OryCon 39: Timothy Zahn Talks To the Fans

3525.

This is also the sort of reason why OryCon means so much and matters. OryCon has long had a reputation as a 'literary' SF convention which is appropriate; most Portland SF fans try to realize some sort of dream as a writer (I've known few who haven't), and in a city with events like Wordstock and famous for establishments like the Mighty Multnomah County Library and Powell's City Of Books, it just makes sense that people attracted to the craft and activity of writing would make OryCon he sort of place it is.

In this talk, author Timothy Zahn talked about things authory and Star Warsy: it was Zahn who brought us Grand Admiral Thrawn, one of the most enduringly-popular and arguably important characters in the SW Expanded Universe; Zahn is credited by some I've read with setting the table for a great deal of what followed. In his talk, he was a bit more modest about it, leaving the impression of someone who felt he was at the right place at the right time.

But the point I was striving at he just what a nice guy he was; affable, indefatigably friendly, the kind of Author GoH I remember OryCon seems to attract and invite. The kind of author all us aspiring SF writers hope to be.

He's our kinda guy.

[writing] Jim Hardison: 7 Tips On How To Get Serious About Writing Silly Stuff

3357.

Anyone who writes comedy will tell you; at times, you have to be dead serious when creating the funny.

At The Writer's Dig blog, hosted at Writer's Digest, blogger Brian Klems steps aside and lets our own Jim Hardison name seven ways writing comedy is straight work. Don't despair too much: you take your comedy seriously when building your work, it'll crackle for everyone.

Read it at http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/humor-writing-filled-novel.

[writing] Harlan Ellison, Crafting the Short Story, and "Night of Black Glass"

3234.

Finally found a copy of Harlan Ellison's "Stalking the Nightmare, in paperback, for my HE shelf. The high point on this collection is the short, eerie "Night of Black Glass". This is a story which stuck with me, particularly because of Harlan's exploration of survivor's guilt and how he poses it as an existential question with a real cost; also, if anyone (and I know most of you in The Harlan Ellison Facebook Fanclub have) has ever seen the documentary "Dreams With Sharp Teeth", it was apparently written as the product of an exhibition …

The picture is of Harlan sitting down in a bookstore's front window on Fifth Avenue in NYC in front of his trusty Olympia typewriter. He is then delivered an envelope with a single piece of paper, NBC letterhead, which he then opens, reads, and then gets to typing. In a voice-over, the late Jessica Savitch, from a clip from the Today show from March of 1981, states that he was given an opening idea written by Tom Brokaw: "A man walking on a rocky beach in Maine in August, finds a pair of broken sunglasses". Five hours later, "Night of Black Glass" was finished. Not only was it a demonstration of the man's almost-preternatural ability to prolifically create, it showed that creative pursuits, to paraphrase HE, was a job of work, not something dainty and airy, fit only for occupants of ivory towers.

I read it in a magazine then and didn't see it again for many years. Now I have it on my HE shelf to read when I please.

Old novels and short-stories have become like totems of existence to me. Having them on hand physically makes me feel better about being here.

And so it goes.

And here's a link: An archival page, noting the title indicates a school resource for teaching literature, but it contains the entire transcript of Harlan's interview with Jessica Savitch on NBC's Today Show from March 24th, 1981. Very insightful reading at http://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/flatview?cuecard=34831 (if you search the NBCLearn site you only get a 15-second preview of the video, or you have to sign in to see it, and you probably have to be in school or be an educator or pay a fee for it. But at least you can read it.)

[writing] As Far As You Know, I Wrote Earthsea

2946.According to an idiot online expert system, I come off in print like one of my idols:

I write like
Ursula K. Le Guin

I Write Like. Analyze your writing!

I was thinking of putting this in my sidebar but I'm leaning toward not doing this thing. It's an interesting thing, kind of like getting a lottery scratch ticket and finding I won a grand, but it's a distraction, really. The decision is governed by rules of which I'm not aware, which are coded by human developers who layer their own assumptions thereunto. Also it's crufted over by advertising, so the ulterior motive is maybe the profit one and not all that hidden.

It's kind of easy to have an algorithm tell you your writing has Ursula K. LeGuin's voice and figure you've achieved something.

The object of my writing is maybe to be inspired by UKL, but not to be a clone of that.

My diary calls. 

