The cult of Giles
Giles Turnbull
Leander Kahney and I got chatting by email one day, and he offered me
the chance (and a bit more money) to write for his Cult of Mac site.
So I said OK.
Cult of Mac doesn't have anything like the resources that TUAW has,
and nowhere near the traffic. The approach is very different and my
role will be to hunt down real cultish stories. People who tattoo
Apple logos on their genitals, people who grind up iPods and sprinkle
them over salad, people who make unboxing videos and mash them up with
Metallica songs. You know the sort of thing.
It's a shame to leave the TUAW team behind, because they're a friendly
bunch and they really do gel as a team. Working for them, you never
feel as though you're working alone. Help, encouragement and
constructive criticism are only an IM or a mailing list away, which is
comforting.
The new beat at CoM is a challenge, though. There will be much less of
the news reporting and software reviewing that I'm used to, and much
more seeking out of weirdness. If you see any, do let me know won't
you?
* * *
Someone asked me recently, when I told them my regular writing gigs:
"Are you a blogger then?" I winced.
The word carries so much baggage with it, I really don't want to use
it. But since I get paid money to write on blogs some of the time, I
suppose technically it applies.
I describe myself as a "freelance writer" for a reason. I don't want
to restrict my opportunities to any one medium. What I supply is
words, be they for web sites, blogs, magazines, newspapers or anything
else. I've got sufficient experience to be able to tailor what I'm
writing for the medium it'll end up in, and the common sense to know
what the going rate is for each.
Recently I saw a post somewhere by a journo, describing her unexpected
pleasure at "switching" from print to web. That made me wince too;
yes, newspapers are suffering, and print in general is changing under
pressure from online publishing, but print is not going to go away any
time soon, no matter how many articles you see claiming that it is.
Journalists shouldn't be seeing it as a time to flee from print to
web, but as a chance to practice being flexible.
Writers shouldn't be seeing themselves boxed in to either medium. We
write words for people who need them. Those words might be used in
different places and different circumstances; we just have to be aware
of that as we're writing them.
* * *
Lately, I've been devoting much thought to compiling a List Of Things
That Don't Matter. Suggestions welcome.