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The Internets are full of kooky and frightening acts of fakery. It is only a matter of time until web trickery evolves into an actual genre of writing. Someday, your kids' literature textbooks (or ebooks or brain chips) will include a section about phony Craigslist ads and imaginary MySpace characters.

Andrew Adam Newman just wrote a great essay about Craigslist as fiction workshop, pointing out some of the best fabulists populating the want-ad website. Case in point:

"Brett Michael Dykes, whose fake ads and their responses have been popular features of his blog, Cajun Boy in the City, usually posts in the "Missed Connections" category." (Thanks, Bookninja)

At the same time, your kids' journalism ethics textbooks will be dissecting this story for years to come--looking at a crazy couple of MySpace pranksters who allegedly taunted a suicidal girl online.

Romenesko had the scoop: " The Lee-owned St. Charles Journal recently wrote about a teenage girl who killed herself after two adults' postings on MySpace. The paper declined to name the pair, but blogs outed them."

Then, Steve Almond wrote a hilarious fake obituary for fake memoirist James Frey in The Virginia Quarterly Review. It will never show up in any journalism or literature textbook, but it should.   

Finally, tune in next week for more National Book Award web video interviews with National Book Award finalists.  

I'm typing this from the floor of the National Book Awards.

Here's a short web video about the first literary awards ceremony blogged by the LitBlog Army. More interviews to follow, plenty of interviews with writers--from Jim Shepard to Christopher Hitchens.

Tune in for the rest of the week for more exclusive footage.

Today I slogged through a morning rain shower to get to an unmarked polling spot in my neighborhood--all to vote for a couple uncontested judicial elections. Even though it was symbolic, I felt like I needed to do it.

Last week I wrote an essay about how New Yorker City residents rarely have meaningful ballots for judges, and it was time to put some action behind what I wrote. 

The whole experience has got me digging through the pile of political writing tips archived on this site.  If you want some reading material, check out my Stephen Elliott interview (about his crazy writing career that ranges from the Democratic Convention to sexual memoirs) and my Stephen DarkSyde interview (about his work at DailyKos and the book Kosmos: You Are Here). 

Click here to keep studying Political Writing 101...

What if community participation in your writing became just as important, if not more important, than the actual artistic product?

Over at Reel Pop, Steve Bryant gave two thumbs up to the soon-to-be-released web video show, Quarterlife. It will combine MySpace interactivity, web video, and blogs with an ongoing soap opera plot about a bunch of young writers and artists struggling to make it. If it works, the site hopes to create an actual network real-life struggling artists.

The show was created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the guys who made cheesy, lovable works like My So-Called Life and Blood Diamond. It's thrilling to think about writing across so many different platforms, and I think the most successful writers in ten years will be just as flexible as they are.

Do you think this can work? 

"Quarterlife isn't just a series. It's a media platform, complete with a vlog-based social network (quarterlife.com) designed to be a support network for 'creatives' fumbling through post-collegiate life. You couldn't create a more self-conscious show unless you spent 30 minutes pointing a webcam at your pierced navel."

Why use the same boring old textbooks over and over for writing classes? If you could build your own creative writing textbook with your favorite stories, poems, and excerpts, what would it contain?

Over at Beatrice.com, short story writer Nalini Jones, the author of What You Call Winter, is building an imaginary mix tape that contains all her favorite short stories. Check out her list, and start building your own in the comments section. I'll post mine later this week. Check it out.

How are social networking and instant blog sites like Twitter changing the ways we tell stories? Over at Smith Magazine, Larry Smith muses about a suicide letter posted on Twitter--required reading for all storytellers. 

Finally, graduating journalism student Sean Blanda has some uncomfortable, but practical, advice for fledgling writers. His "Why Journalists Need To Be Selfish" essay lays out the writing market without a single illusion:

"Unfortunately, no one is going to help the next generation of writers. That’s not to say that no one wants to, but no one can. It up to us to help ourselves and each other." 

God bless Journerdism for the link. 

You want to know what the future of publishing sounds like? Like this:

"Playing for Keeps is a free novel delivered via podcast in audio and PDF form. It tells the story of Keepsie Branson, a bar owner in the shining metropolis of Seventh City: birthplace of super powers. Keepsie and her friends live among egotistical heroes and manipulative villains..."

More than four thousand five hundred people have already downloaded the first episode of Playing for Keeps--the podcast reading of Mur Lafferty's new novel.

