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What would you tell this young, anxious student about the future of journalism?

Over at MediaShift, a New York University undergraduate journalism student Alana Taylor (studying, coincidentally, where I teach) wrote a critical essay about the online aspects of her education. Her essay was custom-built to stir up controversy (and boy, did it ever), but we should all check it out:

"[The professor] informs us that people actually get paid to blog. That they make a living off of this. For me this was very much a “duh” moment and I thought that it would be for the rest of the students as well. They should be fully aware at this point that blogging has become a very serious form of journalism. Furthermore, they should be aware that it is the one journalistic venture that requires little or no ladder-climbing."

Honestly, .0000001 percent of all writers actually support themselves completely online, and I am frank with all my students about that fact--and I give them suggestions about ways to cobble together more online experience with web writing, citizen journalism tools, and webby-videos.

Young writers are seeking answers to questions that won't be answered for another 50 years until after all the dust from digital publishing has settled. In the meantime, what's your advice to young writers? Chime in, and I'll collect the answers in a post this week.

That’s a video of crime novelist Jason Pinter describing how he built his third novel, The Stolen, from the ground up. It’s so important for aspiring writers to hear these stories, to remember that novels don’t magically appear out of thin air.

Today, Pinter is our special guest, explaining how he found time to balance his work-life and writing-life—a tough balance for any writer.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
While writing your series, you worked as a busy book editor. How do you balance your work-life and writing life? Any advice for harried writers struggling to find time to write with a day-job?

Jason Pinter:
I started to write my first novel--one that didn't sell--in college, before I worked full time (you can guess if I was a good student based on that). Continue reading... 

That's the preview to next summer's Watchmen movie, an adaptation of Alan Moore's earth-shaking graphic novel that brought pulp fiction, punk rock and novelistic storytelling to the superhero genre.

I've been foisting this book off on friends for more than a decade, but over the weekend, Batman outdid me a couple thousand times. Check it out at GalleyCat:

"The Watchmen trailer that was shown before The Dark Knight in movie theaters this weekend was promoting the forthcoming motion picture ... Nevertheless, as Bully observed over the weekend, the book promptly vaulted into Amazon's top ten, and as of Sunday afternoon it was the #3 seller on the site" 

Book blogs have been debating what happened ever since. Can movies sell books? M.J. Rose, a Publishing Spot alum, saw it as a triumph for book advertising, a tool that most writers and publishers can't afford.

Besides urging you to read the graphic novel, I had one thing to add for all the storytellers in the audience. The Watchmen, unlike Batman, the Hulk or EVERY SINGLE SUPERHERO, EVER, was a self-contained story. The whole film fits inside a single graphic novel. It's much easier to fall in love with a story that can find on Amazon and buy in single swoop on Amazon. 

The media blog Fimoculous has become one of my favorite reads lately.

It's easy-to-read, well-written and keeps all of Rex Sorgatz's webby projects together in one place. Every once in awhile, the comments section lights up with some glittering moments of webby theory and attitude.

Case in point, this post where he discusses his microfame article that was published in New York magazine. A great read, it generated some pithy meditations on the fleeting, self-referential nature of web production.

Our buddy Steve Bryant had this to offer: "Self-aggrandizement in the service of self-deprecation in the service of self-aggrandizement is...meta-propaganda? You're a nesting doll of solipsism, rexy."

And Kurtis added this zinger: "If you become microfamous for talking about microfame, does that make you metamicrofamous? And do you get to be in the next Weezer video?"

Welcome to Dueling Comments, where I print my favorite comments that I've spotted in publishing blogs. There are some smart people lurking in the comments sections of blogs, so I'm scrounging around the Internets to find the crazy, the useful, and the crazy-useful wisdom that they leave behind.

You can't write a book by yourself.

As I wrote my novel, I counted on a number of writing buddies. Some of them helped me through the messy writing process, some helped me survive various catastrophes, and a couple generous souls helped me with both. 

