The Need to Read, and the Allure (or Not) of E-Book Readers

I always have a book going. Always. If I go a few days between finishing one book and starting another, I get antsy.

Most of what I read is fiction. I read nonfiction occasionally, but most of all, I love a good story. It’s like reading stories is not something I want so much as it’s something I need. I feel somehow impoverished when I don’t read a lot.

I have a feeling that this need to read is true of most professional writers and editors. Is it true for you?

E-Book Readers

I may one day own a Kindle. But I doubt I’ll ever stop reading paper books or get rid of the ones I own. As useful as technology is, I hate to be a slave to it. I don’t have to charge a book’s battery or learn any programming for it. And if it gets lost or stolen or falls into a puddle, oh well, I paid $10 for it, not $300. Know what I mean?

Since e-readers are so trendy, I thought I would see a ton of them when I recently started commuting on public transportation again (Chicago’s El train). But mostly, what I see are paperback books, with a few Kindles here and there. Of the people that I see reading, probably 50% are reading paperbacks, 10% are using e-readers, and 40% are reading who-knows-what on their smart phone.

What have you seen? Do you love your Kindle? If you have an e-book reader, has it caused you to get rid of books, much like people are getting rid of CDs once they rip all the tracks into their computer?

Editing in a Foreign Language (Part I)

Have you ever done writing, editing, or proofreading in a language other than your native language?

I’ve had the opportunity to edit in Spanish at my last two contract assignments. Professionally speaking, it is the most interesting and challenging work I’ve done in years. This blog is called “Part I” because I have a feeling I’ll have more to report once I get further into my current gig.

Currently, I am copyediting a brand-new Mexico edition of a trade magazine for the construction industry. The English version has been around for decades. This Spanish version is the brainchild of a company executive out west.

“I can feel my brain stretching,” I told my Facebook friends last week. The areas of my mind that store all my Spanish are being re-energized, synaptic connections strengthened, old pathways repaved, old vocabulary remembered, new vocabulary learned.

Editing in Spanish is different than editing in English, in some ways, but in many ways it is strikingly similar. The two languages are similar enough that the basic elements – commas, participial phrases, etc. – are familiar.

But differences pop up where I didn’t expect them. For instance, in Spanish, if you want to say $2 billion, you don’t say “$2 billones.” You say “$2 mil millones,” which is literally “2 thousand million dollars.” With help from the excellent Oxford Spanish Dictionary and from our two freelance writers, I am learning these new facets of Spanish-language written communication.

More to come. Toward the end of this 2-week gig, I’ll talk more about what I’ve learned from the experience and what has helped me along the way.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear more about your experiences in this area.

Office Work Spaces

Do you work in a cubicle? Or are you lucky enough to have your own office, with a door you can close? Do you have your own cube/office, or do you share it with other people? How does your work setup affect your ability to do your job?

I have worked in the professional world for over 12 years now. In total, I've held 7 full-time jobs of significant length (not counting temp jobs or very short contracts).

Of those 7 jobs, only 1 job gave me my own office. The rest of the time, I was in an individual cubicle, a giant shared cubicle, a lab workbench, or a snowboard-type setup (basically a very long table with multiple computers on it).

The Pros and Cons

I understand the numbers. Cubicles cost less than offices. They also cut down on time theft. I did a bit more more goofing off when I had my own office. Not a lot more, but a bit more.

However, I feel cubicles have FAR more cons than pros. The cons include:

1. An inability to concentrate. I find it extremely hard to focus on my work when some coworker is yapping in my ear from the other side of the cubicle wall. I can't hear myself think.
   
   This affects some professions -- like writers, editors, and proofreaders -- more than others. It affects some people more than others, too. Some people are simply better at tuning out noise than other people are.
   
   Nowadays, of course, you can drown out your coworkers by bringing music to work and plugging in your earbuds. Of course, this is not ideal because then you risk being distracted by your music.
   
   
2. A total lack of privacy. Every word you say, every cough, every snack you eat, every creak of your chair, every buzz of your cell phone, every click of the mouse, every stroke on the keyboard -- your coworkers hear it all. They can also see and smell everything, and we've all had coworkers who did things that we wish we wished we could avoid seeing or smelling.
   
