Daily affirmations of a word mercenary
Word Mercenary Category
On my tax forms every year, I carefully enter “WRITER” as my occupation. Is it a sham? Do I actually write anything other than self-indulgent online musings? You be the judge. This is where I post links and thoughts on my writings that have been published elsewhere.
Hard at work
Originally uploaded by .Ariel.
This weekend I got sent to Portland on assignment. My task? To try a specialty cocktail at a place called Mint.
I brought Cienna along, and she decided to write something for The Stranger about the restaurant, so we tag-teamed the owner/mixologist Lucy Brennan with questions.
It was one of those charmed trips where where there just happened to be a street fair when we arrived, where the hotel had our dogs’ names on a welcome board when walked in the door. Where the public transit took us exactly where we wanted to go in no time flat. Where, once we got to Mint, it felt like I’d stepped into the Portland set of the L Word — where every single server was a hot woman with a great smile, where the drinks were all magical and earth-shatteringly good, and where the food just kept coming.
- 11 Comments
- Tags: freelancing, portland, writing
My article about touring the Lush factory in Vancouver — oh and here are photos.
Wordly Mentors
20
Apr
2007
In: Word Mercenary
A few years ago I realized that there was something missing from my life … mentors. Specifically, I needed writerly mentors. Somehow, through that kind of chance that’s never really random, over the last few years I’ve found not one, not two, not three, but FOUR amazing writerly types to turn to when I have angstful creative questions. These people have held my hands through chapter angst, inspired me with their skills, and made me feel like I wasn’t nearly as stupid as I really am. And so, I salute them!
Michelle Goodman
Author of the Anti-9-to-5 Guide, Michelle and I have commiserated non-stop for the last year, ever since she found me online and realized that we were writing similar books on a similar schedule for the same publisher. That’s where the similarities end, however: Michelle’s spent ten years as a freelance journalist, and has a wealth of impressive clips under her belt that back-up her amazing investigative chops. I’m just a blogger, by comparison.
Ellen Forney
Author/artist of I Love Led Zepplin and several other books, two-time Eisner Award nominee, she knows how to promote herself and her projects in ways that put me and my amateur whoring to shame. She’s collaborated with some amazing folks (Sherman Alexie, Dan Savage, etc.) and even does wedding invites — so she gets the whole demented wedding industry thing.
Heather Corinna
Author of S.E.X.: Spelling Out All You Need to Know About Your Sexuality and longtime feminist activist, sex educator, and writer extraordinaire, Heather most definitely does NOT getting the whole wedding thing … but despite her loathing of Offbeat Bride’s topic, she contributed a key anecdote and has supported me through many whines and grumblings.
Patrick Enright
Patrick knows my writing pretty much better than anyone, and that includes my editor, my agent, my boss, and my dad. Patrick was first forced (ie paid) to deal with my words when we worked together at movies.com (he was the copy chief). But then he came back for unpaid punishment when he gave my book a supposedly-copy editing pass that ended up being the most thorough scouring the book ever received. If you look in the back of Offbeat Bride, it credits Patrick for talking me down off Mt. Freakout. Many, many times.
So to these four (and anyone else who’s listened to me yammer, whine, freak out, gnash my teeth, pull out my hair etc etc), thank you from the bottom of my verbavoric heart.
Neologism assistance
29
Dec
2006
In: Word Mercenary
I need a word to describe someone who you haven’t met, but with whom you share many experiences and mutual friends … so many that you might as well have met, and when you DO finally meet you’re like “Oh, I basically already know you, yay!”
My “how-to make a hoop” article in ReadyMade (i26)
21
Nov
2006
In: Word Mercenary
My "how-to make a hoop" article in ReadyMade (i26), originally uploaded by .Ariel.
Many thanks due to Jason Strauss for his hoop-making bible. I leaned on his expertise heavily when I wrote this article.Ripples of bitterness
5
Nov
2006
In: Word Mercenary
The responses to the blog post that somehow became a front-page story on Alternet just keep piling up! First there were the commenters on Alternet, then there were a half-dozen writers who took their thoughts to their own blogs, now there are the comments threads on those sites. The most angry criticism seems to fall into themes, which (for your convenience and entertainment) I’ve outlined with examples for you below.
