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Archive for September, 2008

What defines a successful teacher?

Student progress? Student adulation? Parental response? Professional reputation? Results in juried contests? Fame of former students? Placement of students in prestigious programs? Daily job satisfaction?  Obvious progress in instilling skills, confidence, and a love of the art form?

The definition of “success” is as varied as the teachers who might try to answer this question, but there’s one thing I’m pretty sure about: The better the match between the teacher and the student, and the more compatible their goals, the more successful the teaching/learning process.

The challenge is that students come in all flavors. It doesn’t matter WHAT you’re teaching: Some of your students will be convinced that they are one step away from the big time, others are convinced that they will never be any good, and some just want to have fun. Some will work daily, some only under duress.

Who do you want to be teaching? Next season’s hit novelist? (If I knew how to do that…. well, I’d become next season’s hit novelist MYSELF.) A senior citizen who has always wanted to sculpt, photograph, paint, play guitar? An adult who enjoys the discipline and practice of cultivating an art form? A child who is just discovering the magic of turning sound into music? A teen who is discovering how to take words and feelings and turn them into poetry? 

This is an incredibly important question because teaching can be emotionally draining, especially to practicing artists who are dividing their time between doing their art and sharing it. It can be especially draining if the student and teacher don’t “click.” Some of us find a small child who is making her first forays into our world to be charming, funny, and invigorating; others of us feel like we are going to scream if we have to help a six-year-old figure out which is the left hand and the right hand one more time.  

In some cases, a bad match can almost be harmful to our own art: My own teaching experience includes writing, publishing. and piano, but I have found that teaching the mechanics of writing is not for me. While I can edit or rewrite a turgid page of disorganized and muddy prose, I’m not sure if I can effectively impart the whys and hows so that the student can do better next time. I’m not sure that this CAN be taught. And I find that the bad syntax sticks in my brain.

Similarly, with piano, I have strong preferences: Students needn’t be geniuses, but they do need to be engaged. They need to WANT to be here. And that desire needs to primarily come from them: I can encourage it and nurture it, but I can’t create what isn’t there.

It’s difficult, though, to know from the beginning which students will work out and which won’t. Learning an art is a long process; a single trial session isn’t going to tell you much.

I think where many of us get frustrated is that when we think about teaching and sharing our art, we think about sharing the whole package. We get excited about passing on our knowledge, and we know how much joy it brings us. But we also know how much work it takes. Sometimes, what we have to give may be too much for a casual student; certainly it may require more commitment than they are ready to put in. Do we simply limit our studios to advanced, committed students? Do we try to “convert” reluctant learners (Be prepared for a huge emotional toll if you choose this route — and be aware that you will only occasionally be successful). Do we accept lower standards and lower levels of achievement and just shrug when Johnny’s mom forgets the piano books and Johnny announces that he couldn’t practice for the fourth week in a row?  Do we slip into a neutral, disengaged mode to avoid expressing our disappointment? (Another emotionally draining choice.) Or do we deal with differing and inconsistent levels of progress as just part of the job of teaching, and move on as we can? Your answers to these questions may help you evaluate potential students to decide if they are a good match.

Whatever our art is, the truth is that in this day and age, children – -and adults — are used to instant gratification.  The kind of work it takes to become a skilled craftsperson in any art form is anathema to many kids; in fact, this may be one of the few situations in their lives which this kind of attention, commitment, and routine is required.

What this means to the Artist-Teacher is that it’s probably best to start slowly and let yourself learn what your preferences and limits are, and as you learn about your teaching strengths and weaknesses, you should be honest about confronting them with yourself and with prospective students. Considerations might include: Whether or not a family understand and accepts your policy regarding payment and attendance, the ages of students you accept, your requirements for home study, practice, or project completion,  the ability level you want to focus on, a certain type of expectation regarding progress, behavioral issues you may refuse to deal with, or learning issues you may not feel competent to deal with. We’ll deal with these topics in future posts. 

