Green scripts, and spam 16 Sep 20094 Oct 2017 First see here, then see here. Oops: HT: Richard Grant. Humor
Administrative Recursions 28 Feb 2008 Janet asks what others have asked – what is science blogging all about, after a bully in the schoolyard taunted us Sciencebloggers. Her questions (and her answers) are very like mine, so I will steal them, below the fold. Read More
Humor Begging that damned question 26 May 201426 May 2014 Something that bugs the hell out of me, literally, is the misuse of English. Of course, I was trained as a subeditor in the days when such things mattered even to journalists, so I am a fossilised dinosaur in this respect. I even try to use adverbs correctly. One thing… Read More
It gets freakin’ ridiculous at times for me even though I clearly tell people I don’t claim to be a professional writer (I only have earned $11 from adsense for my blog.) When people ask me what I do for a hobby, and I tell them that I noodle with blogging, they immediately launch into full outline of the book idea that they have been working on for years. They want me to tell me all the niggling details on a smoke break. I have one buddy at work who has a four-book series plotted out, and I ask him if he practices writing each day just to get the craft down. He doesn’t. I’ve invited him to guest blog at Quiche Moraine. He doesn’t think it is all that important just to write. And that is what Olson is referring to when he says people don’t want to write, they just want to sell a story. It might be a good story, but nobody is going to just “read it,” and buy it if it isn’t well-written. And how do you get your name on the credits? Practice, practice, practice.
I should clarify something in case Brian reads this. Getting a preliminary draft of a chapter of Brian Switek’s book on evolution was a welcome treat and I highly enjoyed reading it.