In the High-School-Yearbook-Of-My-Soul, I would call these people my BLFF--Best Literary Friends Forever.

Last week, two special guests told me about their writing friendship in another one of my lo-fi productions. This week's writer, (Joie Jager-Hyman) met last week's writer (Kate Torgovnick) as part of an ever-growing writers' group in New York City. 

They met at a Crucial Minutiae meeting, and ended up spending a year writing together. Now you can see their books on the shelf--Jager-Hyman's Fat Envelope Frenzy and Torgovnick's Cheer!  Click on the video for the whole story of Best Literary Friends Forever...

So over the weekend, I stopped by the PEN World Voices Festival, catching Jo Nesbo, Rick Moody, John Wesley Harding and the rest of the motley writerly crew at A Believer Night-time Event. 

That's my video, but I totally recommend you check out the individual writers and The World's Best Magazine that sponsored this funny evening out. Once again, I apologize for my lo-fi footage. Check it out the complete event here:

"With Jo Nesbø, Christian Jungersen, Halfdan Freihow, Kristín Ómarsdóttir, John Wesley Harding, and Vladimir; hosted by Todd Barry."

Sometimes I ask myself why I pay high rents and fight crowded subways to live in New York City. But then I end up on a cruise ship in Red Hook, and I remember exactly why I'm here.

Yesterday I took a surreal trip to the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship parked outside the Brooklyn docks--all to hear novelist Francine Prose and a motley crew of writers celebrate the upcoming PEN World Voices Festival. 

Running from April 29 until May 4th in New York, it will feature a heck of a list, everybody from Charles Baxter to Mia Farrow to A.M. Homes to Salman Rushdie. If you are anywhere near New York, you should check it out--you can learn a lot. 

As you can tell, I've got music and vacation on the brain. If you want to talk about music, 52 Projects is looking for your advice--asking "What's the best music to write to?"

Someday, I hope, web videos about writers will be as common as webpages. For my part, I've made writing videos about Felicia Sullivan, Smith Magazine, and Janice Erlbaum. Next week, I'll have a video featuring Christopher Hitchens. No joke.

As I slowly get the hang of it (especially my problems with compression and video quality), I'm starting to wonder what's the best way to present the material.

I'm looking for your suggestions. To be honest, this isn't a reviewing site--for books, videos, or whatever else. We specialize in giving you the tools and practical advice you need to be a 21st Century writer.

Luckily, I found this insanely comprehensive review of over 50 web video sites. Surf around a little bit, especially this obsessive chart that breaks down the individual stats.

Once you have your favorite site, start practicing. Then, when you publish your book, you'll be ready for the real thing--show us your favorite real-life locations or take us on a tour of your favorite writing spot.

Can you spot a bad memoir from 100-yards away? If you are going to be a writer, you need to recognize your bad writing just as quickly your best writing.

With that in mind, John Coyne reflects on years of experience as editor of Peace Corps Writers and as a novelist, identifying surefire signs that a writer needs more editing:

"What I see at PeaceCorpsWriters are a lot of self-published books that have very limited value and aren't well written. For example, some RPCVs think that they can collect all those letters home, slap them together, add a few grainy black-and-white-photos, and have a book. Rarely, are those Letters Home worth reading...you really have to be a pretty good writer to make a book like that of interest to anyone beyond you and your family."

How else can you hone your critical reading abilities? By reading the best critics in the best book sections. I'm happy to report that our book blogging friend, Pinky Paperhaus, just joined the online staff at the LA Times, bringing together a great critic and a great book section.

Finally, when your writing radar is really strong, test it out on these strange, fascinating web videos with intentionally bad writing.

That's some video I shot over the weekend, just for you.

I've been in a cheery mood ever since the Smith Magazine book release party on Saturday. I met people from New Orleans, Los Angeles, and, as my friend observed, every writer from Brooklyn was there as well.