I will be perfectly honest and tell you that over the years I’ve had a small number of students who I wasn’t sorry to lose. Sometimes the teacher-student match simply isn’t a good one, or the student isn’t that interested, or makes no progress due to poor practice (or no practice). I find that draining — and harmful to my own creative work. But it’s tricky to know how to deal with the issue: Usually, it takes care of itself, because students who aren’t that motivated, or whose parents don’t support and encourage a structured practice routine, are often the first to drop out. What’s more difficult is evaluating potential new students to try to be sure you are making good matches for the future. It’s not always a clear road.

It’s not a good job for a control freak, that’s for sure.

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The Artist-Teacher: Intro

Earlier in the month, I talked about teaching, and since so many of us do it in one form or another, I’d like to spend the next few days on the challenges of the Artist-Teacher, which I define as someone who makes his or her living both by teaching AND by working professionally in a chosen art.  (Someone who is a published writer, who gets paying music gigs, who sells paintings, photos, or crafts, or who has an agent or a manager, etc., and who ALSO teaches.)  I’m NOT talking about full-time teachers who do their art after hours on the side: Nor am I talking about the creme-de-la-creme of artist-teachers: College professors who are expected to teach a small number of serious advanced students, and who are given plenty of time to (and are expect to) create, write, concertize, practice, paint, act, or perform. That’s a great gig if you can get it. (Warning: it usually requires a PhD or a terminal degree).  

In this article, I’m talking about the person who balances BOTH teaching and their creative work as an independent entrepreneur.

We all know the many reasons to teach our craft or our art: To share with the next generation, to get out of the house, to be part of a faculty community, to soften the sharp edges of freelance income fluctuations, to enjoy part-time work that has a schedule compatible with the schedule of an artist.  Some artists enjoy teaching so much that they charge hardly anything at all for it; others are less enthusiastic, or may even see it as “something to fall back on” (which is not conducive to either good teaching or happy students).

If the idea of teaching intrigues you, you’ll want to consider the many options available. Here are a few:

  • Schools. In addition to (or sometimes instead of) hiring full-time arts teachers, some schools hire part-timers to either teach a few hours a week, or to offer after-school enrichment programs in art, music, or creative writing. Programs might include classes, limited-size group lessons, or private lessons (in which case, the school generally takes a small cut of the lesson fee).
  • Organized home-schooler groups. Homeschooling moms and dads know that they can’t effectively teach their kids math and science and art and music and reading, especially as the kids get older (How much trigonometry do YOU remember?). So they often band together to form little groups, and then bring in a teacher for a morning or an afternoon session. This can work well for private teachers who would like to fill middle-of-the-day slots.
  • Community schools of the arts. These can be either for profit or non-profit. They generally pay you an hourly rate for classes you teach, and offer nominal, if any benefits. The pay is less than you’d make in your own private studio, but the percentage they keep goes to pay for  access to instrument rentals, computer labs, photo labs, art supplies, recital halls, exhibit or performance space, along with clean studios, libraries, and booking and billing services.   
  • Community colleges and college enrichment programs. Courses and lessons may be offered for groups or classes, for credit or simply for enrichment.
  • For-credit colleges. Adjuncts are often hired on a class-by-class basis.
  • Music or art supply stores. Many music stores and some art supply stores have back rooms where they offer lessons. Sometimes, the teachers have to work in the store to get first crack at students, but if you teach something exotic like trombone, you might net an afternoon a week.
  • Private art and music studios. Some fine artists offer classes in their studios on a weekly or monthly basis. Recording studio owners may use their studio space for lessons when it isn’t booked for recording sessions. Musicians often teach in their own homes, if zoning, neighbors, and the family situation allow.
  • Students’ homes. If you’re a traveling teacher, be sure to charge for travel time; this option does not work in  spread out rural communities where students will likely live far apart.
  • City or town enrichment programs. Your town’s cultural council may offer a series.
  • Classes offered by non-credit education prgrams such as the Learning Annex (which offers classes on hundreds of subjects in cities throughout the country). 
  • Your YMCA, Community Center, Church, or Senior Center may have a program, or be open to starting one.  
  • Internet programs. Education is a growing business on the net: Classes in writing are offered by writing sites such as www.Freelancesuccess.com or http://therenegadewriter.com/new-renegade-writer-classes/. (See my post at http://createworklive.com/2008/09/22/renegade-writer-classes/).  For music, check out www.workshoplive.com. All of these places need teachers.

