The Wild Writing Women are giving a workshop on travel writing at a
writing conference in San Francisco this weekend. Last year, at this
same conference, my fifteen-minute presentation was on the topic of blogs –
what they are and why new writers need one. About five minutes into the
presentation a woman raised her hand and asked me to further clarify
what a blog was. I clarified. Then another person asked me to
re-clarify: Was a blog on the Internet or was the Internet on a Blog,
and did you need an email account to use one? At that point I turned
the topic to online writing, self-publishing, and the importance of
quality, then I sat down and shut up while Cathy lectured on the Art of
the Essay. She got more applause than I did.
I’m going to dare to bring up the topic of blogs again this year,
because I hope against hope that by now they’ve heard of facebook and
maybe I can somehow relate it to that. They will know and use these
online tools sooner or later, whether they know it or not, and I want
to let them know that writers are not like other bloggers or facebook
members in that they cannot afford to make spelling and grammatical
errors in their casual comments. Every comment, recommendation, review,
what-are-you-doing-now entry must be carefully crafted, as if a hiring
editor is basing your competence on that one view of your online
personality.
That’s my whole point, really.
So if you find a spelling or grammatical error in my blog or facebook
what-am-I-doing blurb, please let me know so I can go back and correct
it.
