Anyway, this blog is going to be about writing. All aspects of writing, in fact. Topics like the character, plot, scene, sense, backstory, villains, heroes, anti-heroes, monsters, to name just a few. In between highly focused blogs about writing, there may be a smattering of philosophy, and though I will attempt with all my might to avoid it, perhaps some social commentary as well.

Ugh! I know, another blogger who somehow believes that the world give s a damn about his opinion! When will it end? Well, hopefully never. Personally, I swing wildly from the idea that the internet is down fall of culture and invention (all art suffers from our cultures collective bad taste), and the idea that the interwebs will be the salvation of the next few generations, allowing a stymied mankind the ability to kick-start their intellectual evolution.

I’ve been working with the interwebs or some aspect of it for longer than I can remember (or care to admit), and for me, it’s become sort of blasé. I’ve seen ten-hundred websites, representing the ten-thousand forms of ingenuity and human determination: the start-ups, the unique service, the niche vendor, the public service, the crusader, the blatant opportunist, the pleasure seeker, et al, ad nauseum.

The one thing they all have in common is the need for words, the need for convincing copy, brief, tight text that tells their version of the capitalist dream. Anyone who’s ever written ad copy before has heard this:

“I’ve been selling lawnmowers longer than you’ve been alive. I know the business.”

And we bite our tongues, us writers, and try desperately not to retort “Yes, but I’m the one with the degree in writing/marketing/advertising.” Good copy is a hard sell, no doubt. Like a good logo, everyone needs it, but no one is willing to fork over the bacon for the time it takes for a creative to pull genius from thin air and make your brand complete.

Internet technology makes good copy even more vital. The world of Search Engines and SEO forces web site owners to develop good content and continuously produce relevant topical information. But if I’m a web site owner, hiring (firing these days), buying stock, making deals, worrying about being hacked, protecting my customers data and all the rest of the headaches that come with entrepreneurial spirit, do I have time to sit down and draft some SEO-strong but catchy copy? Obviously not.

It’s a matter of the right tool for the write job. You never tell the doctor which needle to use, you never sneak up behind the plumber and tell him which wrench to use. So, why do business owners insist on writing the copy themselves? That philosophical quandary simply cannot be addressed in a mere blog. It would take more starships with more firepower than I’ve … oh wait, that’s a different movie.

I digress.

My suggestion is that writers learn the ins and outs of SEO and internet search engine marketing. Back in the day, softcore erotica and Penthouse Letters were the last bastion of starving fantasy and science-fiction authors. In this post-cyberpunk paradise, it’s the wordsmiths with the world wide wiki that make the bank and pay the bills. 

I’ve worked in Marketing, Advertising, Video Production, Education and Insurance. I’ve been a web developer, web designer, graphic designer, multimedia specialist and web content specialist freelance writer and I once even sold American Girl dolls for a semester. So, I’ve done some stuff. Strangely, I don’t much write about my work experiences (if I want to read about people suffering, I’ll look out the window). I will not be writing about my current employer. It would bore you to death anyhow.

Anyway, here’s the boilerplate:

Eric Staggs is a Wisconsin-based writer, known for his unusual sense of prose and an enduring passion for science- and speculative fiction. As a graduate of the Creative Writing program of Columbia College Chicago, Eric uses his skills to create thought-provoking and bone-jarring short stories and flash fiction pieces.

His perceptive and sometimes cutting film and restaurant reviews have been published repeatedly in the Wisconsin-based Arts and Entertainment magazine, Volume One.

Eric has worked as a professional freelance web content writer since 2006 and is currently working on his first full-length novel.

A few more things before we part ways for the moment. Napoleon said “One does not compose the Illiad by studying grammar.”

For a short French man, he was quite right. In college, I studied story and character, plot, scene and the mythology of adventure, the chemistry of tension, the techniques and tools of telling tall tales. I did not study demonstrative pronouns, gerunds or contranyms (if you did, you have my sympathies). So, please don’t expect my “gramma ta be all propa”. I write like I speak, with frequent pauses, parenthetical statements and alliteration galore. (read – gathering my thoughts, mumbling under my breath and penchant for rhyming like a poet who didn’t know it) Put another way, my English 101 class was called “The Origins of Creativity and how it manifests in Art, Literature, Poetry and Film” not “Composition and Grammar.”

As many of you may know, this month’s (Dec 2008) issue of Tales of the Talisman (http://www.talesofthetalisman.com) includes one of my more popular short stories, Space Whales.

To celebrate, I’ve moved my blog from my secret asteroid base to a more earthly location. I’ve reduced security droids and allowed the system’s AI to make my posts public. Check back often, as we’re expecting many changes in the upcoming months.