Do You Offend When You Hit 'Send'?

By Jill Earl

In ‘The Freelance Union’, WOW!’s April ’08 issue, columnist Hope Clark strikes gold once again by offering valuable advice to new writers making their way through the writing business in her column, Funds 4 Writers: Dodging The New Writer-In-The-Headlights Look. What really opened my eyes was the section entitled, ‘When to Argue’, for when you’re online.

How many times have you received an email or found yourself scrolling through your favorite forum or chat and someone posts something that leaves you speechless, in a negative way? And, baby, you’re ready to rumble, typing up a response guaranteed to sear eyebrows! But, should you jump into the fray?

Hope's answer is no, that it’s never a good time to argue, and offers solid reasons for putting careful thought into your comments before you send them out. For me, a key reason for holding your cyber tongue is to keep from destroying a budding career.

Nowadays it takes nothing to Google a name and come up with links to everything that person’s name is attached to, even negative content. That could be a possible turn-off to potential editors, publishers, even future readers.

Check out the rest of Hope’s column by surfing over to http://wow-womenonwriting.com/20-Funds4Writers.html

Thanks, Hope!