How 'Hot Meal' Helps Hungry Writers

I am a professional writer, and I find it a bit embarrassing to admit, but I never learned to type.

Sure, I use a keyboard every day. I make my living by turning thoughts into published words like these. But I never took typing lessons, so instead of involving all ten fingers, I do a modified version of “hunt and peck” with just two.

Yes, yes—I know. I’m sure I could churn out letters and punctuation marks more smoothly if I didn’t have to look down for them. I could probably master keyboarding in a matter of weeks if I put my mind to it. So why don’t I?

Easy answer: Because some skills increase my ability to earn money and typing isn’t one of them.

Skills That Deliver

How quickly or accurately I type doesn’t show up on this page. You have no idea whatsoever how long I deliberated over these very words.

For some writers, productivity may be a function of typing speed, but I am methodical when I write. I tend to edit as I go, thinking more slowly than I type, so having faster fingers would do me little good at all.

On the other hand, there are some learnable skills related to writing that really do fill my rice bowl. One of them is a familiarity with typography. Another is training in proofreading and editing, with emphasis on the Chicago Manual of Style .

And I can’t leave out my very favorite skill, the one that I think of as the “secret weapon” in my freelancing arsenal: Hot Meal.

No, I’m not going foodie on you. “Hot meal” is a mnemonic. It's how I remember the acronym for Hypertext Markup Language or HTML—the language used to write pages and web sites for the Internet.

Remembering the order of those four letters used to confuse the bejeezus out of me. Was it HMLT or HMTL or HLTM?  That’s why I call it “HoT MeaL.” It’s so much easier than Hyper-something-something-something.

Knowing Code = Making Money

So why is HTML such a money maker? For one thing, many clients insist on writing that attracts the attention of search engines as well as readers. Creating content for “search engine optimization” (SEO) requires knowing at least a little about “tags,” the basic building-blocks of web pages.

Also, when conducting research, it is often useful to look at hidden keywords and descriptions as well as the text that is displayed. By knowing HTML, I can pull up the source code for a web page and examine its innards.

It isn’t necessary to become a programmer to leverage knowledge of HTML for successful project bids. Sometimes just the mere mention of being conversant in “Hot Meal” is enough to win an assignment. And now you’ll be one up on all of the hungry writers who can’t get the four letters in the proper order, too.

In my next Diary entry, I’m going to share how a “celestial being” gave me the absolute best advice I ever got when I was starting out as a freelance writer and why it still holds true today.

T.A.J.