We work in a world where freelancers can spend their whole lives holed up in their bedroom, and it's easy to forget how much contact with other writers can help you. You need to get out of the house every once in awhile--that's my writing advice for today.

The party celebrated the release of Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. This week I'm interviewing Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, the Smith editors who compiled the collection. Be sure to check that out.

In no particular order, here are the websites of the good folks in the video:

Artist Jace Daniels; writer Nichelle; comic journalist Josh Neufeld; writer and editor Sari Wilson; Young Adult Maryrose Wood; and the editor of Galleycat, the Internet-famous Ron Hogan.

If I missed anybody, please chime in, the comment section is open...

As everybody, including myself, shuffles off for some weekend Superbowl viewing, I'd like to send you a couple links that will keep you thinking about writing even as the high (dare I say, novelistic) drama of two youthful-looking quarterbacks battling for their reputations unfolds this Sunday.

First of all, check out Rachel Kramer Bussel's excellent advice about sex writing, love letters, and staying sane with a bazillion projects. Don't forget to check out my lo-fi web video about the fine art of writing about sex as well.

Secondly, Slushpile is looking for answers to this burning question: "does anyone know of a book that involves the Super Bowl in the plot?"

Finally, if you really aren't interested in sports, you should check out Ed Champion's fun filled trip the U.S. Copyright Office. His reporting turned up some thought-provoking results, and provoked a lovely little post by Ed Park about teenaged writing memories.

What should a book trailer look like?

Galleycat has an excellent essay about it here, giving a smart critique of a mystery book trailer by novelist Matt Beynon Rees. I appreciated the fun that this writer had with his video. 

If you want more advice, I blogged about this resource almost a year ago, but it still holds up. Bookseller Chick and her crew discussed how to build a better book trailer. Check it out:

"Then as I was searching for various things out there on the great, wide internet, I ran across this interview with Sheila Clover English who runs Circle of Seven Productions (the book trailer makers) about her novel series (which is marketing only through COS’s website)." 

Finally, I have some cool (and somewhat related) news to share. Short End Magazine picked my essay from The Believer magazine, “Skinning the Americans,” as one of the 40 Film Journalism Must-Reads of 2007. It's an honor to be included in that essay about film journalism--which is full of lots of ideas for budding book trailer makers.

What will web videos by writers look like in ten years?

I hope they won't look like Hollywood movies or trailers for Hollywood movies. It's so silly to have this new lo-fi, do-it-yourself medium of web video and pretend like we need to imitate Hollywood movies.

If you are a writer interested in web video, just do it. Don't wait until you can cut together the next Citizen Kane. There are plenty of real movie directors who will do that. Web video is supposed to be playful and short.

If you don't believe me, check out these creative and loopy videos from writers:

Brandon Scott Gorrell made a web short about his glamorous life of a young writer. Ellen Kennedy made a hypnotic video about a vegetarian meal for Ass Hi Books. Finally, Chris Killen created a flash love story about a computer and a bag of potato chips.

Thanks to Tao Lin for linking to all these writers. Look for some of my video work next week as Rachel Kramer Bussel stops to discuss The Best Sex Writing of 2008. It will be the steamiest Five Easy Questions feature, ever.

Last year I had a short conversation with one of my journalistic heroes, William T. Vollmann -- a novelist and reporter who always shot photographs to mix with his stories. 

After you read some of Vollmann's work, go check out the brilliant link-packed post "Be a Multimedia McGuyver" at Journerdism.

Check it out at this link. It's packed with information and contacts to build your web video toolkit--including wild ideas like Make a cheap submersible webcam and Make a remote controlled camera from a cellphone.

Your web journalism will never be the same again... 

One of the most popular thing on YouTube today is (ironically) a bitty video of David Lynch bashing movies on mobile phones. "You will never in a trillion years have experienced the film," he yells at cellular movie watchers, yelling as much as David Lynch can yell.

