october 28 lac

My first writing job was at Hour Magazine in Montreal. As a film and music critic, my job —— for that first year, anyway —— mostly involved writing capsule reviews for films and albums. For the films I'd either get a screener on DVD (it was 2005) or an invite to a 10am critics' screening that were held at various movie theatres in Montreal. For the albums, I'd check my box in our office to see what CDs my editor Jamie had assigned to me, pop into his office to ask if anything was time sensitive, and then head home to uncap a beer and then pop the top of my beloved JVC FS-1000GR Micro Stereo System and get to work. Today I found myself talking to Daniel, my co-conspirator over at The Rocker Step, about this experience within the context of writing in general. The gist, for anyone who gives a fuck about getting better at writing, was that to write well you need to a) learn how to write short and economical b) understand why you are keeping/cutting what you keep/cut Writing is like…