Instant Gratification Was Fast Enough

I just finished my five-week writing class, "Instant Gratification Isn't Fast Enough."

Let by Susan Shapiro, it was a terrific hands-on, uber-practical, no-nonsense dive into the world of creating and selling your work to publications. She does a great job of demystifying publishing and also fostering a workshop-like environment and giving tough critique to work we bring in based on her curriculum. Excited, too, to have so quickly built up a bit of a better nonfiction portfolio and know better how to creatework that sells and even have started to send out some of the essays, op-eds, and service pieces.

Sue Shapiro, a journalism professor at The New School and NYU, also has a new book Speed Shrinking coming out August 4. Pre-order it here. Sure to be hilarious.

Where is my bus?

I was so excited to see how Chicago bus systems let you track your bus from your phone, so you know how long you have to wait for the next bus. Especially helpful if you're in the cold or in a rush and debating between bus, walking or cab. Apparently, Portland and a few other cities are also already doing smart stuff like this.

New York's MTA was planning on rolling out something like it and started with a test starting in 2006, but in February, the MTA pulled the plug on the pilot for GPS for NYC Buses. So disappointed about this, especially now that I'm commuting mostly by bus to work on 11th Avenue.

New York should be on the forefront of innovation. Will research the excuses.

NPR's Place + Memory Project

I love this Place & Memory Project, just launched by NPR. 

The site says it is "recreating those places from our past that made their mark on us–but no longer exist."

There a phone line you can call into, a map you put a pin in and other ways of sharing or marking your place and story. 

Working on what I submit which might/ might not include:

• Terry Lou Zou
  
• "Toilet Bowl Hill" at Baltusrol Golf Course
• Springfield Nurseries fields (tricky since the Nursery still exists further down the road)
  
• Cul-de-sac on Ashwood Road
• Brewbar NYC

Most people post businesses so I might think of a few of those too.

Community CRM

Neighborhood shops along Ninth Avenue by my house bond together for opt-in list for customers. 

Not sure how each of the stores or all of them are going to back-end the data so they can share it and use it, but glad they're doing it. It's always a shame to me when everyone reinvents the wheel themselves when together, they could be stronger with little overlap and more combined power. 

Incentive to fill out: Win a $250 shopping spree at the shops. I happily did it and I'm sure others did too. Will try to find out the results.

Thanks to you, I got to write my a** off

Today was the 4th annual New York Writer’s Coalition Write-A-Thon. Called “Write Your A** Off,” it’s the second year I participated, independently raising just over $500 for free writing programs in New York for disadvantaged youth, seniors, veterans and others who can’t afford workshops. 

About fifty writers attended. Hard to tell but seems mostly amateur writers like me who simply want to get in the habit of doing more and need support from each other. Two I recognize from last year.

10-30-5.30PM

The writer-friendly, loosely-structured day was hosted at the charming Library for the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesman. Beautiful room of books and wood. They provided tables for writing with power supply, free workshops upstairs led by instructors, endless coffee and lunch plus a guest speaker -- published author Jennifer Belle — to talk about the craft. She was hilarious, and I’ll have to look into her work, such as Little Stalker and High Maintenance. She warned us against outlining things, holding back, forcing oneself to get up at 6a.m. to write because we heard we should, and most of all, from getting an MFA. She also talked about how publishing has changed recently, how contracts and deadlines really matter and plenty of writers have had books pilled for missing key milestones. Her deadline for her fourth novel is in about eight days. She cited exercises she gives to get people going when they’re stuck: Write about a friend you hate, or your favorite alcoholic. She also suggested agentquery.com to find a literary agent which I didn’t know about.

Got a fair amount of writing done -- deeper into a story I started a few weeks ago, some ruthless editing of an essay I want to resubmit some places, and some rough prose from the workshop exercises, each of which could become something. 

The race for the top spot

My fifth place finish in fundraising gave me a choice of many unusual and tempting prizes. I chose an astrology reading with a woman in Oregon. By phone.

The executive director, Aaron Zimmerman, had gotten a google alert about my posting on Friday on AdAge’s Digital Next column, so I explained to him my experiment in fundraising. He's also been trying different things as well.

Next year: Join me

Definitely doing this again next year and if you want to do some writing and be a part of it, I encourage you to do it. Thanks to all those who donated money -- not only do you a good tax deduction but you did a lot for me and for the writers across NYC who will benefit from your generosity.

Return to the Red Carpet

Today, I start as ECD of OgilvyOne, New York. 

My brief is to reinvigorate creative in response and reinterpret it for the modern, digital age using online and offline channels. It's a fantastic job, and there's no place I'd rather do it than Ogilvy.

David Ogilvy said direct marketing was his first love and his secret weapon. As many people know, I was at OgilvyOne for nearly six years starting in 1999. I straddled both OgilvyInteractive and OgilvyOne with one of the first hybrid digital-traditional groups covering a range of brands from Cisco to Enfamil. For me, Ogilvy has what great modern creative needs: the understanding of brand, the rigor of direct, the experience of digital.

After four years at two very different digital shops, I'm also returning for an integrated job. The past two years at Agency.com and the previous two at R/GA, have been rich with challenges, people and work — always busy, often innovative, occasionally breakthrough. I hope to bring some of the entrepreneurial spirit and behaviors back to Ogilvy. I am grateful to the people and clients at both shops who were so supportive of what I wanted to achieve with them and who gave me very long leashes to try things, to trust me with their brands, their briefs and the responsibility of helping run a very large piece of business — or even an entire office.

Read the Ogilvy press release here.

Stick, then Carrot: Scare to Response

"It's not safe to fill your prescriptions at multiple pharmacies," the bottom of my Rite Aid receipt read today after buying some new super-strength Febreze.

Then: 

"Transfer all your prescriptions to Rite Aid so we can monitor for dangerous interactions. Talk to a pharmacist today. Plus, ask for your $20 appreciation savings coupons."

Not sure how I feel about the execution of this strategy. Raising the issue of drug interactions and mistake is timely and good support for digitizing records (of which I am a big advocate). But scaring people with that clunky headline doesn't appeal and seems off-brand for service and neatness-challenged Rite-Aid, though admittedly I don't really know what the brand does believe in (though I do for CVS, which I adore).  Unlike CVS or many Duane Reads, Rite Aids in the city are usually kind of sloppy and disorganized which doesn't reassure they're so perfect behind crucial counters like the pharmacy, though I'm sure they're fine as anyone. 

The $20 coupons might get some response though but they seem oddly connected to the scare point above. If Rite Aid believes so much in the headline, then they should offer Safety Coupons or Clarity Coupons or something else that ties in.

This is the same space for the dial-in sweepstakes of which I was so fond and have yet to win. Though they could call any day.