Wordsplash!

Film at 11?

Be careful how you use metaphors. I got a good laugh out of this line, from the introduction to a CNN iReport:

"This video is hot off the press."

Hopefully, I do not need to explain to you why video cannot be "hot off the press."  But there's also a more subtle term people often use to describe video -- a term I was given stern warning never to use when I studied television news in college because it is technically inaccurate.

That term is "filming." Video cameras don't use film. If you capture something with a video camera, you are not filming it. You are taping it.

This raises a question I don't have a quick answer to though. What's the correct term if you are using a digital camera, one that uses neither film nor video tape? I'm guessing that "filming" will stick, even as technology changes. I just wonder if one day, people will be explaining to their grandkids what "film" once was.

Have a question about language or a thought to share? Drop me an e-mail.

Brain Injuries Cause "Foreign Accent Syndrome"

If you study a foreign language, getting the correct accent down can be a challenge. But what if you suddenly developed a foreign accent in your native language, and couldn't avoid talking with it?

MSN reports today on a rare condition known as "Foreign Accent Syndrome," in which victims of strokes, brain tumors, and other head injuries, sometimes start speaking with what sounds like a foreign accent.

Read the article here.

Passports with Purpose: Win a Free Writing Consultation with Dave Fox!

My pal, Beth Whitman, author of Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo, and her new follow-up, Wanderlust and Lipstick for Women Traveling to India, has just launched Passports with Purpose, a travel-themed raffle to support Heifer International, along with fellow travel bloggers Debbie Dubrow of DeliciousBaby, Pam Mandel of Nerd’s Eye View, Michelle Duffy of WanderMom. And... I am among the prize donors.

Buy yourself a ticket, and you could win signed copies of my two books, Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad, and Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals (and still have time to enjoy your trip!) But wait... there's more! Along with these two books, the winner will receive his or her choice of either a one-hour writing consultation with me in Seattle (or anywhere else I happen to be traveling), or a critique via phone or e-mail of any 1,000-word-or-less piece of writing.

Here are some of the possible topics we can talk about if you are the lucky winner:

• How to break into freelance writing, identify markets for your work, and pitch ideas to editors
• How to turn your travel journals into polished, publishable essays
• Tips to make your humor writing funnier and get more laughs
• Tips on infusing humor into other styles of writing to hold the reader's interest
• Motivational strategies to help you write more, write better, and break through writer's block
• Ways to tighten up your writing so your words have maximum impact with your readers
• A review of your travel (or other) journals to help you capture more meaningful stories and/or achieve greater personal growth
• ...Or anything else you can think of! (Feel free to drop me an e-mail if you want to run an idea by me!)

With the holidays coming up, this might also be a groovy gift for a writer you know. (And if you don't win, I will also be announcing my new critiquing and consulting service for writers soon. E-mail me if you are interested, or subscribe to my mailing list.)

And this is just one of the prizes you can win. Beth's "Passports with Purpose" raffle is teeming with other nifty prizes such as a three-night stay at the Wyland Waikiki in Hawaii, a cultural food tour of Harlem, camera gear, travel clothes and gadgetry, world music CDs, and more.

"Dave! Dave! How do I buy my tickets?"

Thank you for asking. Tickets cost 10 bucks each, and all proceeds will benefit Heifer International, an organization dedicated to ending hunger, poverty, and other forms of suffering around the world.

To enter, check out Beth's Passport with Purpose page on her blog.

Imperfect Imperfection

I was talking with a fellow travel writer friend last week about how perfectionism tends to limit my productivity as a writer. I spend too much time editing and revising a single essay or article to make it "perfect" before pitching it, when I could have written and sold five or six "good enough" articles in the same time. This is a common problem among writers, and, in my opinion, one of the greatest causes of writer's block.

My friend agreed. "Yeah, Dave," she said. "Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good."

I liked that sentence so much, I scribbled it on a scrap of paper.

Yesterday, I found that scrap of paper in a pile on my desk. I rewrote the sentence on a business card. Then I found some tape, to tape it to my computer monitor.

The tape was a roll of clear packing tape, almost wide enough to cover the entire business card. Perfect, I thought. I just needed to trim the business card a bit, and then fasten it to the monitor. But where were my scissors?

My desk was a mess. I couldn't find them.

I spent seven or eight minutes, wandering from room to room, wondering where I had put my scissors. I grew more and more frustrated.

Then it hit me... my perfectionism gets so bad sometimes, it doesn't just affect my writing. I was being a perfectionist about taping up a note telling me not to be a perfectionist.

"You don't need scissors!" I yelled at myself. "Just tape the damn card on the computer... NOW!"

So I did. It hangs out over the edges of the tape... and in doing so, it serves its purpose even better, of reminding me that sometimes you just have to get things done and move on to the next project.