Hi, I didn’t like it:
Hated the article. Wanted to put my fist through the computer screen.
The article stinks of elitism and unexamined prejudice.
The article is a piece of navel-fluff gazing.
… stinks of juvenile, navel-gazing, approval-seeking narcissism.
You call yourself a feminist?
Articles like this claiming to represent the “progressive” voices, including feminists, are a joke. There’s nothing new, interesting or insightful about them. They rely on false stereotypes, and avoid discussing real issues. By publishing junk like this, alternative news sources such as alternet are missing the whole point of being “alternative.”
Stallings has fallen into the trap that has ensnared so many femininity-loving self-avowed feminists before her: she cannot tell the difference between what is true and what she wishes were true.
I don’t think she’s a “traitor” to feminism, but I do think she’s something of a traitor to herself.
This is the kind of miserable crap that comes out of feminism that really gives me a bad attitude towards it that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Women’s rights? Awesome. Social equality, fanfriggintastic. Is it antifeminist to diet? Stupidest shit I’ve ever heard in my life, short of Bush winning any election, ever.
Let’s get personal:
With this essay, Ms. Stallings prove herself to be a tool of The Man.
Congratulations, Ariel, for daring to follow such all-too-obvious common sense. Seriously, isn’t it high time you not follow such mindless groupthink and had a mind of your own??
The author is likely a Trust Fund Baby who was able to snag a syndicated media gig after a decorative internship at an “alternative” media organization. No doubt she will have a lucrative career at Conde Nast at some point in her future, where she will pen earnest and uplifting puff pieces examining her gut-wrenching decision to get a tummy tuck after the birth of her genetically engineered surrogate-bred twins. By subtly attacking imaginary feminists who might discourage her “life affirming” decisions to be a post-partum Hoochie Mama, she will earn herself a coveted spot on the “liberal media” pundit circuit. No doubt,her “refreshing post-feminist” views on everything from Botox to Burqas will garner her numerous media awards.
Conspiracy theories:
I wouldn’t be surprized if this article was really sponsored by WW, it reads like a commercial.
Personally, I didn’t think much of her article. They way she rambled on about Weight Watchers, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was being paid for it.
That is a wonderful advert for Weight Watchers and a nice jab at feminism which evidently means “stuffing myself” and “giving up control”. What a total crock.
I think the whole article is made up.
As much as I’m all for bucking up and taking it, I can’t help but chew over a few lessons from this experience:
1. Ask up front if web publications have syndication deals with other sites.
Not that I wouldn’t have let Sirens run the piece if I’d known about their syndication arrangement with Alternet, but at least I wouldn’t have been totally blindsided to wake up one morning and find dozens of people talking about how much they hated me for writing something I’d kind of forgotten even existed. Context is everything, and I agree with many critics on one point: this article so did NOT belong on Alternet. I didn’t submit it to them, and I have no idea why they chose to run it on their site. I’m guessing because they wanted to get people riled up. Mission accomplished, I suppose.
2. Watch edits carefully.
The two lines of the article that people are bitching about the most are two of the small tweaks that were made by editors at both Sirens and Alternet. I stand behind the article 100%, but this isn’t the first time that a subhead or an editor-penned closing sentence has gotten me in trouble, and I should probably know better by now. In my efforts not to be a diva, I approve most edits. Maybe I shouldn’t.
3. Accept that maybe I’m more of a provocateur than I know.
I tend to shy away from provocative, contrarian web writing. It feels like too much flame baiting and I’d rather write stuff that inspires people than stuff that gets them angry. But somehow this article (which was written to inspire) ended up making people angry … and that’s sort of fascinating. It got a lot of people talking, and while I might not have liked what they were saying (seriously: trust fund baby? wtf?) there’s no denying that one form of inspiration is inspiring dialog … even if it’s grumpy, critical dialog.
4. Maybe those reservations about writing about weight loss were founded.
I was really hesitant to write the blog post that ultimately turned into this article … and this kind of feedback is exactly why. It seems difficult to have polite web discourse about certain topics … and evidently this is one of them. That doesn’t mean I’ll avoid writing about such things again, but I’ll be better prepared for the potential fall-out.
