I'm very pleased to launch a new portfolio project, The Graph Paper.
This is a data-driven journalism site that analyses public datasets using a range of analysis methods.
It's developed out of my work over the past few years teaching both public affairs and data journalism - and also draws on the tech skills I've been working to push forward over the past few months.
The first post is a look at UK salaries since the turn of the millennium, for which I made graphs using Tableau.
The second takes on a few of the many issues around council tax, including a detailed look at the empty homes premium and its deployment by councils around the country.
I hope you find them interesting! There'll be more to come. Suggestions for topics are very welcome.
If you'd like to follow my working etc I've made files available on GitHub.
Really pleased to have written a feature for the Guardian, which came out last Friday. It’s on Górecki’s Third Symphony - the famous recording of which has just turned 30 - and you can read it here!
I tried out an AI copywriting program and it decided I was a beekeeper
A few weeks ago, not long after having some copywriting work cancelled, I was browsing LinkedIn and saw an ad for an AI copywriter.
So I decided to give it a spin, and size up the competition.
Be warned, human copywriters! This is what we are up against. It's called Anyword, and it seems to know a heck of a lot about me. Sadly much of it is nonsense.
It's easy to use, I'll give it that. I fed it my website URL, and it came up with all sorts of stuff. Here are a few of its more eyebrow-raising suggestions.
I have never kept a bee in my life.
There was some text on my website that said I'd written about bees. But... that's all.
I do like bees, it's true. They are great. But I am not a beekeeper. And while I do like writing about bees, ‘mostly’ is frankly a stretch.
This, too, is inaccurate. I have two degrees in classical music and worked in the industry for years; by contrast, I have read one (1) book about bees, and boast no formal bee qualifications.
I have absolutely no idea how it came up with this. There is nothing about silk purses or sows – or specifically British composers – on my website. I have written for Gramophone, though. Should I pitch them the article ‘How to make a silk purse out of a British composer’s ear’? I am not convinced that I should.
The three examples above are all attempts by Anyword to generate a Facebook post, based solely on whatever text it found on my website. They’re all written in what it calls its ‘Playful’ writing style. If you set the writing style to ‘Default’, the suggestions are, to be fair, pretty anodyne. Other style options include ‘Hard Sell’ and, perplexingly, ‘5th Grader’.
Another thing Anyword can ostensibly do is rewrite existing copy. For example, it took this text, which I wrote myself:
And ‘rewrote’ it thus:
You can probably spot some of the inaccuracies for yourself, but I’ll just quickly point out that I am neither 12 nor 11, my favourite colour is not blue, Mancunia isn’t a place, I am terrible at soccer, and 12-year-olds don’t generally go to primary school.
It’s right about me being a good writer, though 😉
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Because! This is not only a post about the shortcomings of AI/machine learning tools! It is also a brazen piece of self-promotion!
If you recall, at the top of the article, I subtly mentioned that I had recently lost some work. This means I have increased availability for other work!
Work that I am looking to take on includes writing, editing, and ghostwriting.
And if Anyword proves anything at all – to be fair, perhaps it doesn't – it's that machines are still some way off the pace when it comes to writing stuff. I am extremely confident that I am a far better writer and editor than Anyword.
Also, I don't always write in the slightly daft style (let's call it 'Whimsical') that I've chosen for this post.
Have you written a book? Are you attempting to write one but need help? Do you just want someone else to write the thing for you? Please feel free to get in touch.
Do you need a beekeeper? Please do not contact me if you do. I am not a beekeeper.
I care about my career deeply enough to be superficial
Sometimes it's good to be superficial. Here’s a photo of my face. Let me explain.
Saying something is superficial usually means it lacks depth; it's a pejorative, suggesting that ‘substance’ is being ignored in favour of ‘style’. But I wonder if the style < substance hierarchy is kind of nonsense.