The book is an experiment for this unconventional writer who has written for role playing games, podcasts, videogame news sites, Lulu.com, and maintains popular audio shows like Geek Fu Action Grip and I Should Be Writing.

Her unconventional project includes Fan Submitted Photos and Sketches and the inspiring group of readers supporting the free project, her First Wave Volunteers. Her site is like a graduate level course in web writing--experimenting with content delivery and reader interaction. 

Last May, Lafferty stopped by The Publishing Spot to deliver five days worth of podcasting wisdom. Check out the archived discussion here. 

How should good web video look? Nobody knows. The standards are being invented as we speak.  

Over at PBS's Idea Lab, Mark Glaser is exploring that conundrum, analyzing the work of Reuter's reporters who do multimedia reporting with a backpack full of fancy portable technology.

His analysis shows some flaws in the new program, but gives a couple helpful hints that multimedia journalists can follow as they improve their work. Check it out:

"The news service has given reporters a Mobile Journalism Toolkit, including a Nokia N95, a fold-up keyboard and directional microphones. The idea is that reporters could do video, photo, audio and text reports without having to use a laptop ... But if you peruse Reuters' special website to see the early reports from Reuters mojos, they are uneven, with blurry photos and choppy videos with poor sound quality."

While the jumpy, glossy camera lens looks odd on the convention floor, I think it looks pretty good in the heat of an angry toy store protest. Even though the form is still evolving, I tell my students that they should all be looking for jobs like this--blending print, video, and online publishing.

The future journalist will be a multi-tasking crazy person, and we have to start learning these skills. Don't waste all your time worrying about quality. Just start reporting (like Ed Champion and his new experiment), and figure it out as you go.

I wish I could send you all back to school.

For the last two months, I've been teaching an undergraduate journalism class at New York University, re-reading crucial writing texts that I had buried in the musty corners of my brain. The experience has really helped my writing.

Case in point: George Orwell's foundational essay, "Politics and the English Language." All writers should re-read this work every couple years, and in the interests of sharing the writing wisdom packed inside, I'll be re-printing a couple bits of wisdom from my students' papers. 

Today, NYU undergraduate Jessica Kramer has our lesson: Bad writing can actually harm the cultural conversation in our political blogs, essays, or novels. With the non-stop blitz of posts required by web publications, it is more important than ever that we read Orwell right now.

"Orwell explained that using the English language poorly isn’t a mere matter of principle. It harms political discourse by hiding the true meanings of words behind vague language that isn’t specific enough to paint a concrete picture of what the writer is trying to convey. 'Political language,' states Orwell, 'is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.'”  

Everybody is so worried that the Internet will wreck book publishing, but ultimately, the web is our best chance to keep our writing world alive.

Yesterday Wired Magazine profiled the good folks at The Emerging Writers Network, a site with a well-deserved spot on my RSS reader. They took a community of fledgling writers and launched an entire publishing company, a beautiful story.

Even better, the article features tons of commentary about how other small presses are adapting to new media--this goldmine of links in particular caught my attention.

Let's stop whining and start writing:

"McSweeney's, one of the most successful new small presses, took a financial hit when AMS collapsed. To raise funds, it held an eBay auction of first editions and signed illustrations. Now it features pictures and bios of Subscriber of the Week on its site. To promote Matthew Sharpe's Jamestown, Soft Skull Press put up a MySpace page for Pocahontas, one of the novel's main characters. Unbridled Books produces regular YouTube videos and podcasts."

For all you webby writers who aren't quite ready for large-scale projects, Jakob Nielsen has some shocking news--writing in the famously-hated-by-writing-teachers passive voice can actually  grab more readers in the topsy-turvy world of the Internets. 

"It's still been an excellent experience -- it gave me the discipline to work on novels I never would have attempted otherwise, as well as bringing spontaneity to my writing when I might have otherwise gotten bogged down in research or rewriting."

That's Pete from the litblog PeteLit explaining why he joined the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) writing marathon last year. For the fifth time in his life, he attempted to write a 50,000-word novel draft during the month of November. 

I crossed the NaNoWriMo finish line in 2005 (it took me another two years to edit the goshdarn thing into something presentable, but that's another story), and ever since, I've sympathized with these crazy writers. This year, I'm cheering on our NaNoWriMo-ing readers again--offering them any technical advice or moral support they need.