[writing] NaNoWriMo: The Two-Time Winner

2893.It is my pride and joy to say that I've won NaNoWriMo 2012, making me someone who's won every year I've entered.

I first entered in 2011.

So, you see, I sometimes do not have a handle on my own PR. Because if I really wanted to impress you, I'd have left that part out.

Anyway, in case you happen by the blog and don't know the stardard of National Novel Writing Month, which at one time I rather lampooned, it's to either complete a novel of at least 50,000 words, or complete at least 50,000 words of a novel that's going to be longer than that … one way or the other, get 50,000 words down … by November 30th. The contest starts November 1st. That means you have to averages 1,667 words per day, one way or the other.

Having done this, I am entitled to let my lit flag fly, which, this year, looks like this:

Because I did. And I can be truthful about that, because I verified the novel's word count using their handy-dandy interocitor-based word counter, which is about 200 or 300 words ahead of my live in-editor word counter.

As last year, I came with the barest sketch of an idea. It's encouraging, to me, that I can finally have ideas. I'm coming out of a time which was creatively barren to me. It's affected everything I've done artistically, and took my own job search into the grave. I don't know if I can get that resurrected, but if I do, as guys at a certain point in their lives find themselves, it will probably be in some non-standard way. But now I'm losing the thread … the point is, and it took me 2 NaNos to figure, I'm still capable of having ideas.

And that's a great gift.

There's a great and fun culture that's grown among the NaNoWriMo tribe. Some of us call us NaNos, most of us call us WriMos, and if you're lucky enough to have a schedule that allows it, you can go to these adorable meetings. pound out words with a bunch of like-affected people and maybe be a winner that way too.

My schedule precludes a bunch of that, and I lack a laptop. While the schedule has no way of changing any time soon. Am considering some FreeGeekery for that laptop, though. Just something modest running Linux and OpenOffice is all we need here.

Here, then is my trajectory during the event:

 

… and this impressed a few. That slanting gray line there is the relentless pursuit of the goal; 50,000 words spread out over 30 days. 1,667 words/day, as I said. Now, the first day, I figured I'd break it open and get some words on the ground, and got it just above the daily averages but then left off on it for two large distractions, one being OryCon 34 and the other being the Presidential elections (something I've been addicted to, the spectacle thereof, near enough my entire life).

While I continued to produce, I did so at a rate that seemed to suggest I had no prospect of completing before November 30th. But I plugged, aided and abetted by a The Wife™ who, I'm sure, put off things we should have done so that I could write.

Coming into the home stretch, I was still below 30K, then did that 'reaching deep down inside' thing that you sometimes have to do, and closed the over 10,000-word gap in a mere 3 days.

And the ms itself? It's pretty lame, actually. Since I come up to NaNo with nothing but an idea to start off with, it happens in a haphazard way. A nemesis for my main character didn't happen as I'd thought … he proved a spur but not a huge villain, but the arc of the story followed more or less the trajectory I'd figured for it. There was a twist, a surprise at the end that made everything as it looked but not as it seemed at first … I did take some care to make it credible at least to myself.

What I have here, as I had with last year's, is a plowing of the ground, a placing of markers and laying out of rows to grow better things out of. For me, NaNoWriMo is an endurance test, a working of the soil so I can come up with better things later, should I choose to chase this crazy thing. I think what I have are two good ideas for larger stories, or broken down could (and probably ought to) become even better shorts (Raymond Carver and Chekhov and Harlan Ellison taught me something about taking short incidents and making them into stories).

I, in short, love NaNoWriMo. I was supposed to be some sort of artist, either with words or images, and my incessant diarizing certainly keeps the literature flowing from some sort of pen. And, if the 'novels' I cranked out so far are crap, I am reminded that manure makes the best fertilizer, and I have taken all that time to plow up the ground there.

See you in 2013, NaNo.

[writing] The Associated Press: Sick (sic) transit gloria

2865.
Lately the death of capable writing in this society of ours has been revealing some odd symptoms, to be sure, and I can't call this the 'death of print' since it's online and digital, but I'm betting it is related.

The AP Stylebook must have lately been condensed down to pamphlet size, much in the way the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak Dictionary was being created. It's an awkward witticism explanation, but the best I can come up with for this stuff …

KGW is my news-online source of choice, mostly because I'm extremely impressed with the throroughgoing and professional mein they got there. As do most news sites, they populate the feed with AP stories. But I'm starting to wonder how much proofreading goes on over there.