   The younger generation may not feel this way, but I have always found this lack of privacy demeaning. It's like a not-so-secret message from the company: "Our profits are more important than your dignity as a human being." And heaven forbid you need to make a personal phone call to your doctor, or -- if you're a nursing mom -- use a pump. Good companies provide dedicated rooms for such things, but many do not.
   
   If you're just starting out in your field, a lack of workplace privacy can be particularly bothersome. Everybody makes mistakes while they learn. When you work in a cube, your mistakes are laid bare for the world to see. If you're on the phone a lot for work, you'll have coworkers coming up to you after a call, suggesting how you could have handled the person better or a better way to phrase something. Depending on your personality, you may find that advice helpful, or profoundly irritating (because they were eavesdropping, for one, and giving unsolicited advice, for two).
   

In short, my professional opinion is that companies could vastly improve productivity and reduce turnover by investing in some interior walls for their office spaces.

What do you think?

Addictive Word Games

If someone who loves food is a foodie, then I have always been a wordie. As a kid, I wrote and read all the time (and still do), even when I didn't have to do it for class. I can geek out about etymology with the geekiest of them.

So it's no surprise that I adore word games. Crosswords, word searches, word scrambles, ciphers--bring 'em on!

My latest obsession is Word Twist on Facebook. As a wordie (not to mention a professional editor), I am appalled that I have managed to score only a pathetic sixth place among my friends.

The internet, of course, provides infinite opportunities to waste all of your waking hours playing word games. Then again, "Time enjoyed wasting is not wasted time," as one of my buddies quoted on her page in our college yearbook.

Tell Me I'm Not Alone

What are YOUR favorite word games? How addicted are you? Can you sit for hours at a time and play them until your eyes bleed and not regret a single solitary second? Do you prefer to play them on paper, or online?

Happy 2011, and happy word gaming!

Year in Review

OK, so it's not an entire year in review, since I just started this blog in late September. But, in this busy time of year, it's always nice to take a moment to reflect.

I had my doubts when I started this blog. The usual fear-of-failure stuff. Will I come up with enough ideas of things to write about? Will I have the discipline to keep it going? Will I write often enough for the digital age (heaven forbid mine be one of those sad blogs that you visit and it hasn't been updated in several months)? Will anybody read the damn thing, or will it sit there like rotting crops in a field?

Happily, I've found myself with no shortage of ideas and news to write about. My only block is a shortage of free time. My self-discipline is better than I expected it to be (historically, it has not been my forte). And some people are actually reading it! Hooray!

The experience of blogging has been both enjoyable and instructive. It's made me recall how much I love to write. It's given me a new format to explore and try to get good at. And it's reminded me how discipline is absolutely key. Sometimes you have to sit down and write, even if you're not on fire with a great idea or aren't in the mood. Once you make yourself do it, the words flow.

It's been a good time. Happy holidays, and thanks for reading! See you in 2011.

LinkedIn's List of Resume Cliches

LinkedIn recently published a Top 10 list of overused buzzwords in the resumes and professional profiles posted on its website. They are:

1. Extensive experience
2. Innovative
3. Motivated
4. Results-oriented
5. Dynamic
6. Proven track record
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial

What do you think of this list?

Editor that I am, I immediately checked my own resume for these culprits. I don't have any of them, except the word "experience" as a section header. My LinkedIn profile doesn't have any either. I'm sort of surprised to see that.

Which Came First?

While I find this list of buzzwords amusing, I think this is not about job seekers being appallingly uncreative. Job ads contain those exact same buzzwords in abundance! Who can blame a job seeker for using the same phrases that are in the ads for their desired jobs? If they want the job, they have to talk the talk. If the employer likes these phrases, the employee thinks, then maybe they will like my resume/profile/cover letter if I use these phrases too.

So I think this is a "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" issue. It's not fair to lay all the blame on the job seekers, LinkedIn. Where's your criticism of HR departments and corporate communications drones?

Are Cliches Evil?

Cliche is an interesting concept in writing. Back in high school, I took a creative writing class. I remember my teacher, Mr. Armstrong, hammering home the point that cliches were sinful and to be avoided in quality writing. And he was right. Exceptional writing creates original concepts and phrases, rather than relying on the creations of other writers.