If you're taking the NaNoWriMo challenge (or know somebody who is), drop me a line in the comments section. I'd love to add your name to the Crazy Novelist Support Group®, and follow your adventure. Last year we cheered on Johann Black, a blogging teacher, and Newsvine writers Yasmin and Miss Dev and RWarner and E to the Z.

If you are taking the challenge, you should tell us why you are writing 50,000 words this November.

We've spent a whole week obsessing about money--how to earn money writing, how to survive with less money, and how to stop worrying about money and start writing.

Today, the super new PBS website MediaShift Idea Lab has some ideas about how to create a cheap digital newsroom. This suggestion from J.D. Lasica is worth the price of admission:

"Lots of free great applications and plug-ins are available at download.com, pcmag, tucows pc world. Instead of manging your project with Microsoft Project ($400), an inexpensive alternative is Basecamp, free for one project."

The Papercuts blog linked to this epic NY Times Magazine article from 1998 about the different editors and lovers who shaped the stunning short stories of Raymond Carver. It's an invaluable lesson about editing, editors, and yes, surviving on a shoe-string budget when nobody believes in you. Read it this weekend.

Everybody has a first kiss story. Tell yours and be a part of three-year-old project that mixes oral history, web publishing, and plenty of sweetness. (Thanks, Smith Magazine)

Finally, The Millions blog just turned me on to One Story magazine, a groovy print concept with plenty of writing advice for you:

"The magazine recently unveiled a prettier website, which still includes the features I've always liked. You can check out the first lines of every story published by the magazine, as well as short interviews with each writer about his or her story and the process of creating it."

Every litblog from here to Antarctica has published a mini-essay about a gloomy survey of 1,300 publishing professionals that predicts the looming death of the printed book. SF Signal has the bad news wrapped up in a nice post.

Over at Smith Magazine, Rachel has an equally depressing post about the future of literary magazines that should make most fledgling writers reconsider their options as well:

"And are literary magazines dead? A harsh but well-written blog polemic claims the answers are yes and yes. I’m curious to hear what our readers think, but for now I’m feeling my “campaign to save book reviewing” feeling—can’t we all just get along?? The rather terrific nonfiction lit mag The Crier is on financially necessitated hiatus. Hmm."

Do we throw in the towel and go to law school? I say no. In fact, I've lined up a guest next week who will help us all keep going---scriptwriter and non-fiction author Allen Rucker.

Rucker spent most of his career toiling away in television and film writing, and then one fateful Tuesday, woke up paralyzed. Next week he'll tell us how he survived that nightmarish event, and share secrets to surviving as writer--one of the toughest professions around, no matter what time you live in.

His interview is the closest thing we'll get to a manual on how to cope with the anxieties of our job. Tune in Monday for a fascinating week of interviews...

On a slow train ride from DC last week, I consumed the Identity Crisis graphic novel in a single, greedy sitting. While it wasn't the greatest literary achievment ever, the book reminded me of the joys of serial storytelling--the suspense of what happens in between episodes, issues, or installents of a story released in real time.

I think all writers should read or watch a serial narrative.

No matter if you are writing blog posts or a novel or daily journalism, your writing could use a healthy dose of an entertaining cliffhanger because-- (click here to continue reading)

Everyday I struggle to figure out the mystical combination of punchy prose and catchy content to keep my lovely readers reading.

I crack (and break) jokes, I write cryptic headlines, and I insert strange paragraph breaks all because I love you and I want you to keep reading. Today, I found some writers with some more concrete advice about web writing.

First of all, The Urban Muse has Five Hints for Writing Headlines, a primer on how to polish even your first lines into glittering, deadly copy. To keep yourself from going crazy with all this short short writing, try playing around with the fine art of flash fiction.

These short short stories that hardly break a thousand words apiece, and the form was mastered by Bruce Holland Rogers (pictured above) in his web fiction. My favorite flash libraries are: Smith Magazine's six word memoirs, quick science fiction in 365 Tomorrows, short literary pieces at 400 Words, and six-word bad boss stories at True Office Confessions. And don't forget the good folks at TwitterLit, bringing books to Twitter.

I hesitate to admit that I am off work today.

The idea of celebrating Columbus' American conquest makes me a little queasy.

Nevertheless, here I am, relaxing for one extra day. Instead of celebrating colonial urges, let's celebrate the journalism social networking site, Newsvine.

I've been a proud member for over a year, watching this hotbed of citizen journalism and smart readers grow, and I was happy to read this:

"Charles Tillinghast, the president of MSNBC Interactive News, a joint venture of NBC Universal and Microsoft, said the company intended to keep the Newsvine brand and Web site separate, though some features will be incorporated into MSNBC.com."

