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Re: [GWL]: trends/plagiarism


>     I believe if nothing else this forum may help to change our 
> perceptions
> of exactly what it takes to make up a "professional" garden writer. 
> What of
> the writers in today's market who are all the below listed pigeon 
> holes? Is
> Dan Hinkley any less of a professional garden writer for being a 
> nursery
> owner?<

Ok, Gene, let's explore this concept.

Notice that I very specifically did _not_ use quality of writing in my
post. As far as writing quality goes, there are many people who fall in
the non-professional groups I mentioned who are superlative writers. And
there are professionals who, in my opinion, can't put three consecutive
words together without putting you to sleep. 
 
To me a professional writer is somebody who earns all, or a significant
percentage, of his/her livelihood from writing. For me, that means 100%.
Freelancing is all I do. And I guesss I'm pretty good at it: I managed to
put two kids through college doing nothing else.

Professionalism connotes more than just producing copy for money,
however. It also means knowing the rules of the game. That can cover
everything from copyright regulations to manuscript production, to the
art of writing query letters, to never, ever missing a deadline. 

And, btw, don't discount those things. Any editor who's being honest will
tell you that reliability is more important to them than writing talent.
As a former editor, I agree. The best writer in the world is worthless to
me if he/she doesn't get their copy in on time. Or if it comes in in an
unusable format. 

> a
> writer relating what he has read elsewhere.<

Personally, I kind of resent this comment. Sure, I fill-in my research by
reading other things, just as I interview experts and others for inputs.
But the fact is, I do not write about things I do not have experience
with. And I doubt if any of the other professionals on this list do so.
Or if they do, it's a function of their story. For instance, I have
absolutely no experience growing tropical plants. But this wouldn't stop
me from writing an interview-type story with somebody who _is_ an expert.
What I'm doing there, in my mode as a reporter, is sharing what that
person knows. My job as a writer is to make the expert's words
interesting, understandable, and entertaining. 

 >     I though ... here I go again, thinking.... the whole concept 
> behind GWAA
> was to bring the novice into the fold, to help them learn the ropes 
> and
> become "professionals".<

I'm not a GWAA member, so can't comment first hand. However, if this is
true, it's certainly not happening on the regional level. My
garden-writing student attended two regional meetings, and was very
turned off. According to her, the members were very cliquish, and very
non-open to beginners---whom they feel merely dilute the marketplace. At
both those meetings she felt she was consigned to a corner like a leper
with a bell on; somebody not allowed to hob-nob with the established
writers. 

I pushed her to attend the Orlando meeting (she almost didn't because of
her two earlier experiences), and found that meet to be very valuable on
all levels. So maybe there are two different GWAAs out there?

>     Are you saying that "professionals" do not get an ego boost from 
> seeing
> their name in print, only plain gardeners? <

Absolutely not. But ego boosting is not their prime motivation. What
motivates professionals is money, which, as Tolstoy and others have
noted, is the _only_ reason to write. How much of an ego boost a
professional gets usually is a function of time in grade. Me, I rarely
even read a story of mine once it's in print. I'm too busy generating new
pay copy. 

You might enjoy a quote I use in all my freelance writing courses. I call
it the writer's credo:

"Authors desire recognition.
Writers desire to be paid."

Wish I knew who first wrote that, so I could attribute it. But whoever
first said it hit the nail right on the head.

>I feel there is quite a bit 
> of them
> or us thinking going on here.<

You're right. This list has had many threads that reflect that. However,
that's not what I was doing. There is, far as I'm concerned, more than
enough work for everybody. All I was saying was that the garden writing
field has far more than it's share of people who don't know, or don't
care, about the rules. Which is why there are more infractions of those
rules in this field than in any other I'm familiar with. 


Brook


 
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