lwidmer | Words on the Page

Free Advice Friday: Writing Contract Language

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What’s on the iPod: No Line on the Horizon by U2 I get by with a little help from my friends — The Beatles said it, and it’s true. This week’s Free Advice Friday is brought to you by one of my closest friends. Cathy Miller was part of the original conversation that became this…

The Push Your Writing Career Forward Test

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What’s on the iPod: Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright Talk about a quick start and sprint to my work week — yesterday was packed with projects, client calls, and negotiations. Today there are fewer calls, but more work. I like that. I can turn the phone off and just write. I was able to work fast…

The Mad Writer Dash

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What’s on the iPod: Nothing. No time to listen! Today is starting out like a marathon. I had smatterings of new projects hinted at the last two weeks. Now they’ve arrived — at once. It’s going to be a busy Monday. Unfortunately, I also have house guests today. I can’t spend time with them, nor…

Free Advice Friday: Pricing Projects

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What’s on the iPod: The Wild Hunt by The Tallest Man on Earth What started as a dismal week turned into an interesting, work-filled one. I had one project on Monday. Today, there are four. The freelance life is a fickle one. I was still busy as the one project was quite large, so I…

The Caffeinated Writer’s Guide to Getting It Done

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What I’m reading: Cover Her Face by P. D. James What’s on the iPod: Dani California by Red Hot Chili Peppers What freaky weather. As a western PA native, I’m used to January being the month where the minus sign replaces the first digit of the temperature and seeing snow on a regular, monotonous basis….

Monthly Assessment: December 2013

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What’s on the iPod: Life by The Avett Brothers Looking for some goal-setting inspiration? Check out John Soares’ 19 Successful Freelance Writers Share Their Top Goals for 2014 featuring plenty of writers, including me. Thanks, John! Welcome to a new year on this blog. It’s a year that comes with plans — goals, targets, and ways…

The Regular Writing Resolution

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What’s on the iPod: Walk of Life by Dire Straits How was the weekend? We spent ours at my parents’ house in western PA amid plenty of relatives and lots of laughs. Holidays are usually a time when I feel a bit melancholic about times and people past, but this holiday was memory-making. We had…

Reasons to Love This Writing Job

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What’s on the iPod: Corazon by Santana As I sit here the day before Christmas awaiting Santa (according to Google, he’s just delivered gifts to good little writers in Kyoto), I think about all the reasons why this job fits. Why do you and I get up every morning, grab our caffeine, and head to…

What You Did Right This Year

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What I’m reading: Swimming with Crocodiles by Will Chaffey What’s on the iPod: Trash Tongue Talker by Jack White The appliances are in. We spent Tuesday entertaining delivery people and installers. After that, we rested for two days. Today, we plan for cabinets. I’m actually getting used to the process; it’s a routine now. That…

Finding Your Writing Voice

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What’s on the iPod: Backyard Skulls by Frightened Rabbit Today is the day I’ve been waiting for since late June. Today my six-burner, dual-fuel, shiny-as-hell Wolf range appears in my kitchen and will take up residence for the next few decades. It may sound very un-feministic of me to be so excited about an appliance,…

Cathy Miller

Blogging helped me find my voice. When I started my business in 2008, I never tried blogging. I'm not sure I knew exactly what it was. I definitely did not know what social media was. Ah, the good ol' days. 🙂

I have more than one voice. My professional writing voice and my own voice. I discovered I was missing my own voice on my business blog so I started my personal blog in 2009. I love the freedom it gives me to be myself.

But, the underlying theme on all my blogs is keeping it simple. Sometimes that's a challenge because I ramble when I talk. Despite recommendations to write like you talk, trust me, you wouldn't want me doing that. 🙂

Anne Wayman

I've never worried much about voice… it never seemed lost to me… I've always just written… one editor said I have a certain 'concrete charm.' No idea what that means, but I like it.

Paula

My voice crept up on me, and like Cathy I use different variations for different situations. My complaint letter voice is very different from my blogging voice or my consumer magazine voice or my trade publication voice. But they're all shades of me. So much so that friends of mine can tell if one of my pieces was heavily edited.

I used to advise people to write the way they speak. Then I started listening to how some people speak.

The abuse of the word "like" was made clear when listening to a then-teenage cousin describe why she and her brother were laughing, "I was like [odd facial expression] and he was like, well, d'uh." WHAT? Or listening to one friend drone on about nothing (trust me, when every story starts with "The funniest thing happened at work today…" nothing funny or even remotely interesting occurred).

Your point about not trying to impress is important. How many business people write e-mails including useless phrases they think sound important? One annoying term I've heard a lot lately: Goldilocking. Using invented terms like that is even worse than using big words you don't know.

I also loved your comment about the editor trying to find different ways to say "said." I had an editor like that, and it quickly became clear that "said" is virtually invisible. It's far more distracting to see an article crammed with substitutes like "advised," "expressed," or – shoot me now – "opined."

John Soares

I also have multiple voices that I use for different types of writing.

I'm loosest on Facebook, and that's often where it's the most fun. I can also relax and write how I want on my blog, but it is a bit more constrained there.

For my work projects I write in the way that's best for the client.

Lori

Cathy, I love that theme, I see it in your blogs, and I appreciate your simplicity of communication. It's something we can all learn from.

Like you, I have two voices — this one and the one that imparts something to a corporate or publication audience. Slightly different voices, but they both have me in them.

Anne, that's a nice compliment! Not sure what that means either, but it sounds pretty neat.

Paula, what the hell is Goldilocking? That's insane. Do you remember the Dot Com boom? There were press releases coming across my desk that had so many buzz words in them, I was convinced the marketing person had no idea what they were selling. I didn't know, and if I'm the audience, how smart is it really to use such strings of buzz words?

I agree with how people speak — that's never a good thing to put on paper! 🙂 But I think if we start listening to how we reason or convey some idea, we can get to the heart of where our voice is.

John, isn't it interesting to think about having so many voices? Like you, I'm most myself on Facebook — I'm connected to maybe three clients there, and they all know me very well. On my blog, it's still kind of loose, but I know there are things I won't/can't express and ideas I'm never going to share. Work is exactly that — a reflection of the client's voice and needs. My voice is still in there, but I'm there to create something that resonates with who they are.

Paula

I heard someone on a radio show discuss "goldilocking," saying a boss used it in a meeting, I think in a context like, "let's get goldilocking on that." She said people nodded in agreement, but she asked what he meant.Turns out it was something like testing, or using a trial and error approach. So why not just say so?

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