It's true. I dig mobile technology, I own a video iPod, and I love shooting little pieces for YouTube, but I still think he's right. The YouTube screen is not meant for big movie fare.

The only reason people watch big screen movies on mobile technology is because there isn't very much good content for the small screen. But there will be smallest-screen content soon, and you could be writing it.

Start thinking about movies, journalism, and videos that are meant to be watched on a YouTube-sized screen. If you can figure out how to tell that kind of story, you'll be leading the pack. 

Here's some links to get you started. This page will tell you all about Reuter's first mobile journalists. Poynter.com has a sweet essay about mobile journalism and the Media Shift Lab has a touching post about worldwide web video watching. Listen to David Lynch and write something new...

As we contemplate the weekend, I'd like to leave you with three bits of glittering Internet writing gold.

Over at Portfolio's media blog, Jeff Bercovici just staged the first Peter Travers vs. Pete Hammond movie critic face-off, looking at two film writers who rave most often on advertisements for bad movies.

Dig it: "Who is the true master of the electrifying! pulse-pounding! glorious! movie write-up? Which deserves to be beatified by studio flacks, and crucified by moviegoers who just want to avoid plunking down $11 on straight-to-video-quality dreck?"

Then, check out The Best of Smith Magazine 2007 post, it's jam-packed with storytelling goodness. Start with Writing the Whip by Mistress Y for some pulse-pounding weekend reading. You won't be able to stop...

Finally, Gawker's new science fiction blog (edited by one of my journalism heroes, Annalee Newitz) has an essay about stills from serial science fiction movies from the 1930's. Staring at these ghostly panels describing Gene Autry's surreal adventures as a space cowboy, my head buzzes with story ideas.

Is there anybody out there? Heeeeellllllllloooooo?

Who a I kidding? Nobody reads on the Internets at the end of the year. Including myself. The litblogosphere is a graveyard dotted with sign-offs and holiday wishes.

Before my own sign-off until January, I have two posts to spotlight. First, Maud blogged about the STUNNING New Yorker article/short-story combo about one of my favorite short story writers. Follow her links and see if you can answer her question:

"Why is the New Yorker article about Gordon Lish’s shaping of Raymond Carver’s early fiction unsigned?"

Secondly, Steve Bryant and Jeffrey Yamaguchi have passed along a funny link to two brothers who decided they would only communicate via web video. For a year. It's a lesson in good web video writing, and I think Steve nailed it with his post:

"Poor Ze Frank. Judging from the sheer number of imitators out there, his unique voice has metastasized throughout the Net, which has adopted his cadence into the Internet's own newscaster tone. Y'know that tone. The same one every TV newscaster uses to emote appropriately. Everyone's a talking head now."

So, Ed Champion is closing up shop--taking some of my favorite links and commentary along with him. But I'm not worried...

I've worked with Ed in the past. He can't sit still. He can't focus on just one boring old project. I predict he'll be back in less than a month with a crazy project, a new job, or at least a manic list of links that piled up over the holidays.

Friends like Ed (on or off the Internet) are the best thing a writer can have. Your RSS reader should be loaded with manic thinkers who keep your head stocked with new ideas. 

Case in point: For my daily dose of innovation, I was blown away by Jeff Jarvis' essay about the photography storytelling experiment of Jonathan Harris (the photographer pictured above). It's called The Whale Hunt.

You should study this mish-mash of story and text, figuring out how to make your own webby work more creative (if you like this photography work, check out 10×10, We Feel Fine, and Universe).

Ed Champion is gone, but he'll be back. In the meantime, stay tuned here for more ground-breaking storytelling like this:

"[I wanted] to experiment with a new interface for human storytelling. The photographs are presented in a framework that tells the moment-to-moment story of the whale hunt. The full sequence of images is represented as a medical heartbeat graph along the bottom edge of the screen, its magnitude at each point indicating the photographic frequency (and thus the level of excitement) at that moment in time."

