Recently I stumbled across an ad seeking writers for a project that send shudders through my writerly bones. Here’s the gist of the ad, as paraphrased by me: We’re seeking a handful of talented writers to create five-star reviews of our fabulous products. You won’t need to buy or even use our products. Simply tell […]

If you were to believe the Internet—and who doesn’t?—the word “freelance” harkens back to circa 1820 when Sir Walter Scott first used the phrase “free lances” in his novel Ivanhoe to describe mercenaries who hired out their skill with a lance. Picture Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner but with a sharp stick instead of an […]

I’ll get around to “Ulysses.” And “Infinite Jest.” And “Middlemarch.” I swear. But first, I want to head over to The Shire and take one more quick spin with Bilbo, Frodo and Gandalf… When time endlessly stretches before you—in other words, when you’re young—you were able to make a viable argument in favor of rereading […]

Despite the fact that the Internet has become the go-to source for researching, most writers remain reference book junkies. I’m no exception. Inevitably this habit leads to dubious acquisitions. My copies of Roget’s Super Thesaurus, Merriam Webster’s Geographical Dictionary, and The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present,” for example, languish unopened […]

In ancient Greek theatre, there was a convention known as the deus ex machina, literally “the god from the machine.” This deus was a guy who, at a critical moment near the end of the play, would be lowered via crane onto the stage where he would fix everything up, righting all wrongs, bringing the […]

Your mission, at first glance, is simple: to create a corporate film, TV commercial or radio spot that makes people laugh. But the road from comedy concept to laugh riot is fraught with potholes. Too often, attempts at humor come across as annoying, crude, derivative or just plain lame. Many a director, producer, writer and […]

Soon after I first hit Portland, I landed a job as the creative director of a small advertising agency. One of my duties was creating spots for a bunch of local car dealerships. This job carried with it no small amount of stress, often generated by change orders that demanded an immediate modification to a […]