. Now to meet Cristina...

The book did have a few pieces that honestly read like really long blog posts, but I pride myself on my honesty and I wouldn't try to sell you, especially when I'm getting nada of the royalties, a book that sucked. There are pieces in this collection that are must reads pieces and pieces that should be included in many syllabuses for years to come. I never got through Backlash but I know a few women who have said that the book was their click moment. I think this will do the same thing for many people. OK, enough about the book. You gotta read the official review in Ms.

As for the rest of the magazine, here is what is in store for you:

The new issue of Ms. contains a number of other noteworthy pieces. The cover story, “Suze Orman’s Bottom Line,” offers timely advice from the financial guru on how women can empower themselves during the current money crisis. Accompanying that piece is “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!” by economist and Bennett College president Julianne Malveaux, in which she spells out what the federal government must do to jump-start the floundering U.S. economy.

Other hard-hitting features in the issue reveal “The Scandal of Military Rape,” about the failures of the Department of Defense to stem sexual assault in the armed services, and the “Dangerous Masquerade,” about how so-called crisis pregnancy centers—which often receive government funding—promise counseling and health services to college women but conceal their real purpose: to preach often-inaccurate anti-abortion and abstinence messages.

Furthermore, the issue includes a rueful look at how the 40-year-old anti-birth control dictum of the Catholic Church, “Humanae Vitae,” has both lowered the church’s credibility in the U.S. and caused incalculable harm to women in development countries. Keeping to the birth-control topic, one of the columns in this issue, “Like a Natural Woman,” asks “What’s the real story behind period-suppressing contraceptives?” Finally, fiction lovers can delight in the short story “Hair,” by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, the Nigerian immigrant to the U.S. who recently won a MacArthur “genius” award.

Keep an eye on your neighborhood magazine rack...and while you're waiting, why not subscribe to Ms? Hey, the holidays are coming up, so give, give, give!

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Don't forget that VLF is participating in the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge. We already have one class funded, let's get that second one funded! The teacher is requesting funding to buy books by women authors. Also don't forget that I'm giving out goodies to a few select peeps who donate!

CFA: Encyclopedia of Motherhood

I signed up for 4 articles....yeah, I know.

Dear ARM Members and Friends,

We are inviting academic editorial contributors to the Encyclopedia of Motherhood, a new 3-volume reference to be published in 2009 by Sage Publications.

This comprehensive work will be marketed and sold to college, public, and academic libraries and includes some 750 articles, covering all aspects of a social science perspective on motherhood, including psychology, gender studies, sociology, education, human development, history,
and other fields. We are now making assignments with a deadline of January 15, 2009.

Each article, ranging from 600 to 4,000 words, is signed by the contributor. The General Editor for the encyclopedia is Andrea O’Reilly, Ph.D., York University, who will review all the articles for editorial content and academic consistency.

If you are interested in contributing to the encyclopedia, it can be a notable publication addition to your CV/resume and broaden your publishing credits. Payment for the articles are honoraria that range from a $50 book credit at Sage Publications for article submissions totaling 500 to 1,000 words up to a free set of the finished encyclopedia (a $400 value) for contributions totaling 10,000 words.

The list of available articles (Excel file) and Style Guidelines are prepared and will be sent to you in response to your inquiry. Please then select which unassigned articles may best suit your interests and expertise.

If you would like to contribute to building a truly outstanding reference with the Encyclopedia of Motherhood, please contact me by the e-mail information below. Please provide a very brief summary of your background in social history and related subjects.

Thanks for your time and interest.

Susan Moskowitz
Author
Manager
Golson Media
golsonbooks6@hotmail.com

Site Review – Field Report

From the FAQ:

FieldReport is a web site—a content ranking system and publishing model driven by the Web's richest writing contest. The contest is based on personal true-life stories called FieldReports—reports from the field of your life. FieldReport's contest motivates members to submit polished work and to spend time reviewing other work on the site, while a patent-pending blind review process pushes the best submissions quickly to the top, where they can win substantial cash prizes. FieldReport is reality entertainment and the start of a new marketplace for written content on the Web.

