Comments on: The demand for the badly written word

By: Genie

Genie — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:05:52 +0000

Very well put. I enjoyed reading your comment about ‘a sad demise’. I hope good writing will always be available, but like honor and integrity, when people stop valuing it, it tends to withdraw, discouraged.

By: pam

pam — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:35:27 +0000

I’d say writing is no different than any other art. Truly original, creative work costs money, but you can buy posters to hang over your couch at Ikea. Framed, even.

I’m an optimist, I think the people want beautiful things, but economics get in the way. Making art is the domain of the wealthy or the crazy, those who can afford to be artists or can’t help themselves. As a product, we want the stuff by those that can’t help themselves, but we’re just not willing to pick up the tab for that.

On the cynical side, we may have undereducated ourselves to the point where we can’t tell cheap knock off from the genuine article, so hey, Ikea art is really just fine.

There might be more of the cheap stuff because it’s a commodity, but the good stuff, I think there’s as much of it, it’s just harder to find in the noise.

Travel IS tricky, though, because when the provider is paying the bill, they try to call the shots and it takes a lot of nerve to bite the hand that’s feeding you. This DOES beg the question of why you’re writing travel. If you’re writing travel to get to travel, well, you’re on shaky ground. If you’re writing travel because you can’t help it (see above), you’ll probably write the truth, PR be damned, and travel anyway.

I can’t remember who said this but it was a fine quote about the problem with travel writing — Spud Hilton maybe? Something like, “Less writing by travelers and more traveling by writers, please.” Indeed.

By: ruth kozak

ruth kozak — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:46:49 +0000

To my dismay, after over 25 years of successful travel writing, I now find that I am expected to change my style and write a blog type story. I’ve noticed a lot of these stories published around the web and although some of them are well written, a lot are sloppy writing and not well crafted or thought out stories. I guess when I teach my new classes in travel writing next year I will make more emphasis on blog writing. But I think this writing still needs to be crafted properly. (Too many “I’s” in a story is often the case, I’ve noted). Recently I was in a workshop with a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist speaking about using narrative in non-fiction stories (which I try to do), but I have been informed using narrative in an on-line blog-type story isn’t okay. Who’s right about this? The other thing is, getting paid $5- $15 for a story a writer used to get a minimum of $100 for has definitely cut the quality of writing. A sign of the times I guess. People are too fixated on their iphones and reading stuff off the computer. A sad demise for print publications and good writing.

By: Genie

Genie — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:07:02 +0000

Looked up Richard’s blog post. It was rather hard to find, so I don’t see that he was the no. 1 writer at that site. And it was pretty bland, but readable. Obviously he’s a celeb, not a writer, but if you take that into account, a lot of slack can be given. Forgive me — my rants are about the ones who fancy themselves on a par with, say, Augusten Burroughs or Peter Mathiesson, because they can hand you their ‘published’ work. They can’t spell or construct a readable sentence, but the worst is, they don’t think that it matters. Heaven knows, and I know, that the history of grammar and spelling is one of constant flux (especially in English and hurrah for growth and flexibility). It’s the indifference to quality that makes me fear for the future.

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 08:05:10 +0000

Genie, you’re opening a whole new topic here. The lack of interest in grammar in written (even edited) work is sad to see. A trend that will continue though, so we’d better get used to it.
Meanwhile, I’ll have to look up Cliff Richard’s masterpiece on Simon Seeks!

By: Genie

Genie — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:59:17 +0000

Yes, there has always been bad travel writing, bad writing of all kinds, but even if it got past professional editors, the public had to put out money to read it, so the bad tended to sink to the bottom rather quickly. It’s become too easy for people to grab onto the bad for little or nothing and ride it for a quick feeling of being pals with whatever celeb, and never mind what the piece says or how badly it’s said. To me, good writing is a courtesy, and bad writing says “I think you’re too stupid to know the difference.” Am I the only one who resents this? I don’t believe people have to be taught what’s good, but they do need to be taught that, yes, the difference is important. Now I’m blithely told that spelling and grammar no longer matter, unless the spell-check happens to catch it. (I can’t remember the last time I bought a book by a big-time author that didn’t have a misspelled word.) My friends sneer at me for keeping a dictionary next to my laptop. Yes, there have always been people who preferred to feel every experience (in every media) without having to think about it, but until now they didn’t have control of the industry. I grew up believing that being an ‘author’ was a wonderful height to attain, truly a dream to wish for, and that to earn such a height was something to be proud of throughout your life. The first time I entered “writer” on my passport application under ‘occupation’, I cried. What does it mean now? A large Twitter number? A busy blog-site? Now any self-appointed ‘writer’ can be ‘published’, and we are told that without a ‘presence’ online you cannot possibly have what it takes. Publishers and websites are forcing us to spend time sloughing through an appalling pile of crap to find the diamonds. Small wonder most people don’t think it’s important enough to bother. By the way, Andy, I’m so happy to have found your diamonds!

By: Nancie

Nancie — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 01:14:16 +0000

Even before the surge of travel information on line there was bad travel writing. Blaming this phenomenon on the Wiki is a little short sighted. I’d say it has more to do with low budgets or even no budgets to pay travel writers. There is some truth in the saying “you get what you pay for”.

By: Jools Stone

Jools Stone — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:28:50 +0000

The last time I checked, the no.1 writer on revenue sharing travel site Simonseeks was Cliff Richard. I think that says it all. At the same time, we are constantly being told that we need to embrace video blogging to be taken seriously, as if the omnipresence of moving images in our culture somehow negates the written word. This mens that people who are confident expressing themselves with text have to adapt become ‘engaging personalities.’ Those who embrace that (or can do it naturally) are probably the ones with the best chance of competing with ghostwritten sleb writers/presenters.

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:51:41 +0000

Mark, a well crafted final line if ever I’ve seen one. You make a good point about the opposing forces of needing to upskill oneself to stay in touch with our peers on the one hand and the need for editors to control (slash) costs for getting their content. Let’s see how the future pans out – something will need to change.
Michael, agree with you about eyeballs being the metric that so many now chase. Get the followers, get the ‘likes’ and you’re a success – even if you’ve achieved that through spamming methods rather than quality content.
Thanks guys for the great contributions.

By: John Bardos - JetSetCitizen

John Bardos - JetSetCitizen — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:47:46 +0000

I think the real problem is that people don’t know what is good or bad. They have to be told. A celebrity traveler makes readers think it is good. Television laugh tracks cue people when to laugh because they wouldn’t know otherwise.

There was a famous story of a world class violinist (Joshua Bell) who played in a subway station in Washington D.C. He had a $3.5 million dollar violin and kept a security guard in hiding nearby to protect the instrument. In the political capital of the U.S. with all the power brokers and cultural elite, only a handful of people stopped to pay attention to the amazing talent. Most didn’t even acknowledge him. He played for 43 minutes and only managed to busk $32.

Without the context of a theater and traditional show people didn’t know it was good. I think the opposite is also true. If you dress up mediocre talent enough and make it look professional than normal people will think it is great. That is the problem with travel writing, television and all popular culture. Put a $100 price tag on a $20 bottle of wine and people will be revelling in its amazing characteristics.