Since I found this hilarious error, the story has been corrected; it's this one, which reports a wonderful, wonderful, thing; both UO and OSU unbeaten and in the top 10 nationally, which apparently, OSU CAN HAZ:

OSU UNBEATED, CAN HAZ BOWL GAYM NAOW? KTHNXBAI.

But the real boggler for me is this one, about that nut, Felix Baumgartner:

 

 It's still there at the time of this writing. And it does appear to say that Baumgartner is going to descend to 22 miles to make his legendary jump. Which would be somewhere in the upper reaches of Earth's mantle.

He claims that this will be his last jump. I can see why. After this, his true identity will be revealed.

Satan. I mean, 22 miles down? Who else?

And, so … in a post-copy-editor, post-spellchecker world … it goes.

Updated, 0741 10/09/12: The 120,000 foot descent has been re-termed an ascent.

[liff] What I Learned At NaNoWriMo 2011

2720.The culture that's sprung up around NaNoWriMo is your atypical typical Intertube social culture, with history and customs that're all its own.

Herewith a brief list of customs and cute terms I learned whilst submerged in NaNo culture, in no particular order:

• NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month, aber naturlich. Obvious from the brouhaha, but I thought that putting this up first would set the table for what follows.
• NaNo: What WriMos (which see) call it for short.
• WriMo: What members of the NaNo tribe call themselves and each other. I'm a WriMo, you're a WriMo, he's a WriMo, she's a WriMo … wouldn't you like to be a WriMo too?
• NaNoMail: Every social website has their own internal messaging system. Did you think this one would be any different?
• Regions: Activities in NaNo are organized geographically, as are the forums on the site. Portland has one, Salem has one, Vancouver has one.
• Pep Talk: Regional coordinators and national team members send out emails of encouragement to WriMos each week. These are Pep Talks, and any of them can be useful. They're not so long that I'd kill you taking a few minutes to read each one. One of them helped me a ton and generated an interesting sub plot.
• Winning: There's just one condition for 'winning' NaNo: produce a novel, a prose work of 50,000 words or more, by midnight, November 30th. Since you're participating in NaNo to test your mettle or just to have fun, the biggest prize is bragging rights. Other prizes include knowing you can do this thing, increased creativity, a slightly limbered imagination, the desire to go create something else. You get this even if you don't cross the 50K Rubicon, but completing the victory conditions is just … so … satisfying.
• WriteIn: When a group of WriMos get together to work on their novels in a social setting. Since everyone is together for the social, many times, not a lot of actual writing gets done, but a lot of bonding does. In the end, it's all good.
• TGIO: Thank God, It's Over … the sigh of relief when NaNo is finally over, whether or not you get that novel done. TGIO parties ensue.
• OLL: The Office of Letters and Light, the group of crazies who push this stuff, year-after-year. Big on teachin' y'alls how to create, n'stuff.
• WordWar: When two regions go up against each other in order to produce even moar verbiage. Works great as a group motivator. I don't know how PDX stacked up against others, but the graph I just saw indicates that PDX area WriMos produced, in the aggregate, nearly thirty million words. If I had a nickle for every one of those words I'd have … well, I'd have a whole lot of money!

That's just a smattering of it. I enjoyed the hell out of it. It's my serious intention to try to write a short story now, to see if I can sell it.

Yeah, I loves me some writins.

[liff] A Winning Score In NaNoWriMo 2011

2719.I had always fancied what it would be like to write an actual book.

Now, I have some idea.

Over the past 25 days, I've taken the NaNoWriMo challenge, which is, as you know, to write a novel within 30 days. Novel, as NaNo defines it, is a document of 50,000 words or more. My "novel", The Way Of The Courier, clocked in at 50,712 words. As witness my stats page as of today, this day, like, right now:

The levelling-off means, of course, that I quit expanding at at that point.

As a person who hit the goal, I am entitled to display this badge:

… and ere shall I do so.

NaNoWriMo … it does a body good!

[teh_funnay] And Syntax Will Tumble For Ya, Too

2679.Who knew grammar was so wanton:

Well, actually, based on most of the speaking and writing I've latterly seen, we could be wanton a bit more of it.