After field testing Field Report I have to give it a thumbs up with a big asterisk. I think that it's a great social networky site for creative writers, but I'm not a creative writer. While all the field reports are supposed to be true life stories, thus giving you tons of short memoirs to comb through, the writing style is akin to fiction writing. The better writers (and warning there is some horrible writing in there) paint beautiful pictures of dying mothers and literal broken hearts.

If you join Field Report you can post your own short stories for others to not just read, but members rate stories. Members can rate your piece on a scale up to 10 as well as an option to leave you comments. As someone who doesn't consider herself a memoir writer, I found the site interesting for entertainment sake. If you are a memoir writer, I think that you could find a good community here to write pieces and get some considerable feedback.

The big carrot for this site is that it is also a writing contest. Writers are ranked, thus the need for reviewers, and there are cash prizes available. There is also an option for people to pick their favorite pieces and develop your own Field Report book – of things YOU want to read. No more buying a book of essays and skipping crappy pieces!

The site is still young, but I think that it would develop into a great place for people to explore different writing styles in a non-blog format online.

If you have tried it please feel free to leave a comment about how you felt about it!

Disclaimer: I was approached to write this review and will be compensated with a small gift card, but believe me that I did not promise a positive review nor is the gift card big enough to buy my never ending love.

This & That on writing

• You'll notice that the anthology button is gone. The project is on hiatus and there are many reasons why I totally support this move. I don't know what the future holds for the piece I wrote, but until I figure that out, it's in Adele's trustworthy hands.
  
• I purposely missed a deadline because the piece that I ended up writing was far more personal that I had intended. While I think on the whole most of what I wrote is already "out there" in the universe, seeing it all in one package was damn scary. Don't fret, I didn't trash it like I did my high school journals (gawd damn I wish I still had those!).
  
• A deadline that I accidentally missed was extended to the end of this month. I need to revisit where I left off and wrap that baby up. It will also be pretty personal, but one that I feel is ready for the world to read...that is if it is chosen.
• I have a few more deadlines hovering but on top of some work deadlines, I'm not sure if I'll make them. I feel like I need to hit while the iron (and my passion) is hot or else all of this will wither away.
  

Ode to editors

I just finished looking at my essay for What We Think and wow...some amazing editor took my last minute written essay and whipped into something that actually looks pretty darn good. And yes, I'm holding back because it's something *I* wrote and I don't want to get your expectations up when you do finally read it. ;-)

But seriously, as someone who isn't a professional writer in the classic sense, I do have writer envy. Peering down at the fabulous books I gorge on and wonder, "Why can't I write like this?" Reading tight grant proposals and wondering "What's wrong with me?" I usually end up falling back on the very true fact that I don't have a great grasp on grammar and thus, I blow it off. But it's more than that.

Now that I have received my edits, I know something else. Writers are not to be envied, it's the editors baby!!

I have one for the anthology, I'll have one for the magazine article, and now to find one for my work writing. Hmmm...don't think that fits into my budget thou. Oh well. Back to the writing board.

Un-Feminist Music Jams

My husband just turned down the NCAA game to put on the radio. A station is playing some freakin' awesome mixes. I started listening during a Brooks & Dunn song that merged into Margaritaville into some booty-shaking music from high school. Just now:

- My Humps
- Nothing But A Good Time
- Keep on Rocking Me Baby
- Glamorous Life

And in between the actual songs are snippets of other booty-shaking songs that really a feminist shouldn't be shaking her ass to, but I do. Sue me. Now if only I can finish my damn article on women of color in the mommy blogosphere. It's due next week and while it's very short, I'm totally freaking out as I have a lot riding on this baby. Mostly I don't want to disappoint the totally awesome people who will be reading & editing and maybe thinking, "Damn, maybe we don't need this..."

Back to work!

- You're The One I Want over Snoop Dogg just started...