Here’s the conundrum. I was trained as a journalist, then wound up writing copy for large and small companies in large and small cities on the east and west coasts of America. As a journalist, you generally get out of the way of your content. As a copywriter and organizer of information, you also clear the path for the content to come through. You channel. You encourage. You cajole. You first get into the head of the reader, then you learn about your topic and write and design what you think the reader needs or wants to know and see, based on market research (if the budget allows), or your own wild imaginings of what’s in the reader’s mind.

So then, after so many years of getting out of the way, I’m looking at a blog space, filling it with content, one character at a time. Time to get in the way.

I’m imagining that you’ve come here to learn about what I care about. I’m getting in the way, writing about what’s in my own mind, while still mindful of what’s in yours. Here are 5 defining principles for what I’m about. All subsequent blogs will touch on or explore these 5 points:

1. Clear communication.
2. Playing by the guidelines of grammar and composition.
3. A horror of boredom.
4. A love of storytelling, through words and images.
5. A crusade against petty larceny: the stealing of other people’s work, either through the sin of omission or outright lying.

There. That wasn’t so bad. I’m in the way. See you next time.

–Boss Dog.