And, of course, I absolutely love the type-on-thick-paper look. Makes love to the eyes. So to speak.

(via Google+ User Jhoanna Canlas at this link hyar)

[liff] On Fugues And Interregna In Blog Posting on a Not-Terribly-Popular Blog

2551.

First, almost as a self-abnegating reflex, is a dislclaimer. This is not, though it may appear, one of those self-absorbed "sorry I haven't been posting for a while" posts, because there is nothing so amazingly arrogant - to me - than a post apologizing for not posting to a blog that hardly anybody reads.

If this chronicle has become anything, though, it's kind of become a laboratory for my mind. I try to straight-jacket it into the, as it turns out, very fuzzy rubric of graphic design.

I am still trying to find steady work in graphic design, for what that's worth. Anybody who's been impressed by my verbiage, I do layout, can use Quark XPress and InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, and Dreamweaver; can write, and edit. Just sayin'. If you know any leads, do a brother a favor, thus-and-such, et-cet-er-AH.

The flat of it is, that I enjoy just the act of writing so very much that I really can't stop, and I guess I find this as performance art that I just can't quit doing. So, 20 days ago, more by accident than design, I stopped posting. And I'm looking at myself looking at what I've done, and letting everyone else see too, because, like I said, it's performance art, even for me.

Sometimes, you don't have a lot to say. I think the world would be a better place, or at least a not-so-worse place, if we didn't feel we had to share everything with everyone all the time. So, for a few days, I turned off the flow.

My refuge became my dead-tree diary, and I would read and record my experiences into my environment. It's hard to explain cogently, and sounds kind of corny, but sometimes I've felt, for the past few weeks, that I've taken everything in and projected it out into the world around me, and now I'm reading the echoes - like some sort of intellectual sonar.

I've gotten some interesting ideas out of it … I found some ideas flipped inside-out, and inverted, but not in that melodramatic way you sometimes hear of. There's no eureka! or ZOMG! moments.

So this gets projected into the aether, and I don't know how it will ping on back, but it will.

This was designed to make no sense ... but only after the fact.

Technorati Tags: ZehnKatzen

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[type] The Dying Art Of Handwriting?

2530.

Handwriting makes the news again.

According to the story in The Oregonian (at http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2010/10/most_college_students_print_as.html), fewer and fewer students are writing in cursive or cursive-style handwriting, most preferring to "print", or use a manuscript style. Citing a PSU professor, of a recent assignment which 17 essays were turned in, only two were written cursively.

I'm of a certain mind about why it's important to have some sort of handwriting style, or at least be unafraid to do so. The professor mentioned above, Richard Christen, has an interesting slant (so to speak) on it:

What most concerns Christen, who has studied the history of handwriting, is the loss of the aesthetic qualities of handwriting with its descent into cold print. Cursive writing in its flourishes and graceful strokes expresses an artistic beauty that goes beyond its utility and gives artistic experience to those who use it, he says. Students today "are not doing this kind of craftsmanship activity that they used to do on a daily basis," he says.

This is something that puts into words whatever I feel when I do do handwriting, which is something I attempt to do at least once a day in my diaries. I only partly do it to capture my days - I also do it because in these days when drawing inspiration is hard to come by, there's something ineffable about putting pen to paper and drawing letters - writing - that I just crave. It feels good. It's productive creation.

The next graf, if the previous graf did nothing to convince why handwriting is a good thing to do, should break through on practical considerations:

They also may be losing an edge in their learning. Researchers using magnetic resonance imaging to study brain activity say handwriting, whether print or cursive, engages more of the brain in learning and forming ideas.

So if you like having brain, if for no other reason, a good artistic handwriting style will commend itself to you.

All the rest is just aesthetic preference. I adore italic, such as the type promoted by the highly-underappreciated Fred Eager and the similar-but-subtly-different style promoted by Dubay and Getty. I don't much care for the cursive styles such as D'Nealian and Zaner-Bloser (these look very much like the schoolroom-cursive your teacher probably gave up on teaching you by about seventh-grade) but that doesn't mean they can't be made beautifully (and, as I said, it's strictly an aesthetic consideration after a certain point anyway).

But I would advocate that, whoever you are, it's never too late - or unnecessary - to learn cursive writing. It's a kind of art that is open to all, and all you have to do is get out a piece of paper and try it.