Check in throughout the week: In addition to a host of other topics, I’ll be talking about how to get teaching gigs, their advantages and disadvantages, how to try to match your teaching strengths with the right students, how to develop a teaching policy, and more.

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Artists seem to fall into one of two categories: Either we are at home in front of the footlights, flirting with interviewers and seducing audiences, or we are nervous wrecks, cowering in the back of the room hoping no one will call on us. Some of us are both: I am completely comfortable giving a prepared talk to an audience — it doesn’t matter how large — or being interviewed on radio or television. I am also perfectly happy to be up on stage in the back of the band, hiding behind my piano. But ask me to patter with an audience between songs, or to make small talk during a sound check, and I fall apart: I can’t think of a single thing to say, and it all sounds ridiculously stupid (never mind that sound checks ALWAYS sound stupid…) And I don’t much care for being the ONLY musician on stage, either. Solo piano performance gives me the hives.

Well, we can’t all be performers, but we do ALL have to be able to articulately answer questions about what we do. At least, that’s the goal: After all, radio and television interviews drive public awareness and sales.

Good news: You’ll almost always have plenty of notice before you have to go on stage or talk about your work into a microphone. Examples might include: A class you teach, a public library event, a bookstore signing, a school classroom, a meeting of a book club or another group that folllows your work. Radio and television interviews are also pre-scheduled, giving you plenty of time to prepare.

Here’s how:

  • If you are absolutely terrified by the prospect of speaking in public, practice. A local Toastmasters group is a great way to get comfortable speaking in front of others. Other low key, low-stress entrees include classroom visits to local schools, a book club, or an interview on local radio.
  • Organize your “talking points” and write them down.  These are the things you want your audience to know: The name of your new book, the place and time of your next concert, the opening date of the gallery show. While a radio or TV host is going to get pretty annoyed if you plug your gig every 10 seconds, it’s understood that that’s what you’re there for. Find out if they’ll be plugging the product or event for you when they introduce you. If they do, you can lay off, otherwise try to work it into the conversation in the least self-promoting and obnoxious way possible. “That’s a great question, Gary; In fact it’s one of the reasons I wanted to write “Create, Work, Live in the first place: So many people were asking me blah blah blah. Here’s how I look at it.”
  • Consider using visual aids such as slides, a Powerpoint presentation, or props: it engages the audience, takes the focus off of you, and helps keep you on track.
  • You are not a professional radio announcer, and you don’t have to sound like one. You DO have to sound like someone who can string a whole sentence together.   Words like “totally” and “awesome” should be eliminated, as should “uhms” “likes” and “you knows.” (If you really think something you expect to be asked about is “awesome” try to think of another, more specific, adjective — and have it ready.) Tape yourself speaking about what you do.   
  • Eliminate verbal tics.   I was recently on a trip where a group of us travel writers were being shown around museums. In one, the guide said “Truth is….” about every second sentence, regardless of whether the information she was about to impart deserved any kind of special introduction. “Truth is, we all really like working here….blah blah  blah, Truth is, we close at 5:00.” The other guide kept sayng ”if you will” at the end of every other sentence. In both cases, the speaking tics almost over-rode the content of the talk.
  • Don’t try to use the biggest words you know to sound “smart.” Most of us trip over our tongues when we try to fancy-up our everyday speech. You are much better off trying to sound “real” than trying to sound “smart.”  
  • Edit yourself on the fly: Most of us talk in circles, using far too many qualifiers. Try to simplify your speech to get your basic points across.
  • Practice answering the questions you expect the interviewer to ask. A good interviewer will throw some curves, but hopefully they’ll give you a chance to warm up on some standard questions.
  • When answering questions, don’t get caught up in long stories: Bring your answer back to your main points. 
  • Decide in advance whether to take questions during the talk or hold them till after: Be aware that many questions people ask during the course of your talk may address topics you plan to cover.  Beginning speakers are often more comfortable holding questions till the end so as to avoid getting thrown off course.
  • If it looks like you’re going to be spending a lot of time in front of a camera, consider media training. You might be an excellent speaker, but that’s only part of the equation: Knowing how to dress, look, stnad, and gesture are important, as well as knowing how to pace your speech and emphasize your main points. It’s a whole other craft! No, you don’t need it for local cable access T.V. — but if Oprah calls? Probably worth it. 

