Author: Paul Lagasse

Paul Lagasse provides expert-to-expert communications services to nonprofit, business, and government clients in the metro Baltimore-DC area. Specialties include science and medical writing, technical report editing, and content marketing.

don’t be a writer

stacked blocksI read an interesting post on Write to Done this morning offering tips on how to break through writer’s block. The first tip: remind yourself that you’re a writer.

While I generally find the advice on WTD to be both useful and on target, I have to disagree with that particular tip (the rest were pretty handy). Regular readers know that I don’t call myself a wordsmith; but it might surprise you to know that I prefer not to call myself a writer either.

No, I don’t eschew the term in favor of buzzwords like “communicator” or “content provider,” either. When people ask me what I do for a living, I don’t tell them that I’m a writer.

I tell them that I write.

A pedantic distinction? Maybe — but it’s a distinction that can clear up the crippling paralysis of writer’s block once and for all.

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time management for freelancers

Screengrab of Apimac Timer ProFreelancers who manage multiple projects understand the importance — and the difficulty — of effective time management. But simply dividing your day into discrete blocks isn’t enough.

Writing, editing, and designing all require different mindsets; jumping straight from one type of project to another — say, from carefully proofreading every word in a technical report to staring at the wall for an hour while an article composes itself in your head — wastes more time than it saves, as you try to adjust your frame of reference from one to the other.

Through trial and error, I’ve developed two-step a time management technique that seems to work well. Try it and see if it works for you.

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solecism for april 1, 2008

From “Is Mike Myers’ new film asking for trouble?,” CNN.com, via AP:

“In the context of Sacha Baron Cohen’s uncomfortable in-character interactions with unwitting Americans, Mike Myers’ parody of another cultural minority in the U.S. — as the oversexed, overly ambitious, American-born spiritual leader in the summer comedy “The Love Guru” — would hardly seem cause for complaint.”

Until the Oversexed and Overly-Ambitious American-Born Spiritual Leaders Anti-Defamation League got wind of it and called a press conference.

tracking telephone interviews

Drawing of a telephoneWhile I wait for a call-back from an interviewee for an article I’m writing, I thought I’d share my technique for tracking telephone interviews.

Over the years I’ve developed a breadcrumb system that allows me to assess the status of the interview scheduling process at a glance. My note-taking technique is pretty standard, but my scheduling trail is a thing of beauty.

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what’s on your reference shelf?

Life hackers love to empty their pockets, bags, and packs and show off their gear. Freelance writers have their own version of every day carry: the essential reference works that, collectively, are the writerly equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife or a Leatherman tool.

Even in this era of instant electronic reference, I still rely on these books — not just because I know them so well, but also because they remain consistently and authoritatively accurate.

And quite a few of them are fun to read, too.

Here’s a list of my “every day reference.” Some of these may surprise you.

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get ’em while they’re hot

Regular reader Andrea has just alerted me to the fact that Ultimate Office is currently offering its Jotz Spiral Notebooks at a deep discount of $5 each! That includes five PocketFile folders and 60 pages of ruled 80# paper.

While the Spiral is not the same as the late, lamented, and legendary Jotz Refillable Notebook, it has many of the same features that endeared the Refillable to its die-hard fans — extra-thick poly covers, bungee closure, and of course those color-coded finger rings.

Last time I talked with Ultimate Office about the availability of new Refillables, they had given up all hope that their supplier would be able to overcome its manufacturing problems, and were referring people to Levenger’s Circa products. As undeniably great as Circa is, and as grateful as I am that Rollabind is finally bringing a slew of new business products to market, the Jotz Refillable was, IMNSHO, the quintessentially perfect disc notebook.

Which is not to say you shouldn’t grab some Spirals while they last. Thanks for the heads-up, Andrea! And feel free to post a review in the Comments section once you’ve put them through their paces.

why i don’t do wordsmithing

Old-time blacksmith at work“. . . and then we’ll give you the draft to wordsmith.”

Has a client ever said that to you? I’ve heard it quite a few times over the years. And while I would never contradict a client for using that term, I prefer not to use “wordsmithing” to descibe what I do.

Actually, it’s more than a preference. I emphatically declare (here on the blog, that is) that I don’t do wordsmithing.

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solecism for january 19

From “Reading has gone to the dogs,” Baltimore Examiner, Weekend Edition, January 19-20, 12 [not available online as of this writing]:

“Since February 2007, Karma Dogs has participated in HEARTS, a reading program in which kids are paired with canines to better increase their vocabulary and reading skills. The dogs appear weekly at a designated Baltimore County library.”