And if you do it well enough - trust me on this - people will admire you and compliment you. And when's the last time you got a compliment these days? Especially on art you've produced, hmmm? And you don't have to learn how to even draw stick figures for this, and who knows? Maybe you'll be the next Samuel Pepys.

Although the way they're talking about handwriting "going extinct" makes me feel like I'm one of those aboriginal tribes who have a dying language that only two or three elders speak.

So get out a piece of paper, find a handwriting style you can enjoy (there are many graphics on the intarweb that you can download and print) and just try something! It's good for you.

Though if you get Fred Eager's book, you'll get example and exercise sheets to copy. And that's invaluable.

Technorati Tags: writing, handwriting, d'nealian, zaner-bloser, Fred Eager, Dubay-Getty

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[font_design] Made In Oregon Font: Sketchbook Scratchings

2505.

For those who detected a bit of opinionation in the last missive there, allow me to demonstrate the depth of my conviction. On the way to that drawing there, was, in part, these explorations on the pages of my sketchbook:

There is a kinesthesic part of designing that is absolutely essential. The biggest benefit of a sketchbook is a sandbox in which to play. The making of marks not only is a physical and kinetic way to learn how to feel the marks you're making, you're teaching your hand how to make the marks you need to make on a consistent basis. Your body remembers these things. Eventually, knowing how to curve a line is as much a thing of visual perception as it is motor memory - and when you're trying to create a font, which has to be consistent within itself, you have to acquire some consistency of style amongst the glyphs.

As can be seen, the rough ink scratchings up top have acquired some small bit of polish by the time you get to the bottom. Also, I'm working out the x-height and whas sort of slant works best. This information was fed back into the system by the kinetic sense as well as the visual sense and fed into the more finished drawing in the last chapter.

All that said, I'm still not too sure on that miniscule "f", there. But these things get worked out like you wouldn't believe.

Art is as much physical as it is mental. Maybe, in its way, even more.

Technorati Tags: typography, type design, Maed in Oregon font, ZehnKatzen, Samuel John Klein

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[liff] Walter Mosley's "This Year You Write Your Novel"

2492.

This brilliant little book is what I'm cruising through right now.

I have long fancied myself a writer of some sort. So far, it's just a diary, but I've thought I could write science fiction.

I'm not ashamed of being a genre reader. I read what pleases me.

I don't know if I have a novel in me, but if I do, this just might coax it out of me. Less than 25,000 words, conversationally-written (but not too familiar), frank without being blunt, no nonsense. And it suggests just what the title says; a program through which you can produce a solid, durable if not spectacular (and no guarantees that it'll sell - it's how to write your novel, not how to sell it) mid-size novel.

I highly recommend it. If it don't get the novel out of you, it'll make you a better reader, anyway.

Technorati Tags: writing, writing manuals, Walter Mosley

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[sf] Help Jeanne Robinson Fight Cancer - Win Dinner With Harlan and Susan Ellison!

2208.SF Fans, time to help: Most of you have heard of Spider Robinson, the creator (amongst other nifty things) Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. He's a legendary writer. His wife and co-conspirator, Jeanne, is a magnificent artist and sage in her own right, a dancer, and a writer.

Jeanne is afflicted with a rare and aggressive form of bile duct cancer, and, as such illnesses are wont to do, the Robinson family's finances are very nearly depleted. If Spider's fiction has delighted you or if anything Jeanne has done, then you can help out. There are several links that can connect you, full of information about what they're going through and how you can do a little something:

• http://www.spiderrobinson.com/index2.html
• http://stardancemovie.blogspot.com/
• http://wedreamforjeanne.blogspot.com/

But here's the big bit of news: Harlan Ellison has offered a most amazing thing: Dinner, at Ellison Wonderland, otherwise known as The Lost Incan Temple of Mars, in beautiful LA, with both Susan and Harlan Ellison. This will be auctioned off starting this Sunday, at the Ebay site for Jeanne's auctions.

The bidding will start at $1000 and the winner will be responsible for providing their own transportation to LA, but you know what? If I could afford that sort of money, you bet your sweet ass I would! Just to see the inside of that amazing house once in my life and shake Harlan and Susan's hands would be a hell of a hoot!