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First a disclaimer: We’re not really talking about web design here. We’re talking about something much more simple: Getting your stuff on the web, using resources that are readily available and inexpensive.

It’s easy to be intimidated: professional web design can be a complex art form, incorporating visual design elements like type, color selection, text blocks, widgets, pictures, charts, and illustrations. It can also incorporate elements from the film and music worlds: video clips, moving images, animations, and sound files.  And then there is the organization of content, and the ability to sell products (and collect money).  Not to mention test driving your site on different browsers to see how it looks when it’s loaded with Firefox versus Internet Explorer, etcetera.  And correcting any coding mistakes that make things go kablooey.

But take heart: Most of us don’t need a website that is all that complex. Moving graphics, music, and video clips may not only be unnecessary; they may actually detract from your message. (I remember reading that the fastest way to drive someone AWAY from your site was to have music on it when it loaded. It’s okay to have music clips someone can CHOOSE to listen to, but background music on a website was in most cases a turn-off.)

What most of us DO need (if we have our own business) is a website that acts as an electronic brochure. A website makes you FINDABLE, and it gives you a chance to define yourself and your product or service.  It gives YOU a chance to showcase as much, or as little, of your work as you like, and to talk about it — or not.  It gives people a chance to get to know you, if only virtually.

There are two basic ways small business create a web presence: Traditional websites and blogs. (Social media such as Facebook and Linkedin are a whole other issue; we’ll talk about those in another post.) Neither of them is all that difficult: In fact, I built each of my three websites using standardized templates, and I promise, computer stuff is emphatically NOT my strong suit. if I can do it, so can you. 

Traditional websites tend to be more static than blogs: For an example, my travel writing site, www.KarenBerger.com is a static site with a simple purpose: To establish my credentials as a travel writer to editors who might want to hire me.  The site contains only a few pages: some writing samples, a bio page, and pages describing some of my other writing. The sidebars contain links to the blog you are reading and my outdoor writing website, along with a list of magazines and Internet sites I’ve written for.

I see my travel writing site as an electronic brochure: It doesn’t need much updating, so I visit it quarterly to add information about new markets, or to add a recent clip or links to recent Internet articles.  I’m not trying to drive traffic to it, but if you Google me, it comes right up on the front page. 

My outdoor writing site (www.hikerwriter.com) has a broader purpose, so it’s a bit more dynamic: It’s function is to showcase my expertise as an adventure/outdoors writer not only to editors, but also to readers who might buy my books and to members of the media who might interview me. There is a page on this site where readers can ask questions. The site also has some “service” information intended to be useful for people planning an outdoors adventure, including links to outside resources such as trail organizations. The front page includes information about my new projects and publications. 

Both of my websites, incidentally, use proprietary software provided to writers who are members of the Author’s Guild, and they are both hosted by the Author’s Guild. (“Hosting” is a service you buy from a company that puts your site up on the web.) The software I used to build my site is similar to a lot of software you’ll find at various website services. Basically, you choose a template you like, choose the color scheme, and make other decisions as necessary, such as what information you want in the columns, how many pages you are going to have and what their titles will be, and which widgets you will put where. Then you just start typing.   

Blogs use similar software, but they are more dynamic than websites, meaning that they change more often. They have a different purpose: you can think of a blog as an electronic newspaper for a specialized audience. The posts stay up as long as the writer wants them to, but the fact is that most visitors to your blog start with the new stuff on the front page. While some readers may dig around in your archives, yesterday’s blog is a lot like yesterday’s news — except you can’t use it to line the bird cage or wrap the fish.

