Above is my old banner for this site: Wordworking.
Let me tell you a little story about the word 'wordworking' to explain why the old banner has been taken down and the title bar no longer contains it.
In September 2006 I decided to create a new blog dedicated to serve as a platform for some of my writings, as also as a chronicle of sorts of my struggles and successes on the path to becoming a successful freelance writer. After wracking my brain for a while trying to find a suitable title for my blog, I had a flash of inspiration. Or so I thought. Woodworkers work with wood, so it follows that people who work with words ought to be called wordworkers. Punderful, I thought.
I'm quite certain I googled the word 'wordworking' and received no direct hits. Thinking myself rather clever, I set up my blog and got to work taking pictures and designing a banner on Gimp (a free program similar to Photoshop).
Recently, simply to see how readily my site could be found in Google's search engine, I googled it again (it's so neat that this has become a verb!). Amid the near hits I found wordworking.com, Nancy Friedman's business website. Damn! A logophile, or word nerd, like me, she actually calls herself Chief Wordworker. Her business involves naming, branding, and writing. She also has a blog , Away With Words, on typepad.
I sent her an e-mail telling her about my site, and how I had sincerely thought I had been inspired when I came up with the name. In response, she told me about the experience she had when she tried to register her trademark for Wordworking back in 1997. Her story was even stranger, but I won't recount it here as it was told to me in private e-mail correspondence. The point is that inspiration isn't always original. I suspect there isn't much fresh air left to inspire, literally or figuratively.
In a nod to Nancy, I decided to change the name of my blog, especially since my writing career is still in it's infancy. That's not to say I haven't written a great deal--you should see the stack of essays I have amassed from my three bachelors degrees! Since I was already reworking the name of my blog a bit, I thought it best to freshen things up by designing an entirely new banner.
(A side note about images and graphics on this site--except for those appearing in ads, all are my original work. I take my own digital photographs and design my own banners. I should probably put this type of legalese in the sidebar in the near future.)
