Friday 7 October 2011

I think I'm me / Bag o'rats

It's rather hard to type when your wheelchair-cum-office chair is sideways on to your desk, and you have a pussy cat with a poorly tum on your knee, who after 11 years of running away from this man-thing, has decided I'm wonderful. Or else.

"No offence wheelie" said a friend of mine, "but I can't see how anyone reading you could mistake you for a journalist".

Oh my. If only she knew :)

It does sound rather a deflating thing to say doesn't it?

Absolutely not. Though I have to admit she was puzzled why I laughed.

Perhaps I should explain.

Yeh, I write, and not just here. I also ghost write, often for people who are better speakers than writers. You'd think speaking and writing are synonymous, but they aren't. I know, I do both.

Speaking allows you the freedom to improvise, and can often be carried off by outline notes if you're doing it alone. Nothing wrong with outline notes because they stop you from wandering. Often though, a much stricter, structured script is needed where you need to stick to what's in front of you.

For instance, politicians speeches are written by committee. I do something similar. I meet with - correction - they meet with me, and we chat and socialise and I 'get into their heads'. Then two like minds meet and we mash up a draft and work on it.

The cost to me is time to get out of their head. Clear the decks, so to speak, or one can lose track of who you are, ne'er influencing mind the next client.

Very formal articles often have to written to strict guidelines. Scientific articles are peer-reviewed. The work is submitted to a lot of other scientists, and often by peeps you've never heard of to be reviewed.

Pending their approval, the publication may have strict conditions on the structure of the article.

Journalism? Right bag of rats that is. There's that you submit, and there's the stuff that's printed. The poor little article is messed about with, twiddled, and published when they feel like it. Each publication has it's own preferred way of expressing itself. I'm not going into more detail about that, mainly because it's something you have to experience to believe. G'won, try. No reason why you shouldn't :)

If you are into writing, you need a lot of heads. The trick is, finding your way back to your own.

My Blogging is my way way of breaking all the rules, forgetting all the experience and getting back into my own head. It's messy in here, and that's how I like it! :)


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