This blog, for instance, is updated daily. Some bloggers update two, three or even more times a day, but I’ve decided that I prefer doing one meaty entry a day, rather than two or three skimpy ones.  

If you’d like to experiment with blog-building software, you can go to any of the blog hosting sites and play around with their templates. (This blog is hosted by www.wordpress.com).  You can even use blog software to make a site that contains both static website pages and dynamic blog pages: For example, I could have chosen to set this blog up with a static front page (a welcome page). I could have then included links to other pages, including static pages such my biography and dynamic pages containing blog posts.

So what do YOU do?

  • Assess your needs: Do you need a website that is fairly stable, or one that changes daily? Do you want to sell products? Engage the public?  Or simply  tell the world what you do?
  • Buy your domain name. (For example, http://www.YourName.com). You can do this through some of the host companies, or through domain-name companies such as http://www.GoDaddy.com. If the name is taken, try variations such as Your-Name.com or Your-Name-Studios.com.
  • Check out the competition. What kind of websites do your colleagues and competitors have? Can any of them recommend a template, a hosting service, or (if necessary) a website designer?
  • What kind of features will you need? A shopping cart so people will buy things? A Paypal account so you can collect money? Blog statistic widgets so you can tell potential advertisers how many visitors you have? Links to companies that will sell products for you (such as on-line bookstores, which give you a commission for every sale you refer to them)?
  • You don’t have to get the whole thing right the first time: Start with simple design. You can always add on the extras — and you can always migrate the site to a different host if the old one turns out to be too inflexible or cumbersome. 
  • If you find you enjoy web design, take a community college class in HTML, the code that is used to change the way things look on a page. With “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” (WYSIWYG) programs, you really don’t need a lot of HTML, but I’ve found that a very basic understanding helps solve problems and increases flexibility .
  • Include a line in your e-mail signature giving the address of your website or blog, and put it on your business cards and business stationary as well.

The best advice I got? I was fretting over which host to use to start this blog, when a colleague said “Jump in. You can always migrate the site. But first you have to get started.”

Just do it.

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It drives writers nuts when non-writers say “I’ve been thinking of writing a book.” (Hey, it’s not like I tell my doctor, “I’ve been thinking of doing some surgery….”)

So I’m sure it drives photographers nuts when non-photographers (including writers) say “I’ll just take the photos for this article myself.”

The fact is that both writing and photography take specialized skills and knowledge (and professional photographers have invested money — often LOTS of money — into their gear, as well). To think that an untrained amateur can just step in and do the same job shows both an amazing amount of hubris — and a lack of respect for the craft.

But it’s is also true that we don’t always NEED professonal quality. Non-writers can scribble an effective and acceptable press release, and non-photographers can click the shutter button and come up with a beautiful and useful image. And indeed, there are many situations where we might need to step in and try our hand at someone else’s craft:

  • A travel writer is visiting a remote location. There’s no way the magazine will send a photographer there, but they won’t run the story without a photograph.
  • A music teacher wants a picture of himself teaching for a brochure.
  • A visual artist needs some shots of her work to send in for a juried exhibit and doesn’t have time to hire a pro before the deadline.
  • A magazine is interested in interviewing you — but wants to see what you look like first (Yes, they DO do this…)

I’m not a professional photographer (and I don’t play one on TV :) ) but I guess it’s fair for me to call myself a semi-pro.  I’ve taken hundreds of shots that have been published in everything from books to magazines to calendars; I’ve also studied photography. The shot on the book cover below, for example, is one that I set up:  I saw the shot, and thought that it might make a good photo for a hiking story if I climbed into the dramatic scene, so I chose the lighting and aperture settings, decided on the focal length I needed, and told a friend exactly where to hold the camera so the picture  would be framed the way I wanted it. The result has been used on a book cover, in a calendar, and in a two-page magazine spread. (Sorry about the resolution here: this is from Amazon, and the resolution stinks. I’ll try to find a better copy.)

