Do blogs have birthdays? anniversaries?
If so, mine is past due. October marked the end of blogging year number 6 -- a year in which most of what I've had to say had a lot more to do with blood chemistry than I ever hoped to need to know.
Hard to "share" the experience I've had except to describe it as a hand grenade thrown into my life, a chance for me to have a legit do-over. Problem is, what I'm ready to do-over is my life as an editor, and those days are gone. Judging from what I've seen around the Web, no one wants to pay writers what they are worth either.
By way of contrast -- in the 1920s, Fitzgerald earned $1 a word for magazine pieces. Today, those who seek literate web content want it for about 2 cents a word, if that. Over 80 years, the once livable writers' wage has sunk so far below the ocean, it got swallowed in the Bermuda triangle.
Makes me sad, that writing has come to this pass. Makes me angry that people won't pay for grammarians/copy editors to read for continuity and proper grammar -- because the world, as I see it, is growing less literate by the second.
The U.S. already sucks in math and science on a high school level. Now English is headed down the same path. If we don't get educators who can teach, whatever subject and whatever level, I shudder to think of where we're going -- time's not on our side.
Hard to "share" the experience I've had except to describe it as a hand grenade thrown into my life, a chance for me to have a legit do-over. Problem is, what I'm ready to do-over is my life as an editor, and those days are gone. Judging from what I've seen around the Web, no one wants to pay writers what they are worth either.
By way of contrast -- in the 1920s, Fitzgerald earned $1 a word for magazine pieces. Today, those who seek literate web content want it for about 2 cents a word, if that. Over 80 years, the once livable writers' wage has sunk so far below the ocean, it got swallowed in the Bermuda triangle.
Makes me sad, that writing has come to this pass. Makes me angry that people won't pay for grammarians/copy editors to read for continuity and proper grammar -- because the world, as I see it, is growing less literate by the second.
The U.S. already sucks in math and science on a high school level. Now English is headed down the same path. If we don't get educators who can teach, whatever subject and whatever level, I shudder to think of where we're going -- time's not on our side.
posted by alice, uptown at 2:54 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Alice,
Agreed that more, much more, needs to be done to teach proper English, but I disagree somewhat regarding opportunities for editors.
Yes, of course, the landscape has changed dramatically, but there are still opportunities.
The Internet, for one, is full of them. Look around to see what venue appeals to you, and make it happen. (Another blog, a full-fledged Web site, a forum, something else, all of the above?)
To be sure, there are a lot more blogs, etc., out there than there were six years ago, for example, but you could carve out your niche. There are many ways to monetize said niche, too.
In any case, a Happy Anniversary to your blog, and cheer up. It is not all doom and gloom.
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