While You Were Writing: 08/03/12

By Sara Castillo, under While You Were Writing. Sara Castillo is a blogger, entertainment writer and editor.

As always, we’re busy reading the wires and scanning pages of magazines to find what we consider the top reads for freelance writers interested in perfecting their craft and building their business. This week: freelance powers activate!

Now, on to the stories and happy Friday!

You may have already read it, but this is the biggest writer-related story of the week: Guy Adams was banned from covering the Olympics on Twitter because of his tweet which included NBC exec Gary Zenkel’s email address and a battle cry telling readers to send their complaints his way. (His account is now reinstated.) Was Twitter wrong? According to most coverage, yes. Mashable.com calls the entire event a “tempest in a tea cup” while the Atlantic claims his actions were “not that damnable.”

Ok, perhaps, THIS is really second to the biggest story of the week: How a freelancer, yes, a FREELANCER, “unraveled Jonah Lehrer’s lies” (the Daily Beast’s words, not mine). “Michael Moynihan, a freelance journalist who fairly bursts with enthusiasm, insists he took no pleasure in exposing the fabrications that cost Jonah Lehrer his job at The New Yorker. ‘Our conversations were incredibly cordial,’ Moynihan says. ‘Dare I say, I liked the guy,’” The Daily Beast reports.

Journalists have many positive qualities. They’re tenacious, inquisitive, go-getters. But no one has ever complimented them on their physiques. This story could be why. The Washington Post.com’s Amy Gardner chronicles a journalist’s life in complimentary snacks.

Gizmodo asks the question: Does technology make the writer? Specifically, how are dictation tools changing the way we look at language and influencing the work we produce? Molly Oswaks is scared of most things technological. “I think and edit and write and go back. I worry the technology would be to snappy and quick for my style. That it would be too good,” Oswaks said.

Foodie? Intellectual? Smart eater? Brilliant face stuffer? Whatever the term, the Huffington Post freelancer Nick Kolakowski (@nkolakowski) has you covered with the best books for the intellectual eater. So, stuff it in your brain, or your gob, you’re still alright.

Remakes of classics. They are everywhere, the newest being the remake of Stephen King’s traumatic teen opus, “Carrie.” The Awl chronicles the history of “Carrie” and King’s rise to best-selling fame . “When the novel was published in hardcover in 1974, it wasn’t reviewed by any of the major publications, though it got a tiny plaudit in the New York Times from someone writing the mystery column …” the Awl reports.

And finally, ”Gore Vidal, the elegant, acerbic all-around man of letters” died on Tuesday and is remembered by The New York Times … Pubslush becomes a Kickstarter for writers … Do science journalists need to have a PHD for the field they cover? … Star-Ledger sports writer Steve Politi compares the “two types” of American journalists at the Olympics, and anyone who has ever covered a press conference will know what he’s talking about … and is this the worst word on the planet?

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Image courtesy of Flickr, Burgerporn