Two cents worth

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” It’s an old ad slogan-turned-cliché built around a simple truth – an image can do the work of many words.
So what is the worth of a word?
As part of my job as a freelance writer, I spend part of nearly every day looking for jobs on the Internet. I don’t rule anything out. I check government job postings, journalism job sites, newspaper classified ads, and on-line help-wanted pages at community bulletin boards.
I’m looking for writing jobs, but I tend to approach the ads with an “I could do that!” attitude and find myself dreaming about second careers as a veterinarian (too much school), EMT (I missed the age requirement) or dancer (don’t have to tell you why not).
Craigslist, the free classified ad site that publishes 40 million new ads each month, has proven effective but frustrating. Among the ads that have resulted in jobs (two) are an untold number of “experienced writer wanted” ads that play to a writer’s ego but not her wallet.
Many Craigslist job descriptions are written so poorly that it’s obvious they aren’t really looking for writers (unless it's to write their ads!) But even some of the most respected Web sites featuring good writing pay poorly – one offers a 10th of a cent per view, and many don’t pay at all, other than “the reward of seeing your work in print.”
When I worked full-time at a newspaper, I was paid by the week, not by the word. Most weeks, I churned out thousands of words for that salary; other weeks, fewer. I wasn’t getting rich, but I knew my craft was valued by my fellow writers and my newspaper’s readers. I was a writer. I had a job people respected.
Today, “writer” has been devalued, at least on the Internet, where a writer might never go beyond the 140-character syntax of Twitter.
My friends who are avid readers still cherish good writing. We talk often about books and outstanding magazine and newspaper articles. My friends who are writers still look for magical writing as well.
And I’m grateful that many people still understand the value of words as images and images as words.
Gaylon Wampler’s photograph of a sparkling aspen tree on a dark hillside (http://www.gaylonwamplerphotography.com/) is a visual essay that, without words, addresses the beauty of a singular tree, a fall night, and a chance encounter with nature.
And an essay by noted naturalist and author Ann Zwinger also paints a picture, this time with words that dance across the page: “Aspen has éclat, a glorious brashness in defiance of the rules, the flapper who does the Charleston in the midst of the grand waltz. The landscape would be dull indeed without them.”