Occasionally Asked Questions
What does Southpaw Tales mean?
Left-handedness isn't as unusual as it was once considered, yet despite the ubiquity, associated little annoyances come up because of it on a regular basis. At the same time, we lefties often recognize and appreciate one another like Jeep people on the road. I'm still a fan of writing in notebooks and since I was a kid, have had messy, stain-filled hands from dragging them across the page. What can I say? We’re living in a right-handed world. It’s just a part of who I am that feels consistently present.
What corporate jargon drives you crazy?
Ugh. All of it. That isn’t to say I’m not guilty of throwing in a “thought leadership” here and a”bandwidth” there. Navigating corporate life sometimes means speaking in the language your peers have adopted. That said, I have the utmost respect for whoever first publicly recognized that ‘per my email’ is just a work appropriate way of saying, “Hey dummy, can you read?”
Do you prefer personal or professional writing?
Writing in my own voice is more natural and rewarding, but I approach both as an opportunity to share a story that resonates with a reader. My personal writing comes in many forms (some good, some terrible, all mine): lyrics, poems (my high school stuff is remarkably insufferable), blogs, essays, letters to the editor, post-it notes, short stories, etc. Like many writers, I feel compelled to write. It can be a difficult process, but it is no where near as suffocating as containing an idea that I need to get out.
My professional writing isn't always writing at all. I create blogs, white papers, briefs, social content and articles, but I also have the opportunity to create visual narratives using multimedia formats (AKA sometimes I make memes and GIFs for work). Either way, I ask myself the following questions:
Who am I trying to reach?
Does what I’ve written respect the reader’s time?
Is it enjoyable to read?
Is it valuable?
Could I have said the same thing with fewer words?
How do you feel about Merriam-Webster stating that “irregardless” is a word and “literally” can now mean “figuratively?
*Takes deep breath* I recognize that language evolves, and we too must evolve with it. I don’t have to like it in every instance. I’ll try to keep my judgment to a minimum, but irregardless (shudder), you will never find me writing literally and figuratively interchangeably.
Book recommendations?
Writing Without Bullsh*t by Josh Bernoff
New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Visual Intelligence by Amy E. Herman
Galileo’s Middle Finger by Alice Dreger
So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
More available upon request!