Now, back to bucking up! Or rather: let’s move on. Who wants to talk about the burgeoning American circus underground?
- 18 Comments
- Tags: feminism, weight loss
Hard at work
Originally uploaded by .Ariel.
This weekend I got sent to Portland on assignment. My task? To try a specialty cocktail at a place called Mint.
I brought Cienna along, and she decided to write something for The Stranger about the restaurant, so we tag-teamed the owner/mixologist Lucy Brennan with questions.
It was one of those charmed trips where where there just happened to be a street fair when we arrived, where the hotel had our dogs’ names on a welcome board when walked in the door. Where the public transit took us exactly where we wanted to go in no time flat. Where, once we got to Mint, it felt like I’d stepped into the Portland set of the L Word — where every single server was a hot woman with a great smile, where the drinks were all magical and earth-shatteringly good, and where the food just kept coming.
- 11 Comments
- Tags: freelancing, portland, writing
My article about touring the Lush factory in Vancouver — oh and here are photos.
Wordly Mentors
20 Apr 2007 In: Word MercenaryA few years ago I realized that there was something missing from my life … mentors. Specifically, I needed writerly mentors. Somehow, through that kind of chance that’s never really random, over the last few years I’ve found not one, not two, not three, but FOUR amazing writerly types to turn to when I have angstful creative questions. These people have held my hands through chapter angst, inspired me with their skills, and made me feel like I wasn’t nearly as stupid as I really am. And so, I salute them!
Michelle Goodman
Author of the Anti-9-to-5 Guide, Michelle and I have commiserated non-stop for the last year, ever since she found me online and realized that we were writing similar books on a similar schedule for the same publisher. That’s where the similarities end, however: Michelle’s spent ten years as a freelance journalist, and has a wealth of impressive clips under her belt that back-up her amazing investigative chops. I’m just a blogger, by comparison.
Ellen Forney
Author/artist of I Love Led Zepplin and several other books, two-time Eisner Award nominee, she knows how to promote herself and her projects in ways that put me and my amateur whoring to shame. She’s collaborated with some amazing folks (Sherman Alexie, Dan Savage, etc.) and even does wedding invites — so she gets the whole demented wedding industry thing.
Heather Corinna
Author of S.E.X.: Spelling Out All You Need to Know About Your Sexuality and longtime feminist activist, sex educator, and writer extraordinaire, Heather most definitely does NOT getting the whole wedding thing … but despite her loathing of Offbeat Bride’s topic, she contributed a key anecdote and has supported me through many whines and grumblings.
Patrick Enright
Patrick knows my writing pretty much better than anyone, and that includes my editor, my agent, my boss, and my dad. Patrick was first forced (ie paid) to deal with my words when we worked together at movies.com (he was the copy chief). But then he came back for unpaid punishment when he gave my book a supposedly-copy editing pass that ended up being the most thorough scouring the book ever received. If you look in the back of Offbeat Bride, it credits Patrick for talking me down off Mt. Freakout. Many, many times.
So to these four (and anyone else who’s listened to me yammer, whine, freak out, gnash my teeth, pull out my hair etc etc), thank you from the bottom of my verbavoric heart.
Neologism assistance
29 Dec 2006 In: Word MercenaryI need a word to describe someone who you haven’t met, but with whom you share many experiences and mutual friends … so many that you might as well have met, and when you DO finally meet you’re like “Oh, I basically already know you, yay!”
My “how-to make a hoop” article in ReadyMade (i26)
21 Nov 2006 In: Word MercenaryMy "how-to make a hoop" article in ReadyMade (i26), originally uploaded by .Ariel.
Many thanks due to Jason Strauss for his hoop-making bible. I leaned on his expertise heavily when I wrote this article.
Ripples of bitterness
5 Nov 2006 In: Word MercenaryThe responses to the blog post that somehow became a front-page story on Alternet just keep piling up! First there were the commenters on Alternet, then there were a half-dozen writers who took their thoughts to their own blogs, now there are the comments threads on those sites. The most angry criticism seems to fall into themes, which (for your convenience and entertainment) I’ve outlined with examples for you below.
Hi, I didn’t like it:
Hated the article. Wanted to put my fist through the computer screen.The article stinks of elitism and unexamined prejudice.