Imagine what you could do … maybe you could finally get the address of that idea Service in Schenectady that Harlan uses (well, I mean, you might … ). But if Spider and Jeanne's works have made you happy, here's a way you can give back.

If you can, you ought to.

More detail can be had at this BoingBoing article here.

Technorati Tags: Jeanne Robinson, Spider Robinson, Harlan Ellison, Cancer

[art] "Where I Write": Kyle Cassidy Shows You Where Writers Create Worlds

2184.Anyone who creates has their happy space. I call mine my studio, even though it's more of an office, because not only do I write there I sometimes draw and sometimes paint.

Kyle Cassidy shows you, through photos, where some of the most well-known authors create what they do. As someone who has a happy place, they all feel right and proper and good and the photos feel comfortable. He's creating a series called Where I Write, and if you just wonder what some authors look like, it's something to see.

Joe Haldeman, writing in the early morning by candle-and-lamplight,
by Kyle Cassidy. Used with Permission.

What will you see? Ben Bova, happy in an ordered space with just enough clutter and model planes. Michael Swanwick, looking as though he were frozen in enthusiastic dance. Samuel R. Delaney, in fish-eye view, looking like he's at the center of a claustrophobic space about to explode (I felt rather the same way after I finally worked my way through Dhalgren). Joe Haldeman (pictured), writing by candle- and lantern-light in the early hou of the day in longhand in sketchbooks. Some writers use computers, some don't. But everything about them suggests that these are their happy places, the sort of place which is so personalized (and so lined with books/tapes/CDs/personal trinkets) that to enter such a place probably gets the juices flowing.

Kyle has lined up twenty authors so far, and is on the hunt for more. He'll be at WorldCon looking up some more (I'm, of course, hoping he gets Harlan Ellison). Word is that there is eventually a book to be out of this, and I'm looking forward to that.

The address to explore is http://whereiwrite.org. Kyle's site is http://kylecassidy.com.

Technorati Tags: art, wriring, authors, Kyle Cassidy, Where I Write

[writing] Ten Things You Can Do If You Love A Writer

2171.I'm a fan of the graphic arts, but I love type which means I love books.

Is a friend or loved one a writer? Here, via twitter and Eileen Flanagan are ten things you can do to support them. They're all realistic, thoughful, and deeply affectionate.

http://www.eileenflanagan.com/blog/2009/7/24/if-you-love-a-writer.html

Technorati Tags: writing, writers

Troy Worman Has Changed It Up Again

1986.It was Orbitnow! then it was uncategorized and now it's back to being Orbitnow! again.

I don't know why.

I do think that it's nifty that he links to me. Just wanted to say that where it counts.

PS: don't wait for permission to succeed.

Technorati Tags: Troy Worman, orbitnow!, linkage, bloggage, ZehnKatzen, easily distracted

J. Alfred Proofreader: More Anal About Copy Than Even Us

1982.I don't go on about it much, but I'm quite the snot about copywriting. I just do it for free: on my blog, in my diary, and other appropriate places.

I try to write like I talk. I also try to talk like I write.

Well, if there's anyone in America who's more anal than an inveterate diarist who's married to one of the original grammar and spelling Nazis, it's J. Alfred Proofreader who, with respect to this banner ad:

Wrote the following scathing review:

As you can see in the screen shot highlighted above, the word guarantee was butchered by ad copy writers and editors. They misspelled it "guarentee." If they were trying to be intellectual and distinguished, they could have gone with guaranty, a variable and accepted form of the word.

Also, a hyphen should be separating the words "money" and "back" rather than a space. Interestingly, the people behind this ad copy managed to correctly spell Rachael Ray's name, which, evidently, is no easy task. According to Yahoo.com, in 2007, Rachael Ray's name was the second-most misspelled word typed into Yahoo Web searches. Yet, the correct spelling of guarantee still eludes these advertisers.

Wow ... Rachael Ray's name was the second most misspelled word?

How many of those were looking for them FHM photos she did (rrrowr!!!111!!!)

Have some laffs at some inattentive copywriters' expense: read The Copy Edits Of J. Alfred Proofreader and be thankful you aren't one of the targets of his yellow highlighter.

(content lifted from J. Alfred because it was too good not to share, with apologies)

Technorati Tags: Writing, Copywriting, Bad Copywriting, J. Alfred Proofreader