Brendiver's World

Who Needs People When You Have Talking Computers?

For those of you who have been on my workshops and seminars, you'll already know one of my top tips for improving your writing is to read it out aloud, and then get someone else to read it back to you.

By using this technique I guarantee you will find all the gremlins that make your copy read weird. But what do you do when there is no one else around?

David Kittos, who was on my last workshop, has come up with the answer, and although I don't profess to understand any of it, he assures me it works.

Thanks for the contribution David. Computers that talk - whatever next.

Keep writing...

Brendan

Computer, please check my article

OK, this is a slight exaggeration, but while completing the article about
Puerto Galera, I managed to get my PC to read it aloud for me.
"Delegating" this task allowed my mind to focus on finding and correcting
flaws such as paragraph flow, grammar mistakes and repeated use of the same
word. I went through each paragraph about 10 times, fixing mistakes and
replaying it, until it sounded good.

I am using standard software which most people have - Windows XP and MS
Office 2003. I don't know how you can do this on a Mac - sorry!

So if you are getting a friend to read your articles aloud for you consider
this: your PC will not complain that it's bored or that it needs a break
for a cuppa and/or some nicotine. It just keeps doing as it's told!!

Now for the techie bit. This shouldn't take more than 20 minutes from
start to finish.

Prerequisites
- Windows XP SP2 with multimedia stuff installed (i.e sound card and
speakers)

In the Control Panel, find the Speech icon and double click on it. There
should be a "Text to Speech" tab with at least one item (voice) in the
"Voice Selection" menu. It may be called "Microsoft Sam" but there may be
additional voices you can choose. With a voice selected, click the
"Preview voice" button and you should hear a synthetic voice that sounds
like Stephen Hawkins. If this step didn't work, don't proceed with the
rest of the process.

- MS Office 2003 (SP2) full installation

How to do this.
1. This is the technical bit, and I am not claiming credit for this.
Follow the instructions in the URL below to the letter.

http://www.gmayor.com/word_text_to_speech.htm

If you can't find the bit about "Microsoft Speech Object Library" described
in the instructions, you may not have a full Office 2003 installation and
the rest of the steps will not work.
The only easy option here is to do a full MS Office 2003 installation.

Also if you are not familiar with the VBA editor, use the help facility
(it's very good).

2. After you have finished with the instructions in the website, you should
have a MS Word template with a new toolbar with two buttons: "Speak Text"
and "Stop Speaking".

Turn your speakers ON and make sure that the sound volume in NOT muted.

If you have attached the macros and toolbar to the Normal template
(normal.dot), then create a new document and type some text in it (or just
paste the contents of another document).

Select a paragraph using the mouse and click the "Speak Text" button - it
should start reading out your text.

The voice isn't really natural but you get used to it!!

Click the "Stop Speaking" button if you've had enough.

3. There are more natural sounding voices that can be added (from third
parties) but they are not free. Check the URL:
http://www.bytecool.com/voices.htm for more information.

Note that we are interested in SAPI5 voices (not SAPI4) . Also I haven't
tried any of these 3rd party products myself (yet).

Best of luck.

DK

Your Story - Elaine Whiteford

Thanks to Elaine Whiteford for her words of encouragement to keep this site going.

Elaine has her own website devoted to underwater photography, film making and photojournalism called Sublime Scuba Photography.

Since 2005 she has been published in a variety of magazines including: The Scots Magazine, The Undersea Journal, The Scottish Wildlife Trust magazine, Chic Chat, DYK magazine (did you know this was owned by the DIVER group?), Nature Photographers Online magazine and DIVER magazine. All of this has been achieved over the past three years - or has it?

Elaine talks about the numerous rejections prior to getting her first article accepted - an all too common story. The magazines she has been published in do not appear to have any contributor guidelines, which often leads to rejection from would be contributors as they submit articles that are not suitable. Note how I say 'not suitable' - they may be very well written and the pictures may be stunning, they're just not what the editor is looking for at that time.

Most budding photojournalists don't realise that even though a magazine doesn't publish any contributor guidelines, they effectively do through their magazine. An analysis of a year's worth of any magazine will tell you precisely what the editor is looking for. Although this process may take time, it will remove the frustration of rejection and reduce the amount of time spent preparing articles that don't get published.