  

To take this photo, I followed some basic rules about composition (the rule of thirds) and lighting (shoot on cloudy days).  “Real” photographers — just like real writers and real musicians — can get away with making their own rules, but when you’re not a pro, you’re better off sticking with the tried and true. Here are some suggestions

  • Make sure you are using acceptable equipment. Today’s digital cameras offer great resolution, but your cell phone camera probably won’t be able to take pictures with acceptable resolution, especially for print. Magazine editors will want at least 6 or 7 megapixels, sometimes more.  This info will be on the camera body.
  • Shoot on the higest resolution possible.
  • Take more pictures than you think you need (It’s just a memory card).
  • Use the camera’s standard settings for exposures, but then experiment with custom exposures.
  • The rule of thirds says that a photo is divided into 9 zones: three horizontal and three vertical. The subject of a photo should be in one of the boxes where the lines defining these zones intersect. (See the example below, then look at the photo above.)

  • Shoot on cloudy days: it’s counterintuitive, but cloudy or overcast days give more gradations of light, more subtlety, and less harshness.
  • Best outdoor lighting is the “golden hour” just after sunrise and just before sunset. 
  • Don’t have the horizon exactly in the middle of the photo: Put it 1/3 from the top or 1/3 from the bottom.
  • Watch for background intrusions like a tree that looks like it’s growing out of someone’s head.
  • Get close to your subject — then get closer.
  • Experiment with different angles — like lying on the ground. 
  • Take a class!

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FOD Fest

I’m figuring that most of you will recognize the name Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered in Pakistan by terrorists in 2002.

I’m also figuring that you don’t know that Danny (as he was known to his friends) was also a musician.

Before Danny was a Wall Street Journal reporter, he worked for the Berkshire Eagle, the paper of record in the rural Massachusetts county where I live, and he also played the violin in local bands. This all happened before I arrived here, but the Berkshires is a small rural community where everyone knows everyone, especially in the arts; Danny has not been forgotten. People say he had perfect pitch, well-honed classical skills, great chops, and an infectious joy in sharing his art. 

Sharing his art: That’s what it’s all about, and that’s one of the reasons Todd Mack — a singer-songwriter, recording engineer, radio-announcer, author, and  a close friend of Danny’s — started FOD Fest. FOD stands for Friends of Danny, and it’s an annual event involving musicians who knew him, played with him, or connect with his story. Todd started FOD Fest four years ago as a low-key back-yard jam. I played at the second one, which was held at Todd’s old house. We sat on his deck, and singer-songwriters took turns playing their songs. Those who knew Danny said a few words about him; the rest of us played along as the back-up band. FOD Fest takes place every year around Danny’s birthday to honor his memory and his ideals: that mutual tolerance, education, and an honest quest for understanding can build bridges between people of vastly different cultures. It’s part of a larger non-profit effort, Daniel Pearl World Music Days, which is sponsored by The Daniel Pearl Foundation (http://www.danielpearl.org/about_us/danielpearl_bio.html) and takes place with concerts worldwide and the support of a long list of stellar, internationally renowned musicians.   

FOD Fest has been steadily growing: The first year I played, it was broadcast on a few radio stations nationwide; Last year, it involved concerts in several cities, and this year, it will involve a series of concerts all over the country. The inaugural 2008 FOD Fest concert is right here in my neck of the woods, at the Mahaiwe Theatre in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on Friday, October 10 at 7:30 p.m., and I’m honored to be one of the musicians performing that night. Other shows will be in venues in New York City, Los Angeles, and Nashville, Tennessee. My partner, David Hodge, is also performing, and he’s got the whole national schedule up on his site: http://www.davidhodge.com/2008/09/21/fodfest-2008/

Please check the schedule and come by! The concerts are free (although donations are gratefully accepted to offset the cost of the concerts).  The format is one Danny would, I’m sure, have liked: an improvisational sharing of music from the heart.

I’ll be posting an interview with Todd Mack (recording engineer and producer, radio host, songwriter, guitarist, singer, children’s book author, and FOD Fest organizer) later in the week. Stay tuned.

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“Writing is dead,” A business major once told me. “Who cares? I’ll just have my secretary do it.”

Fast forward a few years:

“I was wrong. I wish I knew how to write better. We don’t even HAVE secretaries anymore.”

