No One Can Stop You

I was very interested in watching Watson on Jeopardy! this week. I was rooting for the humans but am excited about the possibilities for computer interactions in the future. I am not worried about them, I think they will be helpful.

Later, I read Ken Jennings article on Slate. What I remember about the article is how he approached competing with the machine. The machine was cold and calculating, while contestants’ minds might cloud over with thoughts of their competitors. He talked of competing too aggressively the first days and coming out a loser. And then relaxing and competing, not with the machine, but with the other human. You should read his article, it’s very interesting and I’m probably getting parts wrong, but it all comes down to playing mind tricks.

I have a list of life lessons that I keep. One I heard from a bunch of former NBA basketball players. Eerp, I can’t remember all of their names so I won’t say any of them but they are commentators on TNT, two regulars, one a guest. I am a big fan of basketball. Anyway, they were talking about how a certain big-time NBA player admitted that some other players were good at guarding him. The TNT commentators, again all former players, were going on-and-on about how a player should NEVER say or admit something like that, that it is like telling everybody a secret. At most the player should say, “they make me work harder.” And that great players would say, “no one can stop me.” Head games, right? The lesson I took from this was, “no one can stop you!”

What does this have to do with writing? I sometimes find myself second-guessing my writing and often it’s in relation to other writers. I get trapped thinking, “how would they write?” And really it should be just me finding my voice and keeping it, front and center. Mind tricks and head games come in handy at times.

Who is my childhood hero? Jane Goodall

I am a big fan of Twitter, I think I realized I am a bit of an info-junkie. Not sure what to do with it all, but I like it. I am also amazed by who I can follow, just about anybody; including my childhood hero, Jane Goodall. Or at least her institute.

When I was just five or six years-old my parents started getting me the kid’s supplement for the National Geographic magazine. I would read that cover to cover. From that thin magazine I learned about Goodall’s work. If someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would answer, “An ethologist.” And if they asked what that was, I would have said, “Someone who studies animals in the wild.” Beyond that my goals were a little fuzzier: I didn’t want to study primates, but I wanted to study in Africa, maybe study giraffes or zebras. My oldest sister later gave me a book written by Goodall and I devoured it. Her story, life and research amazed me. That’s what I wanted to do, study animals, live in the wild, make a difference for the wildlife. I spent hours daydreaming about living in Africa, scoping out animals from a hillside watching their movements.

Life has its twists and turns. I was a wildlife biologist, but not an ethologist. And that’s okay. I made it to Africa, but not to live. And that’s okay too. My passion for our world and the life on it remains and I try to share that passion through my writing.

And there is Jane Goodall, fighting her good fight and still my role model. @JaneGoodallInst

Whew- Just a dream

Last night I had some very active dreams. The first was about some rabbits being left in a cage. They needed to be rescued… But that has nothing to do with writing.

I have an image of a soft train- the size kids can ride in. Somehow this train is padded, maybe with fabric, maybe with straw. I am not even sure it’s a train- it might just be a bunch of flat, toy wagons tied together. The first one that rolls by is fairly clean and off-white. In my mind, I say that it is a draft. Progressively each section or wagon has more stuff on it and looks a little messier- I keep saying to myself that these are subsequent drafts. But they have straw sticking everywhere, mud and blood, piles of trash… The last wagon is an absolute disaster. To prove it, it has a Red Cross flag sticking out of it. More blood, bones even, trash… I woke up as it was approaching me. What does it mean?

A little anxiety being worked out? Perhaps.

The dream works as a metaphor for the writing process as I try so hard to clean out trash from each draft. But I definitely want to make the train go the other way from disaster to clean. And certainly, often, my first drafts are disasters. Still, a dream is a dream and I don’t want to over think it.

Fortunately, the rabbits were rescued as were the sheep, goats and dogs.

Watson alert

I am a fan of Jeopardy! I am also a fan of words and how they can be fun, have nuance, mean two things at once… So… I am very intrigued about how IBM’s Watson computer will do against human competitors. Watson will compete next week on Jeopardy!

Freelance Writing Multitasking

At a writing conference a few years back, I attended a session for starting and maintaining a freelance writing business. One of the freelancers on the panel said that when she was first starting out she had to learn that she couldn’t just stop at the one assignment. Meaning she couldn’t get an assignment and put all of her energies into that one assignment and forget all of the other duties of a freelancer (unless that assignment was huge). I get that, but I need to work on it.

Here is how it typically works for me- get an assignment big (not huge) or small and focus entirely on that project. Research, review, outline and write that one project. Work on other, non-writing tasks, but all of my writing is focused on this one project. For a writing career, this means failure.

I had read a tweet or a blurb somewhere of a successful writer who wrote, around 9 a.m.: “If I haven’t had a rejection yet today, then I am not doing my job.” Okay, then. All of the gears need to be clicking: finishing the articles, looking to the next market, researching the markets, writing the queries, reading the headlines, completing paperwork, getting my name out there. I am sure I left a bunch off, I am just learning. I know two things that will get me through this: 1. I enjoy what I do and 2. I don’t give up easily.

Goal #1- Get out!

I feel fortunate to live where I do while I pursue a career in science/ environmental writing. Flagstaff, Arizona is filled with organizations/ institutions doing science. A small list:

U.S. Naval Observatory
Lowell Observatory
U.S.G.S. Southwest Biological Science Center
NASA/USGS Planetary Geologic Mapping Program
Northern Arizona University

Rotunda at historic section of Lowell Obs.

This list is partial and only includes Flagstaff. Part of my job is to get out there to find out what is happening. Right? I find it very easy to sit here at the computer looking at words. So my goal:
Visit a “science center” or attend a lecture, at least once per week.

I will keep you updated via twitter.

They are tricky, tricky, tricky - words

“The word ‘comprise’ was used incorrectly in your article,” said one of two men standing before me.
“What? How?” I was embarrassed and confused. I had written a brief article for the church newsletter, probably about some social action group, the sentence probably read something like, “The group was comprised of people of all ages and from all walks of life.” And I was probably kind of proud of my short, informational article. Now I was crushed. These two men were figurative giants in my life- both were scientists, highly regarded in their fields and highly respected by me. And now they were discussing an error in my writing.
“It’s a common mistake,” they may have said (it’s been a long time). I know one of them said, “Use ‘comprise’ as you would use the word ‘embrace.’” Otherwise use “compose.”

I have not forgotten that lesson, my embarrassment ensured that (or is it “insured”?). I pride myself in the correct use of words, but I think that was just the starting point for me realizing that I had a lot more to learn.

Many years later I was editing that newsletter when a writer used the word “remunerate.”
“That’s not a word!” I thought to myself. Fortunately, I looked it up and found it:
Remunerate: Make payment to
So just because it is hard for me to say, doesn’t mean it isn’t a real word.
Of course, then there is the word I knew, and I thought it meant “make payment to” but it didn’t:
Renumerate: means on some web sites "to recount" but I can't find it in either of my hard dictionaries, so, is this an accepted word?

Sigh.

Fortunately, many words are misused frequently and so there are lists to help us out. These are some I found:

Grammar Slammer Windows,Common Mistakes and Tricky Choices

Writer's Style Guide: Tricky Words

The Inigo Montoya Guide to 27 Commonly Misused Words