Continued apologies for my absence. Yesterday was the last day of my full-time job, and I'm currently sneaking a moment from my current part-time job that, happily, sounds like it's going to go full-time as soon as I'm done moving next weekend. But this means that I'm still going to be swamped until I get back to Savannah. And then there will be the obligatory day or so of marathon-watching
Supernatural or something until my brain is ready for life again.
If you hear people asking about where I am, or any of my characters (Sama'el, Hadrian, Ifran, Gracen), please feel free to let them know that Daniel is in Major Life Alteration Mode, and apologizes for the delay. If they're rabbling, remind them that the non-cyber life is important too. It pays the bills for the wi-fi!
Anyway, I'm reading an article for work that I thought would be of interest to writers. It's from the book of one of the original "Mad Men," and I thought a couple of his points pertinent even for writers of fiction:
"1. MY FIRST COMMANDMENT: THE WORD COMES FIRST, THEN THE VISUAL.
When young art directors ask me to reveal my "formula" for creating advertising, I answer … start with the word! This advice, with a biblical reference, is carved in stone--my first commandment. Art directors, presumed by many to be illiterate, are expected to think visually--and most do. They sift through magazines to find visuals, however disjointed and inappropriate, to help them "get started." Most art directors, unfortunately, do not sit and try to write the idea: They usually wait with their thumbs up their ass for a writer to furnish the words, which usually are not visually pregnant. By contrast, a handful of great art directors are authors of some of the finest headlines in advertising--or they work intimately with gifted writers as they conjure concepts together. Conversely, even when a writer works on his own, his words must lend themselves to visual excitement--because a big campaign idea can only be expressed in words that absolutely bristle with visual possibilities, leading to words and visual imagery working in perfect synergy.
If you’re an art director, heed my words: Each ad, TV spot, and campaign is in your hands--it’s your baby. If you’re a copywriter, on the other hand, you must work with a talented visual communicator!
2. "I’M SORRY I COULD NOT HAVE WRITTEN A SHORTER LETTER, BUT I DIDN’T HAVE THE TIME" --ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Not too long after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the iconic wartime Gettysburg Address of 1863 in under three minutes and in just 10 sentences (272 words he had written and rewritten and agonized over), he wrote a long letter, in miniscule handwriting to a friend. The apology above, that he didn’t have the time to contemplate, correct, and edit his letter, is the most lucid lesson in good writing I’ve ever read. Keep it short, informative, concise, and literary, where every single word counts. But remember: It’s not how short you make it; it’s how you make it short.
Think long. Write short."
Full text.
All right, back to my cave.
by Caelum on August 2nd, 2012, 4:16 pm 
