Advice from the masters

Whenever I'm asked who my favorite writer is, I refuse to give a definitive answer.

The reason? I have two: Kurt Vonnegut and Ernest Hemingway. They both had the ability to convey so much by saying so little.

Asking me to choose between the two is like asking a 6-year-old to choose between cake and ice cream at a birthday party. The 6-year-old and I will both perplexedly respond, "Can't I have both?"

When I read my new favorite writing blog this morning, I was ecstatic to find an archived post about Hemingway's Top 5 Tips on Writing Well. I agree with author Brian Clark that there's no better figure for marketing writers to emulate. In the media industry, every line is money and space is limited.

Hemingway excelled at the challenge of writing an entire story in just six words:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

He would be a modern copy editor's dream (it's short and sticky).

The one Hemingway tip I hadn't heard of is to be positive. If you're familiar with Hemingway's life (particularly the latter half), you're probably chuckling. What he meant was to carefully choose words that describe what something is, not what it isn't. If you tell your friend something is "painless," she will still focus on the word "pain." A better choice would be "comfortable."

The content of this post reminded me of Vonnegut's "How to Write with Style." Vonnegut, an author, reporter and pr practitioner; knows all about clear, stylistic writing.

Of the writer's tips:

• Find a subject you care about.
• Do not ramble, though.
• Keep it simple.
• Have the guts to cut.
• Sound like yourself.
• Say what you mean to say.
• Pity the readers.

The tip I have the most trouble with is the easiest to understand: find a subject you care about. If the subject of an assignment is boring, I usually turn in a boring assignment. To this, Vonnegut says:

"Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style."

Hmm, I should probably revisit this advice more often. So it goes.

What do you think of their tips? Do you agree? Would you add anything else?

Blog Post 1: Why I Hate(d) Blogs

The older I get, the more I begrudgingly accept the mundane but necessary tasks in life. Things like filing your tax return, doing laundry or scheduling an appointment for your next root canal.

Blogging is also one of those things.

I've resented blogging ever since I first heard the term. To me, bloggers were faceless faux-journalists and narcissistic, comic-collecting teenagers (you know, the ones who program Tetris into their graphing calculators). They were not trained writers, nor did they understand the concept that diaries are usually private not because they contain dark secrets, but because no one else cares to read them.

I vowed never to become a blogger, maintaining this holier-than-thou mantra by upholding the lost art of penmanship and toting a leather-bound journal at all times. I did not need url links or widgets or rss feeds; my pen and my journal were enough. By sticking to these discarded practices, I thought I was "sticking it" to an incessantly advancing technology and the pitiful bloggers caught in the whirlwind.

Four years later and 200 credits into my degree, I am rethinking blogs.

A few months ago, I became a blogger - against my will. As a member of Allen Hall Public Relations, the student-run public relations agency at the U of O, I was asked to create blog posts for a local client. When I heard this idea, my spine shuddered. To make matters worse, the subject of the blog was not a forte of mine: parenting. Writing for a medium I didn't understand about a subject I didn't understand seemed like trying to solve a monochromatic jigsaw puzzle.

After years of deliberate ignorance, I finally began reading blogs, subscribing to some of the better ones and attempting to recreate their tone, style and structure in my own writing (the first few were awful, but now I'd like to think they've improved to semi-awful).

A few weeks after I began writing posts, my professor gave a presentation on "social media," e.g. online social networks and - you guessed it - blogs. Two weeks ago, my AHPR team pitched the piles of blog posts to our client, underlining their importance and the reasons for linking to others (it's a two-way street). That same day, I listened intently as an executive at a powerful Portland agency emphasized the need for young, digital-media-savvy minds in the field. Apparently agencies are hungry for twenty-somethings who have Myspace profiles, upload YouTube videos and most importantly, blog.

Now, I am creating my own blog as an assignment in my Advanced PR Writing class. An assignment like this isn't unconventional for the generally progressive journalism school, but there is one unusual thing about it: I'm looking forward to it.

As much as I've avoided blogs in the past, I can't anymore. They're no longer a burgeoning tool; they're ubiquitous. They're no longer just for geeky teenagers or fraudulent reporters; they're for everyone. And most importantly, they're essential for public relations students. If I continue to despise them like a trip to the dentist, it will be at my own peril.

Here I go...