LinkedIn seems to agree. In its article, it says: "With the national unemployment rate well over 9 percent, you might want to consider eradicating these phrases from your own professional documents and profiles next time you’re trying to impress an employer."

I take a live-and-let-live attitude toward cliches. Sure, they're never going to win any awards for creativity. But for every cliche, there's a reason it became so popular. Usually it's because it was an excellent way to phrase a particular concept, and so many people agreed that they used the phrase ad nauseum. It's like when a band writes a great song, and everybody loves it, so every radio station plays it all day long, and suddenly you hate it and start avoiding it.

If a phrase became popular because it was an excellent way to phrase something, then part of me has a hard time rejecting it just because it's popular. I value succinctness, conciseness, and elegant turns of phrase as well as creativity.

I'm sure I have used cliches in business writing and other types of writing. I try not to, but sometimes it happens, especially when you're writing on deadline. There's a big difference between creative writing and bang-it-out-quickly, get-'er-done writing.

When I write creatively, however, I actively try to avoid cliches, taking the word creative literally. Creative writing is a writer's place to shine, to channel that voice that is truly your own, to make something entirely original that you can be proud of. Mr. Armstrong, you taught me well.

What Freelancers Go Through to Get Paid

In an ideal world, freelancers wouldn't have to fight to get paid. But this is far from an ideal world.

New York Times commentator Elizabeth Dwoskin describes this fight explicitly in her article "Begging for Your Pay," published yesterday. Read it here.

Damn It, Jim, I'm A Writer, Not a Debt Collector

Fighting to get paid, unfortunately, is familiar to every freelancer I have ever met. I have only freelanced off and on, with a few months doing it full-time. But when I did, I learned what I needed to know, and fast.

Here's what I learned. It's a rare company that pays a freelancer quickly. Most of them wait until the end date of your invoice before they even think about cutting you a check. In other words, if your invoice says Net 30 Days, you'll most likely be calling them on day 31, and several more times too, before you actually get paid.

Full-time freelancers, I applaud you. Personally, I could never make ends meet when I was constantly chasing after my invoices. It's hard to stay on top of your bills when you have no earthly clue when your paycheck is coming. I'd love to know how you do it, full-timers. Presumably you have excellent clients who pay quickly, a good lawyer, a fat savings account, a spouse as backup, an hourly rate so high that you can wait a while between checks, or all of the above.

The Battle Can Get Ugly

Some companies seem to feel like they can pay you whenever -- and in whatever amount(s) -- they feel like paying you, or not pay you at all. I took one company to small claims court because they decided they wanted to pay me a sum equal to one-fifth of our agreed-upon amount. Luckily, I had it in writing.

Basically, for freelancers, it comes down to this. To the company, you are not a person. You are a vendor. You are a faceless entity who delivers goods/services and sends invoices. Sure, somebody at the company knows you personally, perhaps has even met you face to face. That person may even care about whether you can pay your rent on time. But it's unlikely that that person works in Accounts Payable or has any sway over the people who do.

The whole thing reminds me of that documentary, The Corporation. Have you seen it? It explains how, in terms of behavior, corporations are psychopaths. In other words, they have no sympathy whatsoever. Which is why it's totally ineffective when freelancers beg and say things like, "I need to pay my bills." The company doesn't care. It only cares about not paying you if there will be consequences. Like getting taken to court.

It's not personal. It's not like the company hates you or wants your credit score to go down the toilet. It's just how companies behave toward vendors. I worked for one company whose accounting department routinely paid vendors' invoices very late, usually because it was waiting on money from its clients.

But Is It Legal?

No federal laws explicitly protect freelancers or provide guidelines for how frequently they should be paid. To the feds, you, the self-employed person, are not a person per se -- you are a business. Businesses don't have the same rights as people.

Some states do have protections. Dwoskin mentions a bill pending in Albany that would enable the cases of independent contractors to be investigated by the state Department of Labor. Organizations such as the Freelancers' Union advocate for more protections.

If you are starting out as a freelancer, I highly recommend researching the labor laws in your state. See what they have to say about freelancers, independent contractors, and self-employment. You may have more (or fewer) rights than you think.