Guess I’m supposed to be blogging about stuff

Guess I’m supposed to be blogging about stuff

Posted inRandom Musings, Rants, Writing
Blogs are like great weights affixed to your neck, or rather, like a 200-pound sets of car keys. You don't want to carry the damn things around, but the car won't start without them. It's been a while since I've blogged here. Probably should have stayed current. Should have been updating all along. Could have talked about this project or that, or merely talked about James Gandolfini passing away and why Bruce Springsteen is probably better than I give him credit for and why the Akira manga is crazy good. Yet the truth is, I'd rather be working on new…
Sandy from the Jersey Shore island perspective

Sandy from the Jersey Shore island perspective

Posted inWorks by Eric, Writing
I've already mentioned that I am writing about Hurricane Sandy from my perspective. Swell, I suppose, but more important than that is trying to tell the story of other people who lived through the storm. My Sandy story, after all, is pretty tame compared to what many went through. And it really is. Yes, the Hurricane Sandy videos I posted seem kinda neat if you didn't live through it, but that's all they were. Kinda neat. Prior to the videos the water was two feet HIGHER. It sounds kind of nuts, and yes, the night of the storm was WILD,…

25 Things You Should Know About Plot

Posted inWriting
Chuck Wendig brings us an excellent blog post called 25 Things You Should Know About Plot. It's about ... well, I bet you've already figured that part out. Here's an excerpt: Let Characters Do They Heavy Lifting Characters will tell you your plot. Even better: let them run and they’ll goddamn give it to you on a platter. Certainly plot can happen from an external locus of control — but you’re not charting the extinction of the dinosaurs or the lifecycle of the slow loris. Plot is like Soylent Green: it’s made of people. Characters say things, do things, and…
Hurricane Sandy: How We Saw It

Hurricane Sandy: How We Saw It

Posted inWorks by Eric, Writing
When I was asked to engage in some first person journalism about being at the Jersey Shore for Hurricane Sandy, I was both excited to do it and a little hesitant. Excited because, like everyone at the Shore who experienced the storm firsthand, I wanted to share my experience with others. After all, that's what you DO when it comes to life-altering experienced. You talk about them (even if just with a few videos). But hesitant because, unlike so many people in my area, including friends and family, my family and I came through okay. Oh, we lost some cars…
Why journalists hate their life, redux

Why journalists hate their life, redux

Posted inRandom Musings, Rants, Uncategorized
A few days ago I shared why journalists hate life, namely, the sheer ineptitude of management that seems hellbent on driving papers to extinction, kicking employee morale in the face while doing it. This is an industry-wide problem that is killing newsroom after newsroom and making reporters, frankly, not really give a damn about their job anymore. Well, here's another story, courtesy of KC Confidential: The Kansas City Star has told reporters Karen Dillon and Dawn Bormann that one of them has to leave the paper, and they — not management — have to decide who goes. “Dillon has seniority,…