Published at February 21, 2006
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Thankfully, my time spent working in corporate offices has been very brief. But I’d barely finished my first donut when I realized I was in another world, filled with it’s own warped language, customs and demands (pizza day! Crazy Shirt Fridays! 24 hour inventory shifts!!)
These bizarre tribal customs are the basis for the latest VidLit for the new book The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit.
While mocking office culture isn’t new, it’s always been a sport close to my heart. The Dictionary of Corporate BS looks like it’ll be a hit with those trapped under the glare of fluorescents everywhere (where it’ll be passed around like a secret manifesto inspiring the workers to shake free from their yokes and take back power and – yeah, whatever.)
And to comply with my manditory “mention Max Barry in every post” rule, check out what Max has to say about how the the US is working to make mocking corporations illegal. If you want to see office culture satire at its best, then read the first chapters of Max’s trio of corp-scathing books: Syrup, Jennifer Government, and Company.
Now, get back to work!
And don’t forget, this Friday is no pants day at OD Synergenic Enterprises (ie my place.)
tagged: [books] [corporations] [vidlits]
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Published at February 17, 2006
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For freelancers like me weekends don’t exist. It’s Friday and we’re all meant to be getting excited about getting two days off to do whatever we please (which inevitably means cleaning the house/apartment/shed/car/cat/dog/gun/whatever.)
For the last four years or so, I’ve been fulltime freelancing and rarely can I take a weekend off. Not that I’m complaining – when you make your own work, you can never complain about being busy. I’d like to take weekends off, but writing books, articles and comics isn’t like building shelves – you can’t just plug in your power tools and get to work. Sometimes there’s no juice for the tools to work. Somedays you just can’t get anything accomplished – that internal editor rules over you and you stare at a blank page/screen all day. As Monday slips into Friday, you’re suddenly faced with a weekend where everyone else has plans, is going places and your stuck inside working.
That’s what I’m facing this weekend, but I don’t mind. I’ll be revisiting two of my favourite characters: Oxford and Pearl – a ‘you-solve-it’ detective duo for the younger set. It’s for a story that will appear in the summer issue of ChickaDEE magazine, for kids age 5 to 8. Oxford and Pearl appeared in the Jan/Feb 05 issue of ChickaDEE, and I’m excited to see what trouble they can get into this time around.
I may be working this Saturday and Sunday, but at least I’ll be with old friends and that’s always a good way to spend a weekend.
tagged: [writing] [freelancing] [weekends]
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Published at February 15, 2006
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The other day I posted about US stamps with kids lit characters on them. Today at we make money not art I found the really cool moving stamp you see on the right. And yesterday I bought some stamps. What the heck is going on?!
They’re made by the Dutch design company Solar and have no other purpose (that I can see) other than being totally technocoolawesome. The site doesn’t explain how they work or how the heck the can sell them for only 0,39 euro, which I assume is the price of a regular stamp, but I don’t really care – I just want to see one on a letter in my mailbox soon. Only then will I believe that these suckers are real.
tagged: [stamps] [moving] [gracefully]
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Published at February 14, 2006
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[thanks again to meish.org]
tagged: [mel] [rokx0rz] [hard]
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Published at February 10, 2006
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Although it was announced a month ago, I’m just hearing about the US Postal service’s plan to put some of our favourite kids lit characters on stamps. This is a great idea that is sure to be a favourite with card-sending grandparents and stamp-collecting kids alike.
As a former 10 year old stamp collector, I can appreciate how cool it would be to see Curious George or that wild thing from “Where the Wild Things Are” on my mail. It’s also a great way to boost awareness about children’s books and literacy in general.
Maybe it’s something Canada Post should think about.
tagged: [writing] [stamps] [literacy]
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Published at February 9, 2006
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Get ready to hear more about Australian author Max Barry. In the past I’ve blogged about Max’s Tales from the Cubicle and his take on author royalties, but with the release of his latest book, Company, you’re going to hear a lot more about Max.
He’s just wrapped up a North American tour and his book is being hailed by the New York Times and doing very well on Amazon (the fifth best-selling novel at the time of this post.)
Despite being one of the sharpest writers skewering the bloated world of marketing hype and corporate mafiadom, Max is also a writer who gives back to his fans and aspiring writers. He’s built a great comunity on his site and has some great tips for emerging writers on there as well.
Another reason I like Max is because he subscribes to the “All First Drafts are Sh*t” rule. As a veteran of many first drafts, I’ve learned this little writing law the hard way. Max goes into greater detail in his essay on first drafts and editing over at Chuck Palahnuik’s slightly scary site.
Whether you love or hate your first draft of any story, there is no denying that it can always be edited and always made better. Some writers hate this and some writers love it. I’m on the fence. But Max, well Max loves editing. I would even say that maybe he loves it too much, but then he is the one with two movie deals and a new novel that’s being compared to Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. I’ll take his word for it.
Here’s what Max has to say on editing:
Maybe the idea of writing 90,000 words that bear some kind of relation to one another is daunting enough for you right now, and if so you don’t want to read any further. It’s best not to know what awaits. Better to think that once your word count (checked every ten minutes, and God damn it rises slowly some days) is high enough, it’s all over. You’ve written a novel! Yep, if that’s you, you definitely don’t want to hear this.
But if you’ve finished a first draft and have the niggling feeling that it could be better-that it should be better-then pull up a chair. I’m your man.
Read the rest of the great piece at: chuckpalahniuk.net
tagged: [writing] [editing] [love_it_or_die]
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Published at February 6, 2006
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I don’t know about other writers, but I do not have a shortage of ideas for books and stories. I’m hit with ideas all the time and mostly I’m smart enough to write them down in my journal. Some ideas are complete stinkers, but others have potential and this is definitely a bonus when you pay the rent through your ideas.
But keeping track and actually developing the ideas beyond notebook scribbles is the test of a good idea. And that’s my test over the next few days.
In addition to being swamped with regular writing work (2 mysteries, 1 feature article, 1 graphic novel script and a short story all due by the end of the month – seriously) , I have a big “ideas” meeting later this week.
For the meeting, I promised to bring a list of the ideas I’d like to pitch in 2006. Right now many of the ideas are no more than a bullet list on the back of a grocery receipt, but that has to change. So, I’m challenging myself to pick at least one idea a day and flesh it out to a one-page proposal. I’ve got one idea finished and I think I’ve got the energy to do another idea. It could be the excitement of getting organized or possibly the afternoon coffee kicking in. Better get back at it while the buzz lasts.
tagged: [writing] [practices] [ideas]
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