As an editor, I’d say that I’m involved primarily with the surface level, the style, of a text. That’s obviously the case if all I’m doing is a light copy-edit, tidying it up. But it’s equally true if I’m doing a more detailed developmental edit: it’s not my job to change the writer’s thoughts or ideas (i.e. the substance), but to help express them better (the style).
That’s a really important job, because a poorly edited text won’t just not-communicate the writer’s intended ideas. It’ll communicate a different set of ideas altogether; it’ll give the wrong impression. The editor’s job is to make sure that style and substance match.
So I don't think it makes sense to say that style is less important than substance. The two are intertwined. Substance without style is useless too.
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I suppose I’ve only just realised that this is true not just when it comes to editing, but also in a freelance career generally.
It’s not enough just to know I’m good at my work, and to do a good job when I get the chance. If I don’t present myself to potential clients with the professional confidence that I feel – if I don’t actually communicate the fact that I’m good at this sort of thing – how will they know?
And, more to the point, what will they think of me instead?
Back to the photo of my face, then. The previous one I used (included again here in comically small form for contrast) basically just wasn’t very good. It was done out of a sense of obligation, and you could tell. It was a photo that screamed, This is adequate! This is more or less what I look like!
What else did it communicate to potential clients? I think it said that I knew I needed a vaguely professional-looking photo on my website, but didn’t take the issue seriously enough to get a proper job done. That I… didn’t think very carefully about style.
Partly, I guess, I used it because of a slight embarrassment or squeamishness about taking my appearance seriously. But partly there was also an arrogance involved: on some level, I think I believed that my work would, or at least should, speak for itself: that I didn’t need to try hard with a superficial thing like a photo.
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What’s changed? Well, for one thing, I lost a bit of work recently, when a client changed priorities. It wasn’t my fault that I lost the work, but the client wasn’t to blame either: we have a freelance arrangement, and there is no guarantee of work, ever. I’d become complacent in assuming it would continue. I’d got used to the idea that I didn’t need to market myself very much in order to get work.
That is never true as a freelancer! The harsh reality is that I should constantly be engaged in self-promotion. My face should be everywhere! It’s a scary thought, but my career depends on it.
And – perhaps, anyway – this is especially true for an editor, as someone who makes a living making sure that a writer’s style matches their substance. If I haven't thought carefully about my own style, why should you trust me with the style of your book?
So, yes, here is a professional photograph of my face. And with it, some of the things I hope it helps to communicate: I am a talented writer and editor. I am great to work with. I have a nice smile and like leaves. And I get it: style matters. That’s why editors have jobs.
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Last but very much not least: many thanks to Ania Pankiewicz for the photo.
I’ve just launched (after far too many months of planning) a new project, the website Talking Writing Music. This blog will feature detailed interviews with a range of contemporary composers, and I hope will prove interesting both to people involved in contemporary music, and to a wider audiences of curious individuals.
Please take a look – feedback is welcome, and if you have any queries or want to ask about possibly being featured, feel free to get in touch. No promises, though, as I’m doing this in my free time...
Our guest author from London reports about his new life in Saxony-Anhalt. Dinner for One at New Year's Eve: for him a great mystery.
Every New Year’s Eve, the whole of Germany watches the same old British comedy sketch. The quaint, preposterous vision of Britan this sketch depicts is drifting back into view as Brexit nears.
A young Brit will write a monthly column for Magdeburger Volksstimme about his new life in Saxony-Anhalt.
Ahead of my regular column for Volksstimme, the newspaper interviewed me about my move to Germany. I talk about hummus and doors, mainly. (Also Brexit.)
Reviewed by Paul Kilbey Colonialism is a numinous presence hanging over Die Stücke der Windrose. It is as if conquistadors have seized all the natives’ compasses and twisted them out of shape. That the cycle began with “East” is no coincidence: it is perhaps the most straightforwardly ironi
[Music & Literature] Lovely to write for M&L again - long review of Kagel’s wonderful work on CD.
