When it comes to digital media, competition can sometimes make writers turn into digital grinches. While it’s healthy to stoke friendly competition and take pride in your work, stonewalling and shoulder checking isn’t really necessary.
The web was built on the notion of sharing ideas and exchanging news. Links, the glue that holds the Internet content train together, are meant to be given freely and awarded to the best and most relevant content. The saying goes that no man is an island, and the same goes for most web sites and blogs, as networking and collaboration are key parts of the growth of pretty much any digital property.
But along the way, there’s been a rise in grinchery. [click to continue…]
In the past year, social media was the vehicle that drove several high-profile careers off a cliff.
Pro athlete Larry Johnson tweeted a homophobic slur that resulted in a fan petition calling for his removal from the Kansas City Chiefs. He was later suspended.
Gilbert Gottfried lost his gig as the voice of the Aflac duck for making a joke about the aftermath of a devastating tsunami in Japan. [click to continue…]
The biggest roadblock for writers trying to perfect their voice isn’t using the correct grammar, proper spelling, or consistent syntax.
It’s fear.
One of my college professors once called me out for being too tentative in a story. I was writing a review of the movie “High Noon” and after a decent lead, I just lost my voice. He asked me point blank, “What are you afraid of?”
It was a pretty heavy question for a 20-year-old who thought he was invincible and couldn’t imagine any other career than being a writer. However, the more I thought about it, and the more I worked on developing my craft, the less potent the fear of losing my voice in print was. [click to continue…]