I guess the worth of conducting such analysis is demonstrated in my own story - my first year of submissions were accepted and published in Sport Diver, Scuba World and DIVER, as well as in a handful of non diving related titles. Since then I have only had one article returned as opposed to rejected - it was initially accepted but after two years of knocking around in the editor's 'for publication' box, it had gone past its sell by date. (See "Workshops and Seminars" in the right hand column of my site - during these I spend time on the techniques and practicalities of analysis)   

From Elaine's website it is clear that she has been pro-active in promoting her photographs at every opportunity, from exhibitions to competitions, she has managed to get her name 'out there' very effectively.

Elaine is proof that anyone (can you put two sentences together? That's enough, the rest can be worked on) can get published. I don't say this out of any disrespect for Elaine's work - it's very good, it has to be otherwise it wouldn't get published. Her story is similar to mine, I have no journalist or writing qualifications other than an 'O' -level (basic 16 year old stuff) in English Language. So, if we can do it - so can you.

I'll be featuring more successful photojournalists in the future, but in the meantime, here's Elaine's story in her own words:

How I Managed To Break Into The Photojournalism World And Get Published?

By Elaine Whiteford

Well, it was more of a stumble, really, albeit a stumble at the end of a long and weary journey. But it is important to remember that you don’t get from start to finish without going on a journey; overnight success is very rare.

My journey, like that of many others, was full of rejections. If you are serious about breaking into photojournalism, though, you have to take rejection in your stride, treat it as an occupational hazard and carry on with what you want to do – which is write and photograph. Articles get rejected for lots of reasons, even if they are well written and well photographed. They also, of course, get rejected because they are sub-standard. Let experience be your teacher and grow your experience by keeping writing and by reading the work of others.

Anyway, back to my stumble into photojournalism. Taking as read the years of blood, sweat, tears and rejection, I kept writing and persevering with submissions. My breakthrough finally came when I approached an international journal with an unsolicited dive travel piece.

Although a rejection came whizzing back, it was a rejection with a difference because it came with a question: the editor didn’t think the piece I had submitted was right at that time for the journal but, since I was in touch, did I have anything similar on Barbados since they were looking for a feature on the island?

Well, I didn’t: but I had been to Barbados and I did have photographs so I could prepare a similar article. Thus as any aspiring photojournalist would, I replied that I did have an appropriate piece and turned the article around in 24 hours. The submission was accepted and that was that – I had a cover and a further 25 images in a 2000 word article spread over multiple pages. While I may have stumbled as I broke into photojournalism, as first publications go, the Barbados piece was a pretty substantial feature.

There is no secret to getting published. Success is usually a combination of hard work, perseverance, quality writing and photography, serendipity. And the good news is, you can control all but the last of these!

Word & Copyright - Elaine Whiteford

Don't just take my word for it

Thanks to Mina for this next train of thought. Mina does some pretty cool stuff above and below water and sent me an e-mail with some thoughts on how the magazine industry works outside of the diving world.

As follows:

Your new blog site is as great and informative as your seminar. Of course, I singed up for the update : ) Recently, I have been shooting more underwater fashion at a pool and submit them to fashion magazines. The submission guideline for the fashion magazines are probably very similar to underwater magazines. First, we need to contact an editor to find out future theme and submission deadlines for future issues. Then, make a preliminary submission with low jpeg images via e-mail. The editor will present all the submissions to the board, and the board choose the story to publish. The difference, probably, is unless the editor likes your portfolio, the magazine will not open doors to a photographer.........

Keep shooting and writing!

Happy diving.

Mina

From Mina's experience, the fashion world seems quite difficult in getting your foot in the door. In the diving magazine industry you might only have to pitch to one person, and your copy will probably sell the piece more than your photographs. That is unless you have something stunning in your portfolio which hasn't been published elsewhere.

I would suggest the lesson here is that there are no right or wrong ways, just ways that work for the magazine you are pitching to. I'd be interested in publishing posts from other sectors or from within the diving magazine industry on how you managed to get your copy and photographs accepted. I guess this is why there are no "how to..." books on this subject?

Keep writing.....