Natalia M. Sylvester

I’ve been focusing on redesigning my website lately and that’s created a kind of domino effect with this blog. In writing, you really have to stay focused on the point of the story so that everything you write services it in one way or another, which is why I’ve decided to shift the focus of this blog to just freelance writing. I’ll still be writing about creative writing, but possibly on another blog. I’m still working out all the details, but will let you know the link once everything’s ready.

Aside from the blog, I have some other big news to share in the weeks to come. Let’s just say I’ll be putting the idea that we writers can work from anywhere to a very big test. So expect that things will look a bit different around here in 2010.

On a little side note…am I the only one who feels weird just saying ‘10? It seems we’ve grown so used to saying Oh-nine, Oh-eight, Oh-anything, that one lonely little syllable sounds insufficient all of a sudden. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue, does it?

One of my first jobs was at a magazine that basically had a typo for a name. Of course, it was done on purpose, you know..because it was so clever.

So clever, that at a meeting with a potential client last week, I was asked if that was a typo on my resume.

This happened a lot while I worked at the magazine. I usually had to spell out the name mind numbingly slow (a as in apple, n as in Nancy, for ten whole letters) every time I gave out my email address.

And the thing is, half the time people didn’t get the play on words the magazine was going for. The other half would hesistantly ask, “You know that’s not how it’s really spelled, right?” So then we’d have to explain it to them, and they’d just nod and smile.

The thing with good writing is that it’s like a joke—if you have to repeat it and explain why it’s good, it’s really not that good. Writing shouldn’t need to be read twice (though people should want to), shouldn’t need to be analyzed over and over to find meaning. The message needs to hit a reader the second their eyes register the words, because they won’t often give it more time than that.

Now I know it’s true that being clever is often what will catch a reader’s attention. I’ll never knock clever. Some of my favorite writing is witty and funny and sarcastic in all the right places. But it has to serve the message first.

Otherwise you’ve just got a bad joke (in print!). And you’ll find yourself wishing you could put an asterisk at the bottom of your resume—

*To whom it may concern: I realize that this word is misspelled, but I assure you that it was done on purpose, and, more importantly, I was not in any way involved with that decision.