Yes, IMing and text messaging have created a new sub-language. But computers have not led us to the death of literacy (even though it sometimes seems so). In fact, more of our business communication is done in writing than ever before: When I wrote my last book, I spoke to my editor ONCE on the phone! We did everything else, from proposal to revisions to contract negotiations to art to cover design to editorial queries to proofreading, via e-mail.

The need to communicate clearly in writing has never been greater.

Three things every creative enterpreneur should be able to do:

1) Write a press release.

2) Answer questions in an e-mail interview.

3) Write text for a brochure, an Internet site or a blog. 

Non-writers have funny ideas about writing (I get to say this: I’ve been a published writer since 1980, and I’ve taught writing classes). Non-writers think they have to sound fancy. Smart, even. They think bigger words are better (and smarter). They think they have to use a metaphor every sentence or to, or say something profound. They think the passive voice sounds formal and erudite (note the big word.) They think they have to distance themselves form the material so they sound inellectual. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

In fact, the absolute worst writing I have ever read was from a woman who was on a board of directors with me: She had some legal training, including legal writing, and every time she wrote something, she used the biggest words she could think of and the most convoluted sentences; she sounded like George Bush II on a bad day. Anyone with half an education wouldn’t have taken anything she wrote seriously: Not only was she  trying too hard, but her muddled words betrayed muddled thinking. 

I can’t write a whole book on writing on an Interent blog. But here are some tips:  

  • Get a copy of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. This short, easy to digest book has been teaching the basic of clear, concise, and grammtically correct writing for two generations.
  • Learn the appropriate format for what you are writing. A press release, for instance, should have a title, a release date, and a contact person. It should start with the basic who-what-when-where info, and then give short, factual information. Opinions — ie adjectives — shoud be minimal. 
  • Use the active voice. In other words: “Karen Berger writes this blog;” instead of “This blog is written by Karen Berger.” 
  • Avoid adjectives and adverbs; Show, don’t tell. Your point is to get information across; the simpler the better.
  • Use your spell check. Grammar checks are more problemmatic because they sacrifice readability in favor of sometimes stilted correctness.
  • Read the piece out loud. if it sounds stilted, silly, or too formal, revise it. 

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You know the stereotype of the artist: We musicians, painters, or writers are locked away in our garrets, obsessively making music, slapping paint on a canvas, or struggling to come up with the perfect metaphor. 

Sometimes I WISH that’s all we had to do!

As we all learn, all too soon, creating our art is only part of the equation that adds up to successful self-employment. Business skills (keeping track of income and expenses, marketing and public relations, networking, billing and budgeting ) are essential, as are teaching skills. But as it turns out, many of us also need to borrow the skills of OTHER artistic discplines. At the very least:

1) Writing:  We need to be able to write about what we do. We should be able to send out a literate, publishable press release to our local papers and radio stations, write brochure copy about our products and services, and provide coherent text for an Internet site. More and more interviews are being done via e-mail these days, as well: If you are answering questions in writing, you want your answers to be readable, interesting, and smart.  http://createworklive.com/2008/09/24/essential-skills-for-artists-writing/

2) Photography: No, your pocket-sized mini-digital camera is not a substitute for a professional rig; nor is your eye the equivalent of the eye of a pro photog. But there are plenty of times you might need a picture on the spur of the moment. Visual artists and designers might need to send a quick picture on a tight deadline to an editor, journalist, or TV producer.  Writers are often asked to send “scouting” shots for a potential story (so the editor can evaluate its visual appeal); we also may be expected to send actual field photography from places where a magazine or book publisher can’t afford to send a “real” photographer. Even if the picture is of you — say you’re an author, an actor, or a dancer – having the skill to set up a shot of yourself can be invaluable. http://createworklive.com/2008/09/26/essential-skills-for-artists-photography/

3) Public Speaking: You may not be an announcer, an actor, or an entertainer, but you should be able to speak in clear, direct, sentences in front of a microphone or a camera (without a lot of “uhms” and “you knows” and “likes” cluttering up your speech; it wouldn’t hurt to drop the “awesomes” and “totallys,” either). For high profile appearances on television, media training is a must. http://createworklive.com/2008/09/28/essential-skills-for-artists-public-speaking/

