Recently in General Writing Category

It's been way too long since I blogged. Work has had me tied to a smoking keyboard and most of my last few weeks have been absorbed by launching the new Netregistry website.

However, searching through folder after folder on the hard drives trying to find an elusive doc a few days ago, I came across an old short story I penned way back in 1995. Originally written as part of a creative writing component of my journalism traineeship - where it got perfect marks, naturally - it hasn't been published elsewhere.

Agh - few things annoy my linguistic sensibilities more than random capitalisation. Sure, misplaced apostrophes are probably a greater grammatical blot on the language landscape, but the capitalisation of words is more irritating because of its intentional nature.

I'm currently editing and rewriting the copy on a massive IT website and still come across examples of nail-on-blackboard level irritation.

Inspiration has been represented by the light bulb for decades. Why a light bulb? It's a pretty abstract way to describe an idea. Do we really switch on ideas? Do our imaginations stumble around in the dark until that 'eureka' moment when our brains flick a switch?

Writers are a solitary breed. We hide in dimly lit rooms, our features cast into dramatic relief by the flickering monitor light as we continually tap tap tap our RSI addled fingers against besymboled (is that a word? It is now!) squares of plastic. This is where we live, undisturbed (if we're lucky), only rising and engaging with the wider world to make a sandwich...

As writers, we often obsess about words: grammar, usage, style, and more. As marketers, we often obsess about the production: the printing stock, the design, the colours, the medium. But none of these things are important if we don't have a strong story at the centre.