WriterElf.com, a new web-based business, has recently arrived on the cyber-scene. WriterElf offers standard copywriting and concepting services. What’s different here is that the writer states, unequivocally, that she will be learning as she goes. Kristi Mitchell calls herself an ‘instinctive’ writer and goes on to explain that much of the written material seen these days is ‘cookie-cutter-ish’ in nature, because so many in the writing business have been trained in the same way.
One of the ways that we have been trained is to look in the dictionary to see if a word exists. Like concepting, for example. Or maybe WriterElf is also offering herself as a surrogate mother.
June 14, 2006 at 8:16 pm
But isn’t it a good word? Shakespeare loved to make up words, too. In this way, he was able to create a reality where none existed before. Words are important, but their meaning has far more relevance than their birth place. Oh, look at that! I guess Iam a surrogate mother. Smile Language is a living, breathing thing. If it stops growing, it has to die. So, really, I’m just doin’ my part, man. Just keepin’ the language alive.
June 14, 2006 at 8:48 pm
Now there’s a convenient excuse — when all else fails just make up a word. I believe Lewis Carrol wrote something about that.
Language is indeed a living thing and writers are best served by listening to how society is using the language rather than trying to insert their own words. “Concepting” is not a good word for the simple reason that someone who reads it will have no idea of what it means. This is probably where I run into that straight jacket of being an experienced writer because I think words must be understandable to both parties in the transaction.
And am I reading this correctly that you are comparing yourself to Shakespeare? (I ask because perhaps “too” means something different to you than it does to me.) If you are not going to study the craft you hope people will pay you for perhaps you could at least study history. Shakespeare was writing at a far, far different moment in the English language’s development. He made up words because the words did not exist. You make them up because you can’t figure out how to explain yourself in a way that can be understood by others.
June 14, 2006 at 8:53 pm
Amateurs Unite!
A quote from http://www.areporter.com Work Currently On-Line
“Collateral Damage — My blog
This is my sarcastic/funny daily (mostly) blog about developments in business, marketing and life its ownself. ”
You have an amusing little website yourself. “Ownself”, now theres a term you don’t see every day. I like it!
June 15, 2006 at 1:07 pm
Wasn’t it Shakespeare who wrote: “To thine own self be true”?
June 15, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Actually, I didn’t coin the word ownself nor is that a typo. (Again, never hurts to do your research on this stuff. It’s a reference to Dan Jenkin’s book Life Its Ownself: The Semi-Tougher Adventures of Billy Clyde Puckett and Them, which is the not-as-good sequel to the incredibly funny Semi-Tough (which was made into a truly bad movie). I have also encountered its use among Texans.
June 15, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Not sure I like the direction this thread is heading in. Coining words is perfectly valid, especially in business, where using words with multiple meanings that noone quite understands makes you look intellgent.
Now what really bugs me is punctuation, and WriterElf.com has a big ol’ no no on the main page. . . one doesn’t introduce a list with a semi-colon. Idiot!
June 15, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Don’t like it?
Are you breaking up a girl fight, man? When did you get so old?!
June 15, 2006 at 9:21 pm
Jebediah: [on film] A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
Edna: Embiggens? I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield
Ms.Hoover: I don’t know why. It’s a perfectly cromulent word.
June 16, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Semi-colon? Yikes! Well spotted, Napolean.
Hasn’t anyone found the spelling error in the press release yet?
Please tell me the title of the film you quote. Sounds like a hoot.
June 18, 2006 at 3:53 am
This is too good to pass up:
“My writing skills are a gift from God. I can’t site any other reason for my abilities beyond that.”
After reading the above quote, I humbly suggest that divine intervention is only one possible “reason” for her abilities. Another might be self delusion. After all, the Omnipotent One likely knows the difference between “site” and “cite”…
At least that’s what my brain is concepting.
June 19, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Well done! A very kind woman pointed that out to me and I am indebted to her. Good eyes TC. Smile