The article is a piece of navel-fluff gazing.
… stinks of juvenile, navel-gazing, approval-seeking narcissism.
You call yourself a feminist?
Articles like this claiming to represent the “progressive” voices, including feminists, are a joke. There’s nothing new, interesting or insightful about them. They rely on false stereotypes, and avoid discussing real issues. By publishing junk like this, alternative news sources such as alternet are missing the whole point of being “alternative.”Stallings has fallen into the trap that has ensnared so many femininity-loving self-avowed feminists before her: she cannot tell the difference between what is true and what she wishes were true.
I don’t think she’s a “traitor” to feminism, but I do think she’s something of a traitor to herself.
This is the kind of miserable crap that comes out of feminism that really gives me a bad attitude towards it that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Women’s rights? Awesome. Social equality, fanfriggintastic. Is it antifeminist to diet? Stupidest shit I’ve ever heard in my life, short of Bush winning any election, ever.
Let’s get personal:
With this essay, Ms. Stallings prove herself to be a tool of The Man.Congratulations, Ariel, for daring to follow such all-too-obvious common sense. Seriously, isn’t it high time you not follow such mindless groupthink and had a mind of your own??
The author is likely a Trust Fund Baby who was able to snag a syndicated media gig after a decorative internship at an “alternative” media organization. No doubt she will have a lucrative career at Conde Nast at some point in her future, where she will pen earnest and uplifting puff pieces examining her gut-wrenching decision to get a tummy tuck after the birth of her genetically engineered surrogate-bred twins. By subtly attacking imaginary feminists who might discourage her “life affirming” decisions to be a post-partum Hoochie Mama, she will earn herself a coveted spot on the “liberal media” pundit circuit. No doubt,her “refreshing post-feminist” views on everything from Botox to Burqas will garner her numerous media awards.
Conspiracy theories:
I wouldn’t be surprized if this article was really sponsored by WW, it reads like a commercial.Personally, I didn’t think much of her article. They way she rambled on about Weight Watchers, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was being paid for it.
That is a wonderful advert for Weight Watchers and a nice jab at feminism which evidently means “stuffing myself” and “giving up control”. What a total crock.
I think the whole article is made up.
As much as I’m all for bucking up and taking it, I can’t help but chew over a few lessons from this experience:
1. Ask up front if web publications have syndication deals with other sites.
Not that I wouldn’t have let Sirens run the piece if I’d known about their syndication arrangement with Alternet, but at least I wouldn’t have been totally blindsided to wake up one morning and find dozens of people talking about how much they hated me for writing something I’d kind of forgotten even existed. Context is everything, and I agree with many critics on one point: this article so did NOT belong on Alternet. I didn’t submit it to them, and I have no idea why they chose to run it on their site. I’m guessing because they wanted to get people riled up. Mission accomplished, I suppose.
2. Watch edits carefully.
The two lines of the article that people are bitching about the most are two of the small tweaks that were made by editors at both Sirens and Alternet. I stand behind the article 100%, but this isn’t the first time that a subhead or an editor-penned closing sentence has gotten me in trouble, and I should probably know better by now. In my efforts not to be a diva, I approve most edits. Maybe I shouldn’t.
3. Accept that maybe I’m more of a provocateur than I know.
I tend to shy away from provocative, contrarian web writing. It feels like too much flame baiting and I’d rather write stuff that inspires people than stuff that gets them angry. But somehow this article (which was written to inspire) ended up making people angry … and that’s sort of fascinating. It got a lot of people talking, and while I might not have liked what they were saying (seriously: trust fund baby? wtf?) there’s no denying that one form of inspiration is inspiring dialog … even if it’s grumpy, critical dialog.
4. Maybe those reservations about writing about weight loss were founded.
I was really hesitant to write the blog post that ultimately turned into this article … and this kind of feedback is exactly why. It seems difficult to have polite web discourse about certain topics … and evidently this is one of them. That doesn’t mean I’ll avoid writing about such things again, but I’ll be better prepared for the potential fall-out.
Now, back to bucking up! Or rather: let’s move on. Who wants to talk about the burgeoning American circus underground?
- 18 Comments
- Tags: feminism, weight loss
Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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