Okay, it's just a story, but... 

Earlier this year I blogged about the new literary magazine, Please Don't. The first issue is on the web, and includes "a collaborative serialized novel," written by Pete Coco, Scott Stealey, and other writers. The first chapter cliffhanger ends with the question, "Did you just kill Axl Rose?" I still dig this pulp fiction strategy.

In real news, the Virginia Quarterly Review just revealed a new problem for fledgling writers in the digital age. They can respond to your submission at the speed of light. These figures are amazing...

"At least a few people each week are upset because they heard back from us too quickly ... we’ve received nineteen submission this morning, 232 submissions are recommended for declination by readers, eight are recommended for acceptance, 1,469 submissions are currently in the hopper and readers have made six recommendations today. September submissions required an average of 18.89 days for a final decision to be made, October averaged 14.84 days, and November is at 10.5 days."

Finally, if you are looking to build your journalism toolkit, check out Multimedia Shooter--a group blog with some practical, high-class advice that hopes to "reveal the ways hardware and software can improve our multimedia/storytelling skills." Dig it here...

Yesterday at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center, I pondered the future of web journalism with Michelle Kung from Huffington Post, Justin Fox from Time, Troy Patterson from Slate and Jeff Gordinier from Details. We sat there with some of the brightest writers in New York, debating for an hour and a half--but nobody knew exactly what to do next. 

I learned a valuable lesson at the National Book Awards last week, shooting Bloggers on the Balcony about the motley crew of web writers running around the National Book Awards last week and making another video interview with finalists Kathleen Duey and Sara Zarr.

As you can see from my work, I'm no expert. But I did the work, and I came back with a story nobody else had. Over the next few weeks I'll be unloading more footage of famous writers telling stories about their worst jobs--one night of video work will keep me in new content for weeks.

This is your moment. This is the time when fledgling writers can grab a videocamera, blog software, and a laptop. Go make some content. This confusion in the industry can help you find your audience and the stories you want to tell. Nobody will stop you. Just start reporting...

Say you want to a web-based multimedia story that blends video, audio, and text content. There's no textbook for this kind of writing. There's not even an industry standard for the best way to do it. Where do you look for advice? 

Journalist Paul Grabowicz has an unorthodox idea, urging writers to look towards videogames for guidance on how to reach the webby masses. Check it out:

"[A]t the Online News Association conference last month, the panelists discussed how much text can be included in a game - a topic my students and I have been grappling with in our Remembering 7th Street video game project ... the Using Serious Games to Engage Readers panel cautioned against including long textual entries in games because they tend to turn off game players."

How can a $100 million grant to help poets be so so so controversial? The surreal politics of bringing poetry to the masses is outlined in this New York Times article. 

Finally, in WGA strike news, Phil Alden Robinson has a short video about the defining moments in 20th Century screenwriter organization. For a darkly funny look at a 'zine produced during the last writers' strike, the Dead Frog blog has the scoop on Army Man. (Thanks, Papercuts)

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."

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... 

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."

You may wonder why I get so jazzed about building video content for this site.

It's simple. I am surrounded, by chance or by fate, by wonderful video folks. In the interests of sharing resources (and full disclosure), I'd like to re-introduce my friendly neighborhood video journalists.

My lovely girlfriend Caitlin Shamberg is the multimedia editor at Salon.com. You can see her work at Video Dog. Here's her piece about plastic bag abuse, a cool riff on classic Salon reporting:

My buddy Adam B. Ellick is a video editor at The New York Times, most recently he finished a piece about Russian youth groups with some powerful ties to the government--The Putin Generation. 

Finally, my friend Steve Bryant runs ReelPopBlog, providing killer commentary about the video blogosphere.  

I'm not just plugging my friends here. The next generation of journalists must understand how a little bit of video can supercharge a piece of reporting. These people are the first responders, paving the way towards our future...