People Don't Read
As a professional technical writer for nearly 20 years, I should have this tattooed on my bones, but for some reason it always comes as a complete shock to me. Over the last week or so I’ve been combatting what, in retrospect, was a really stupid move on my part. As you may know, I write about web design and HTML for About.com. And About.com is in the midst of a lengthy birthing process of a redesign. Part of that was the (much appreciated by me) removal of the blogs. They weren’t removing our articles, weren’t stopping me from writing, weren’t even changing how the home page looked all that significantly. (Depending upon who you ask.) But, since I find all things web development interesting, I wrote about it in my newsletter of last week. I mentioned that the blog was going away, but that I was still going to be writing for About.com, just not in a blog tool. This resulted in a minor flood of responses asking me where I was going and if my articles would still be visible on the site and were the URLs changing (and one charming character telling me to f-off and take my dime-store web design skills somewhere else, and a bunch more about my lack of education and total idiocy in as profane a tone as he could come up with.) and so on. So this week, I decided to stem the tide, answer the common questions and generally reassure the people who like me that I wasn’t going anywhere. I wrote my newsletter with the subject: “I am not leaving About.com and other questions answered.” Do you see the problem? Mark pointed out that I should have written “I am staying at About.com and other questions answered.” But the part of me that is very literal balked at that subject, as it seems to imply that at one point I was leaving, and then changed my mind. Because, you see, the problem is that people don’t read. I know there have been studies showing that people are reading more than they used to—after all, teh interwebz requires more reading than TV does. [caption id=“attachment_831” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”]
This is how I read most of the time[/caption] And what’s really silly about this fact is that I’ve known it a long time. As far back as 1997, I was telling my readers “people don’t read websites, they skim them.” But the fact is that this applies to almost any type of reading, especially reading online.
the package[/caption] And here’s the tracking page: [caption id=“attachment_818” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”]
on USPS.com[/caption] What’s upsetting to me is how it was received at the post office. I walked into our local branch and stood in the line (2 people in front of me). When I got to the front of the line I handed the package to the postal worker and asked for her to scan it and give me a receipt. She replied “you already have one, you just go online and type in the number and it’ll show you the tracking.” Then, and this is the worst part, she takes the package, and tosses it over on another public counter. Then she smiles and asks to help the next person in line. She didn’t scan it, didn’t put it in a box, did nothing with it beyond putting it on a counter. And of course, three hours later as I write this post, it hasn’t been scanned. For all I know it’s still sitting on that counter. What is UP with the USPS? How is this considered “tracking?” When I have a box for FedEx or UPS, I take it to the shipping counter and they scan it into their system right then! Then when it’s moved off the counter and onto a truck it’s scanned again_!_ And so on until it is “on a truck for delivery.” And did you notice the other flaw? On the package it states that it’s being sent “Priority Mail 2-Day” but on the website it says that the postal product is “Priority Mail 1-Day.” Which is it USPS? 
But I’m also doing an unofficial version, attempting to write 50,000 words of non-fiction through the month, as well. I realized that I can write about 1200 words of non-fiction in about an hour, so adding another half hour would give me 1800 words which is more than the daily minimum of 1667 words to win at NaNo. Add to that that this character of Christine has been plaguing my dreams every night. She wants me to tell her story. I figure I have to do it. Status for today, November 1, 2013: Fiction: 2060 words Non-Fiction: 2126 words If you’re doing NaNo this year, lets connect! If you’re not, please hold me accountable. I want to WIN this year. I think I can do it. I’ve already written 4186 words after all!