Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton is fantastic. Move it to the top of your must-see list.
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The Challenge of Writing in a Digital Age
Last week, I blogged about my upcoming speech at Drake University (my alma mater), which was entitled “The Challenge of Writing in a Digital Age.” I posted my basic thesis statements, and invited comments. As expected, the hive mind was very helpful in reshaping (and renaming) many of my thoughts, so I’m very grateful to those who wrote in.
The speech went well. It was a nearly-full house, with a lot of first-year students in the crowd, and they seemed to keep pretty engaged.
In terms of content, I don’t think the talk was the equal of the speech on professionalism I gave at Trinity University last year, which covered some of the same ground and used one of the same anecdotes. This one wasn’t as organized or persuasive. I think there’s a much better speech to be written on a single one of these topics (such as Authority), but I’d already committed to the sampler platter.
I promised several professors I’d hold off posting the text of the speech until after extra-credit assignments were turned in. Those deadlines should have now passed.
If you’d prefer a .pdf version (it’s 19 pages), you can find it here.
It’s an honor–a pleasure–to be back on campus, standing on this stage where just a couple of weeks ago, actual presidential candidates were trying to seem electable.
I feel I should stress: I have absolutely no political ambitions. But I do have a bit of a platform tonight, a list of observations about the things I see looming on the horizon, and what’s to be done about it. I’m not going to ask for your vote, but I am going to ask for your attention. And most importantly, I’m going to ask you to turn off that part of your brain that automatically goes, “Yeah, well, but that doesn’t apply to me.”
(Actually, you don’t have to turn that part of your brain off. Just put it on vibrate. Let your objections go to voicemail.) What I’m going to try to convince you tonight is that writing matters. That seems like a pretty easy sell at a university. After all, most of you are students. You’re getting grades. Of course writing matters.
But I’m going to be a little more ambitious tonight. I’m not talking about just academic writing. I’m talking about all writing. I’m talking about email. Memos. Your blog. I’m talking about what you wrote on your friend’s Facebook wall. All that writing you don’t think you’re getting graded on–well, you are.
Whether you want to or not, you’re being judged on it. And you’re being judged differently because of the era you’re living in.
So if I do my job right tonight, I’m going to send you out of here a little bit rattled, a little bit paranoid, but hopefully better prepared. [Read more…] about The Challenge of Writing in a Digital Age
Mom and Dad are fighting
I like that you keep updating us on The Nines, but the big issue is the strike vote. At least to working workers. How about an in-depth post on that issue with your thoughts?
–Anonymous (from the previous post’s comment section)
Anon, I’m not on the WGA Board, nor on the Negotiating Committee, so I don’t have any special information or insight. All I could offer is conjecture, and that would be a mistake. I’m a fairly high-profile writer, so anything I blog would be given unwarranted authority. That’s why I’m not commenting publicly.
At the Screenwriters’ Dinner earlier this year, I taped something for a videopodcast that may show up one of these months. They asked about the (then upcoming) negotiations, and I described how my family was very quiet and Midwestern. When there were disagreements, they were handled in private, in hushed tones. But some of my friends’ families were always shouting at each other. I thought they hated each other, but that was just they way they communicated. They fought; they made up; everything went on as normal. Some families just have a lot of Big Drama, and once you accept that, it’s much less uncomfortable.
I try to remind myself of that when I see public spats between powerful entities who obviously have a lot of mutual interest. I don’t think Mom and Dad are going to get divorced. They just have stuff to work out, and it’s going to get loud for a while.
The Nines in the U.K.
The U.K. release date for The Nines is apparently November 30th. More info when I have it.