by DanPowers on March 4, 2010
I’ve been using Twitter for about 16 months now, and it took a concerted, conscious effort to get into it. It is evolving into a huge double-edged sword as a writing resource.
In 2007 my first Twitter foray revealed a uniquely worthless new digital communication medium. What TV shows someone was watching? Favorite movies to rent? Color of clothes in the washer? What?! “Pointless!” was my disgusted impression.
Early in 2008 I looked again at Twitter’s capabilities, and was again unimpressed. Yet the references to Twitter were becoming more frequent. Over the summer I started Googling Twitter+business and similar themes. I began to find blog posts and news reports showing some more valuable uses of the tool. I’ll talk about those uses in future posts; for this discussion I want to highlight Twitter Search. This is on the positive side of the sword.
This certainly won’t replace Google or Dogpile or Clusty, but it’s possible you’ll find a pertinent, unique and extremely timely blurb on your topic.
Go to the footer of www.Twitter.com/home and choose search from the horizontal list of links. first try the names of your contacts, the company, the town - whatever is most specific to your assignment. Then work outward in conceptual/thematic circles with new search terms - the industry, competitors, similar products, etc.
Try it on more well-known items/people/places first to get a feel for how it can work. Best case scenario you’ll find some mention of your assignment providing insight from angles you never thought about.
Oh yeah - the other side of that sword is you’ll simply learn about your assignment’s favorite tv shows, movies, laundry….
by DanPowers on February 26, 2010
During your workday, do you tend to answer the phone at every call, regardless of what you’re doing or if the caller ID is one you recognize? And once you do answer, are you hoping a stranger is going to talk to you for about 15 minutes on topics you haven’t considered for a while?
If you don’t do these things, why expect your article contact to do them?
Here’s an intentional strategy I use when calling sources for an article: Treat the first call as if you’re certain you’re going to leave a voicemail. If the person does answer, after you tell them who you are and the project that led to your call, say “I don’t mean to catch you off guard, I was hoping to schedule a time to speak with you later today/tomorrow/next week for X minutes.”
Sometimes, the person says “Right now is a good time” and there you go. But if now isn’t a good time - which is very likely - you’re showing respect for their schedule and setting up a time that works well for your schedule too.
Even better, I always end this scheduling call with another request: “Do you have an email address? I can send you a few questions to give you an idea of the information I’m looking for.” This gives you a chance to provide a heads-up to your subject, it makes them more comfortable with the conversation, and it provides a template for your future call.
With this strategy, you also avoid the procrastinator’s nightmare - you call when the time is best for you, like, oh, the same morning the article is due, and the person is not around at all. By presuming a scheduling call, your subject is better prepared, you appear more professional and you’ll get your info in time to make deadline.
by admin on February 21, 2010
My newest writing assignment involved researching pet training which revealed a rift in the veterinary community about dominance-oriented training tactics. Turns out the Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan has prompted people to assume you can “fix” bad dog behavior in 10 minutes. Other trainers totally discount the alpha-dog pack dynamic as being valid, hence dominating your dog to get him to perform certain ways is simply mean, not natural in some way.
The vets I spoke to and quotes I found show that a different way of perceiving dogs’ evolution could totally change the premise of effective training.
This reminds me to step back and examine the premises I have regarding how best to find freelance work, or how to design and research projects. The way I’ve always done things isn’t necessarily the best or only way, and I am always looking for additional strategies and concepts to add to my freelance efforts.
One of the new ways to expand my services has been through my growing experience with Constant Contact and Zoomerang. Each have automated messaging and surveying tools. Instead of an editor or other assignment provider deciding more from their gut what topics to assign me, I’ve suggested creating feedback requests and surveys of their readers/membership/clients to then discern the best article topics for my assignments. This helps my client get a better sense of their audience’s needs, and the out
reach effort is an additional project for me.
by DanPowers on May 10, 2009
As a freelancer who never attended journalism school and has been writing for pay for the last 15 years, I’m curious how my methodology relates to the protocol passed down to J-school grads. Upon reflection I see my style is somewhat like the old video game Tetris: I jot down quotes, facts, comments and brainstorms and continue to match common thoughts together which tend to build into a structured and flowing commentary. Without any written outline. It’s an organic process that builds from the key points as they reveal themselves via my notetaking, fortune in research or inspiration.
Tetris as a writing style: genius or madness?
Another thing I’ve found is that I nearly always have the ending written before the introductory paragraph. I’ve found this ending comes together as the most salient points get fleshed out; only then can I work backwards to develop a flow of details that support the conclusion. And somewhere in there the (hopefully) compelling intro becomes apparent.
This puzzle-pieces technique of writing may have been instructed to me someplace back in the years of English composition in grade school, but I haven’t ever sat down with an overt writing plan. “What’s most interesting about this?” is my driving thought.
Sometimes I feel that question is forgotten by writers. There is such a focus on facts, or on the, umm, less than creative directive of the assignment, that the result is a bland scroll of text that doesn’t prompt any further thought. I like to go for the “Hmm” effect. I want there to be at least one quote, one angle, one facet of the topic that will catch someone’s imagination and help them see something a little different than they did when they woke up that morning.
I’m guessing J-schoolers had at least one furrowed-brow “hmmm” reading this post…
by DanPowers on May 5, 2009
I’m seriously considering getting the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen - I would then be able to record while writing with the same instrument. Currently I prefer to record my conversations as I interview people to ensure I quote them accurately; this tool looks like it could be a great complement to a speakerphone (or if I’m interviewing face-t0-face).
Watch the demo video.
While at first this may look like an unnecessary tech geek indulgence, I’m thinking about the times I’ve written my favorite articles and they are almost always ones that had the best quotes linking seamlessly through the text and this almost always occurred when I could focus on the conversation with my subject as opposed to frantically working as a sloppy stenographer trying to jot everything down. When I can list bullet points related to the main themes of my subject’s comments and really listen such that my follow-up questions are valuable and pertinent, that’s when the material for an article is really worthwhile.