Also, every holiday, I love urging my readers to look up in the upper right hand corner of this blog, there is a very special option, "Enter e-mail below to subscribe." Sign up today and receive two free writing posts a day, delivered personally by a computer program from me to you. No spam, no distractions, just posts.

Don't waste anymore time clicking on my site. I'll send you my posts instead.

New rule: No writer should ever work without a video camera.

If you can shoot some simple footage to accompany your written stories, your value for a publication literally doubles. My buddy Adam B. Ellick demonstrated that concept this weekend, writing this NY Times story about a dying generation of dumpling makers in the East Village. It's a great print story that combines vivid details with a sad meditation on time and gentrification.

Shooting this video feature about the same story gave Adam a chance to actually go back, get more quotes, and see his subjects in a whole new perspective. I can't say it any better than Mark Bowden (author of the journalism classic, Black Hawk Down) in this essay:

"I advise young journalists today to learn how to use a digital video camera, and to get used to working in multimedia. Nearly every story I write today for the Atlantic, and every book I undertake, I do in conjunction with a documentary filmmaker. This results in a documentary version of the story, which can be marketed to TV but also compiles the audio and video needed to produce a Web presentation."

Publishing models have shifted dramatically, but don't let that crazy situation guide your writing career. 

Read this article if you don't believe me. The Economist makes the shopworn point that print publications are in trouble while making the not-so-shopworn point that magazine advertising rates are holding steady.

What does this mean for us? Keep pitching magazines. They pay better, people read them, and they will survive this publishing earthquake, in one form or the other.

The article makes this winning point:

"Whereas newspapers have concentrated on transferring print journalism to the internet, magazines offer people useful, fun services online—Lagardère's Car and Driver website, for instance, offers virtual test drives, and Better Homes and Gardens online has a 3D planning tool to help people redesign their homes."

Notice that the quote lacks hyperlinks to the sites it mentions. When you follow my advice and end up writing for print/online magazine hybrid products someday, teach everybody how to code a HTML hyperlink, especially when highlighting a good example of web savvy publications. That's the second thing I learned from The Economist.

Where will the great investigative journalism of our century happen?

According to Wired magazine, it will all happen on small, online publications like Sharesleuth.com, not the powerful media organizations.

I'm not bashing The Big Bad Mainstream Media when I say that, I'm just thinking about logistics. Newspaper budgets around the country are tanking, and in the end, mostly nimble, community-centered companies will survive the shake-up.

While the Wired article addresses some ethical problems with the market-investigating site, Sharesleuth.com, it does make this point that all fledgling writers must consider as they plan for the future. Dig it:

"Circulation at US newspapers fell 13 percent between 1990 and 2005. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of full-time newspaper reporting and editing jobs shrunk by some 3,000. Newsroom budgets have been slashed. The result, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, is "shrinking ambitions" in the country's newsrooms."

I ask myself that question every day when I post, wondering if I should chop my extra paragraph about some sort-of-related-but-not-really point about writing or if I should keep my post short and simple for your overtaxed web reading list.

Today journalist Mark Oppenheimer wrote a piece for the Huffington Post meditating about the best length for a web-based pieces, giving good advice for writers looking to pitch stories online: "Slate pieces circle around 1,000 words, sometimes more, sometimes fewer. Salon will go more screens, and so longer... Interestingly, bloggers tend to go longer than more traditional journalists on the web, and the lengths are more palatable in the single-screen typepad of Blogspot format." 

Interesting enough. But then, over at The New York Times, I found this REALLY, REALLY long essay by documentary film genius, Errol Morris. While I loved his obsessive look at war photographs, I was sure that nobody else would ever read something that long. At the bottom, he had over one hundred comments.

The lesson is simple. Stop worrying about length! Write good content, and let your readers sort out the rest...

After a couple years stuck inside teenaged bedrooms and bolted to computer monitors, video storytelling is finally going on the road.

The good folks at the Goethe-Institut New York (who put together a fabulous screening and lecture with film-making madman Werner Herzog that blew my mind earlier this year) are sponsoring a motorcycle video blog trip by German artist Florian Thalhofer.