4) Web Design: Putting up a blog or an Internet site has gotten easier and easier in the last ten years (Hey, even I am doing it, and if you knew me personally, you’d accept that as final, inarguable proof that ANYONE can do it). You don’t have to be a pro designer to put together and update a website or a blog. Fortunately, the templates that are available, and the free hosting, make this ALMOST a no-brainer. http://createworklive.com/2008/09/27/essential-skills-for-artists-web-design/

I’m not implying or suggesting that every artist needs to be (or even would be able to be) an expert in all or even any of these other fields. We can’t ALL be professional writers AND photographers AND speakers AND web designers. When we take on these tasks, we should realize that we are not going to be able to immediately produce professional results; most of all, we need to keep things simple. As our businesses grow and as our needs become more complex, we can bring in (and pay for) the pros. But in the meantime, “Do-It-Yourself” is the name of the game.

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How exactly do you get that first magazine assignment? Get paid to travel the world? Get an agent to look at your book proposal? If you’re a specialist in another field, or another art, can you really get someone to publish you?

If you’re wondering, check out this series of classes, offered by the Renegade Writer.

I’ve got no connection with this program, but it looks good to me. Why? Well, first, look at the credentials of the instructing writers; most of the the writers have been published by many of the most prestigious magazines out there. And second, some of them are members of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, which requires some heavy chops for membership (www.asja.org). Many have won awards; all of them can be Googled; they’ve written books and articles and Internet stories, and some of them have been at it for 20 years.

Anway, if you’re interested in e-classes on topics ranging from travel writing to writing a book proposal to ramping up your writing business to just getting stared in magazines, check this out:

http://therenegadewriter.com/new-renegade-writer-classes/

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Over the weekend, I was at a reunion for a summer camp I used to go to, and inevitably, there was a lot of updating of information: where people had ended up, who had kids (and grand-kids, even), who still was in touch with whom, and what work people were doing. “I’m a writer and a music teacher and a piano player” I answered more than once, and in one case, the response to THAT was a cheerful “Oh! So you’re poor!”

Not so fast, buster.

Coincidentally, I just stumbled on a National Endowment for the Arts study, which was released earlier this past summer. The NEA compiled data, starting with the 2000 census and continuing on to more recent economic data generated through 2005. They examined artists working in eleven areas: actors; announcers; architects; art directors, fine artists and animators; dancers and choreographers; designers; entertainers and performers; musicians; photographers; producers and directors; writers and authors.

Here are some interesting nuggets from the study:

  • There are almost two million working artists in the United States; taken together, we make up one of the largest occupational clusters: 1.4 percent of the workforce — only slightly less than military personnel.
  • We like to hang out together. More than one-fifth of all U.S. artists live in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Washington, and Boston. Half of all of us live in 30 metropolitan areas.
  • We also cluster by occupation: New Mexico has the highest share of fine artists, Vermont has the highest proportion of writers, and Tennessee, the highest proportion of musicians. 
  • We are 3.5 times more likely to be self-employed than non-artists.
  • We generally earn less money than workers with similar education levels, but we work less: One third of us work for only part of the year. 
  • Our median income — from all sources — in 2005 was $34,800; which is higher than the $30,100 median for the total labor force, but lower than the $43,200 median income of other professionals.
  • We are twice as likely to have a college degree as other U.S. workers, and this percentage is rising.
  • Writers, producers, and architects have the highest education levels among artists.

Material in this post is abstracted from the summary of the NEA report, “Artists in the Workforce.”  For the  summary and the executive summary (which has a whole bunch of cool charts and graphs where you can find out the musicians per 10,000 people in Tennessee, or see which states have the highest percentage of writers) go to www.nea.gov/news/news08/ArtistsinWorkforce.html. You can also download the full report, which gives comparative earnings information, among lots of other things. 

Bottom line: Yeah, we might earn a bit less than people with similar levels of education who work in other professions. But look how we get to spend our time!

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