Observed

Seth reminded me this morning of the creative tension I see in myself.  Part of me is in a hurry to ship.  I’ve been given a deadline, I want to please and impress my client and so on.  Another part of me  understands that I need to slow down and just be with myself in order to create.

I would be wise to remember that most readers experience the same tension.  They, too, are being pulled in a million directions and are seeking balance — consciously or not.

So, what can I do to facilitate what they need to have happen?  How do I make life/work easier for others?  Others who have way too much on their plates.

The ones interested in a life with fewer traffic jams.

The author of this week’s “After Deadline” column may have been a little too hard on the lowly cliche.  At least its use in journalism.

Idiomatic writing can be engaging.  It’s down to earth and can help grab and keep a reader’s attention.

It takes a very good writer-editor, however, to know when enough is enough.  Someone who knows the value of a cliche when used in the right place at the right time and in the right dosage.  And who, by the same token, isn’t such a schoolmarm that every cliche gets deleted.

Since none of us are perfect, this underscores the importance of good, second-party editing.  Someone more likely to spot Just Right.

“It took 70 years for the U.S. flag to accumulate 28 stars. John Calipari has done it in seven weeks at the University of Kentucky.”

–The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal, May 19, 2009

I’d like to think that I can write the way Doug Quinn tends bar.  At least some days.  Once in a while.

Read on.

Thanks, Frank Bruni.

Selling intangibles is hard work. A lot of architects, lawyers and other professional service providers have Web sites that make it even harder.

This clip outlines seven common weaknesses of such sites and offers suggested remedies. It’s based on an article originally published by MarketingProfs.com.

Janus, the Roman's great unifier god, used its two faces and other attributes to reconcile past and future, fact and fiction and more. The result is a divine clarity that might have benefited Richard Blumenthal.

Candidate’s Words on Vietnam Differ From History.

I can’t help but wonder who wrote this headline for an article in this morning’s New York Times. An editor?

More likely, it was the paper’s corporate counsel.

A lawyer would be more sensitive to referring to Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general, as a liar.  Even though that’s what you may rightly call someone who offers *facts* which they know aren’t factual.

Politics aside, this headline bothered me.  At least initially.  It bothered me for its lack of clarity and its unwillingness to confront the distorted facts cleanly.

The more I thought about this, however, the more I wised up and calmed down.  First, (more…)

Lila and DeWitt Wallace

I have a client in New England. His dad worked (as an accountant?) for Reader’s Digest.

On two occasions (once, when dad was leaving the company and the other when dad got a raise), dad got personal, hand-written notes signed “Wally.” Which was short for DeWitt Wallace, the founder and publisher.

The family has kept the letters for 50 years…and still talks about them.

There may be one more aspect to Seth’s post about More.  I’m thinking of the illusion of More that creating digital media encourages.

My teacher for this was a very talented graphic designer-photographer with whom I’ve worked on Web and print projects.  Once upon a time, we were working on a Web project and getting frequent, last-minute requests for design and copy changes on the site.

Many of these requests for edits were long past whatever deadlines anybody had established.   And, they stretched or exceeded the rounds of revisions to which everybody had agreed. (more…)