I`m having trouble thinking of a single new topic now - not really writers block, but more burnout on the subject.
Perhaps it`s better if you`re more into debating. I was never really into that - it was more about attempts to create `stand alone content` - to generate a little good feeling. Mostly.
Creating `content` here has been interesting - a slate on which to write - just for amusement with no deadlines to meet - unlike the professional writer, or Journalist.
I know one Gentleman well on this site, a friend who fits into both these categories and have read some of his work - both real and fiction. Some of these works are remembered as vividly for their ability to shock and cause reflection - as for the deep insights into the culture and nature of what it mean to be Human.. A quality very rarely found in books, where that level of academic content is often abandoned as a nod to `the lower common denominator` of the `cash cow`
Unseen works then - some real gems that enhance the quality of life by having read them.
I was reflecting on these matters and considering the Journalist and professional writer. The need to `produce` to keep the wolf from the table regardless of `block` or `burnout` - and turn out content of a quality that passes the editor - time after time.
Even within the confines of `motoring` as a subject - although surely the mind leaps it`s confinement and writes with both a finer and broader brush, across a new canvas with a palette of spring freshness - gold and silver threads, from sack cloth and ashes.
Edited by oilrag on 03/02/2010 at 21:43
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Even within the confines of `motoring` as a subject - although surely the mind leaps it`s confinement and writes with both a finer and broader brush across a new canvas with a palette of spring freshness - gold and silver threads from sack cloth and ashes.
A very interesting point. Being a journalist - especially a motoring one - seems such an interesting and glamorous job. Maybe the opposite become true after a while, and tedium sets in. Even worse, maybe the tedium kills the passion for motoring.
OTOH maybe the average motoring journalist thinks that they are being paid to do a hobby.
I wonder what HJ thinks?
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I thought writing about writing about motoring may be a new angle not yet covered.
The crafting of words, paragraphs - into a polished article. Some as diamonds, emeralds and to the lessor jewels of topaz, quarts - down to rounded little stones and unformed clay of the inner mind. Grasping and searching the memory banks - to thrust forwards into electronic eternity - the red and blue liquids of motoring banality.
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"Even within the confines of `motoring` as a subject - although surely the mind leaps it`s confinement and writes with both a finer and broader brush, across a new canvas with a palette of spring freshness - gold and silver threads, from sack cloth and ashes."
Think you've just reversed into Pseud's corner Oilrag
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...Think you've just reversed into Pseud's corner Oilrag...
Yep, I've long been unable to grasp the more flowery aspects of oily's prose.
Journalism is about communication with as many people as possible.
This is best done with simple, short, sentences, made up of simple, short words.
The writing in The Sun is a good example as, to a lesser extent, is the Daily Mail.
It's no coincidence these are two of Britain's most read and most successful daily newspapers.
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A little off-topic but in today's Guardian they have included a few pieces from their TV critic Nancy Banks Smith who celebrates 40 years in the job. Some of the best writing it has been my pleasure to read. Having strayed off motoring I won't risk posting a link but I urge you to have a quick Google.
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I agree Nsar - first started reading her TV reviews in the Sun (the original broadsheet which took over from the Daily Herald, not the current tabloid). Always well written and often amusing.
I remember a great review of Jeremy Clarkson (motoring Link)
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Do people read the Sun? Really, i though they just looked at the pictures.
The Daily Mail? I rather indulge oilrag's nonsense....
Edited by nick1975 on 04/02/2010 at 20:42
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i have the attention span of an amoeba
so if i dont understand i move on
same in writing
i knows wats im saying but the words comes out alls wrong
thats why i knows do books sea
buts likes reading sums
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Tee hee oilrag. I think bell boy is pretending actually but ifithelps's post has a sinister sincerity about it.
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It's no coincidence these are two of Britain's most read and most successful daily newspapers.
I would love to see the Telegraph's content written in the style of the Sun, and vice versa. I wonder what that would do for their circulation figures? :)
Edited by Focus {P} on 04/02/2010 at 21:53
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Jim Hacker: "Don't tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers: The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country, The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country, The Times is read by people who actually do run the country, The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country, The Financial Times is read by people who own the country, The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country and the Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is."
Sir Humphrey: "Prime Minister, what about the people who read the Sun?"
Bernard Wooley: "Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big ****."
? Yes, Prime Minister
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One of the funniest pieces of motoring journalism for a while was Stephen Bayley's piece "Don't get caught in the Crossfire" in the Telegraph back in 2004. I almost lost my breakfast reading it.
Here it is:
tinyurl.com/yljahen
I liked his oblique view of motoring.
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That is solid gold, thanks for posting!
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One of the best jobs in the world....:-)
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...We are nervously living with the philosophical fall-out from concepts of bending light and travelling through time...It is thrilling, then, to come across the Chrysler Crossfire, because it restores a nice, stern, medieval absolutism to wobbly, post-Einsteinian thought patterns...
Philosophical fall-out? Medieval absolutism?
Do me a favour - this is not mass-market journalism, it's meaningless, wordy drivel.
Oilrag's a model of clarity compared to this dross.
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Do me a favour - this is not mass-market journalism it's meaningless wordy drivel.
Should I feel guilty for enjoying reading it, or something else? :-)
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>>it's meaningless, wordy drivel.<<
It is exceptionally clear that the reviewer thinks the car is awful and his use of langage could not be more precise.
If you want wordy drivel that is all about the author rather than the car can I refer you the reviews of J Clarkson?
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