Maybe I Should Be a Writer…

By Paul A. Roy Jr.

That is what I was thinking as I sat staring at the endless procession of brake lights on the cars if front of me, stuck in yet another infamous Boston traffic jam. Writers can sit at home and work from the comfort of their living rooms, never have to fight traffic, set their own hours, and don’t have any bosses -- what a great life that would be. You know, it might not be that hard to be a writer, not like the old days when I was in college. Then you needed an endless amount of papers and pencils or a clunky typewriter. And the researching you had to do... libraries, books, and the countless hours poring through old magazines or newspapers. But not today: we have computers that can do everything for us -- the typing, spell checking and grammar checking. We can make revisions with a point and click and there you are: a masterpiece of writing. In fact, I think I will write a story today and leave this working life forever.

Okay, so let’s get started. What can we write about? I want to have something light and informative for my first attempt. Like… darn, can’t think of anything. I know: let me search the 'Net and see if I can find anything to do with ideas. Trouble is, I never really searched for anything on the Web for writing purposes. A search on "Writers Tools" finds lots of links to everything you could ever want or need. This one here looks promising: http://www.robinsnest.com/articles/wr-research.html. It has lots of informative material on how to research items on the 'Net and links to search engines and other writing sites. Let’s see if there is anything dealing with ideas. Here’s one that looks interesting; lets try it: http://members.xoom.com/Gadzillion/Thinkindex.html. It’s called "A Gadzillion Things to Think About." It breaks the ideas down into 32 main topics and then a bunch of categories. For example, under "Occupation: NewsReporters," there is this idea to think about: "Why do they always start off the evening news with 'Good Evening' when all they talk about is bad news?" Or under "Technology: Computers," there is "Why do they make those '. . . for Dummies' books? And if you really were a dummy would you have the sense to buy it?" According to the homepage there are over 6,090 questions for you to ponder on this sight.

Now that I have found some interesting things that I can write about, it has been an awful long time since I have written anything. I probably could use a refresher on style and grammar. I seem to remember in my college English courses having a book entitled The Elements of Style by William Strunk. I wonder if I still have it. Where would I look? I certainly don’t want to dig through the cellar in all those dusty boxes to find it. Wait, perhaps I can find it on the Internet also. Sure enough, after trying just a few links on "writer’s resources," I have found http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk. This site has the complete manuscript of the book, broken down by chapter and section. If you know what you would like to read about, just find the proper chapter and section on the homepage and read to your heart's content. While it might be nice to have a search feature, it still beats crawling though the cellar. Of course, if you just have grammar questions, you can always go to "Ask Miss Grammar" at http://www.protrainco.com/info/noframes/grammar.htm. Here you can either search the site for answers to your grammar questions or ask your own. Might be a little simple, but when you get to be my age, simple is good.

And of course, now that I have my grammar and style sort of under control, I really need to find facts and figures. I certainly don’t want to have any incorrect information in any article I may write. Time for another search, I guess. Here is a site that offers all kinds of links to other sites. It is called "Ready Reference Using the Net" and is located at http://www.winsor.edu/library/rref.htm. This site lists other sites from "Abbreviations and Acronyms" to "Zip Codes." I’m not really sure I should have looked at the "Mental Disorders" offering, though. There is also "Research-it!" which has numerous search engines for looking up information such as pronunciation dictionaries and quotations. This site can be found at http://www.itools.com/research-it/research-it.html. Another site with interesting possibilities is the "Wired Cybrarian" at http://www.wired.com/cybrarian/. This also lists many links to sites with all kinds of useful and useless information, as does http://www.encyberpedia.com/ency.htm, another site with all kinds of information. Being the history buff that I am, I was particularly impressed that I could actually learn all about the 1904 World’s Fair. For example, I am sure there is a story in the fact that the Fair featured an 18-foot high lighthouse entirely made out of salt. I'm, not sure exactly what the story will be but I am sure there is one there.

Well, now that I have all the information I need and have brushed up on my grammar and style, I will write an article. One thing I have always worried about is someone stealing my work. I think I need to learn about copyright law and all that wonderful legal stuff. Let's see what I can find. How about http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html. This is a little site dealing with copyright law, as does http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html. The second site explains copyright law a little more in detail than the first, but both are good. It also has a link to an even more detailed FAQ. Or if you would like, you can go to http://www.ivanhoffman.com/, which has many useful, informative articles on copyright issus, as well as other topics.

Okay, now that I know how to copyright my article, where can I sell it? Hmmm, is there a market out there? Checking out http://www.forwriters.com/markets.html I see all kinds of links and information on potential markets for my work. You mean there are really people who will pay me for this?

It seems I have everything I need to write an article, and this looks like only the tip of the iceberg as far as information goes.

Guess all I have to do is write something. Hey, I already did!

-- PAR, Jr.
©Paul A. Roy Jr., 1st rights August 1999