The press release sounds a bit stuffy but smart, describing his short videoblogged ramble through our states: "[Thalhofer] embarks on a “social experiment” that marries this legacy with technological innovation and harnesses the best of social media to determine and document his experience.  Influences such as Easy Rider, jazz, and abstract expressionism will become even more apparent as we discover what lies at the heart of America and how it continues to evolve today."

The show will document 1000 stories of Americans, and they are still looking for people to document. If you have written about or are a crazy American, you should answer their ad looking for interview subjects.

If you live in New York, the Goethe-Institut will throw the artist a farewell party on Thursday at 6:30 with DJ's and art. Let's see what happens with this crazy new art form... 

Writers have all these amazing technologies at their disposal, but too many of us sit around blaming them for ruining the business.

Ed Champion and James Marcus reported from the Columbia Journalism School debate about the future of book reviewing last night. I was stuck at my day job, so I couldn't bring you the scoop.

Champion celebrated the panelists who look forward, rather than throwing stones at the bloggers. Check it out:

"At least Mark Sarvas was open about the technological chasm... [he] observed the Guardian’s audience of 23 million, positioned through its online reorganization. He had choice words to say about the Los Angeles Times‘ failure to obtain a synthesis between print and online, citing the 'failure of imagination' in its execution."

If you're looking for webby inspiration, the lovely Caitlin Shamberg passes along a link to the most useful blog I've seen in months: Fact Checker. Every single genre of literary criticism needs this level of support and research, and only the Internet can provide it.

Finally, LitKicks put together a killer email discussion about book pricing, featuring Tao Lin and Sarah Weinman and Ron Hogan.

The Internets have been buzzing about Dave Eggers all week, applauding and booing his $250,000 grant from the Heinz Foundation--an award going straight to Eggers' non-profit writing center, 826 Valencia.

No matter what you think, you should listen to the man's advice about writing. The Guardian has an interview about his "literary philanthropy," and the article had a few lessons for fledgling writers about how magazines and other publications will function in this new media world.

The sky is falling in the writing industry, and things will look much different in ten years. Eggers models the ideal writer: somebody comfortable with small staffs, extracurricular work, and multi-tasking. Dig it: 

"With The Believer (www.believermag.com) the question was how to put together a publication without ads and without raising any money. How do you keep the staff lean? You design a template simple enough that one person can maintain it - the copy-editing, photos, layout, everything, even at 65,000 words ... I just know it works for us: small, agile, adaptable, and the centres are as self-reliant as possible."

A big fat scandal just exploded over at ABC News and the Nixon Institute.

The French academic Alexis Debat consulted with both places as a Middle Eastern expert, and allegedly faked a number of interviews he did with American leaders over the last few years.

He was recently fired by ABC when they couldn't verify his credentials. According to ABC reporters, Debat blames one fabricated interview on a Chicago journalist named Rob Sherman, a freelancer living at an allegedly non-existent address.

Potentially, these imaginary interviews and fabricated sources could have been influencing American policy in the Middle East. The Washington Post sums up how murky experts like him are becoming respected, dangerous sources. A lesson about the power of your ideas:

"Debat's career seemed to be flourishing in the well-trafficked intersection of academia and the media. He directs the terrorism and national security program from a downtown office at the Nixon Center, set up by the former president shortly before his death. He wrote for its magazine, the National Interest, whose honorary chairman is Henry Kissinger."

In related, crazy news, disgraced non-fiction writer James Frey has found a new career as a novelist, landing a deal just yesterday.

Publishing Spotted collects the best of what's around on writing blogs on any given day. Feel free to send tips and suggestions to your fearless editor: jason [at] thepublishingspot.com.

Citizen journalism has already upset a lot of traditional boundaries between journalists and regular people.

Blogged book reviews are competing against struggling newspaper review sections and more citizen reporters are filtering information collected by newspaper journalists.

Today, Jeff Jarvis is writing about what he calls Vigilante Journalism--a new breed of punchy citizen reporters with videocameras who ask uncomfortable questions. A recent television feature about Jimmy Justice, a citizen journalist who confronts traffic cops, treated his work as obnoxious.

Jarvis responds with a passionate essay about the nature of citizen journalism, reminding us that even though the boundaries have shifted, the work a journalist, citizen or otherwise, has not changed. Check it out:

"On the Today Show this morning, David Gregory got on a high horse interviewing Jimmy, asking whether he wasn’t just a bit obnoxious...Well, what’s any less obnoxious about a reporter asking the same question? That’s exactly why subjects so often think reporters are rude: they’re being asked questions they don’t want to answer."