by mayberry on June 28, 2011
Cranky question of the week: Where have all the writers’ bios gone in magazines? Am I the only person who ever reads (read) those? Anytime a writer refers to him- or herself in the first person, I like a little introduction, please. But lately, that’s nearly impossible to find.
This has been happening for awhile and The New York Times Sunday magazine is the latest culprit. Before the magazine’s recent redesign, each writer’s bio was included at the bottom of the first column–where one could find it quickly and easily if one were curious. Now, there are a few bios in the front of the book, near the table of contents. So if the writer you’re interested in learning more about happens to be there, you can flip around and look for him or her. But chances are, you won’t find what you want.
Is this a generational thing? Am I supposed to just Google these people? Or is it about writers being a dime a dozen in the world of user-generated content and web 2.0?
I worked on a project a few months ago, reviewing and tagging a major content site after a redesign and reorganization. In the process, many long articles were shortened considerably, which was a good thing; they were much too long for the online reader/scanner. Most bylines were stripped, too. In many cases, this didn’t matter; a how-to or a bulleted list of tips doesn’t exactly cry out for a how-do-you-do from the writer. But a personal essay? A statement of opinion? A persuasive argument? I need to know who you are!
Do you ever read bios in newspapers, magazines, or online? Or wish you could?
by mayberry on April 11, 2011
I don’t usually think of myself as a scientist or even someone who has much knowledge of or interest in science. During my junior and senior years of college, I roomed with an engineer and a pre-med student. While I sat on the couch thumbing through a paperback copy of Frankenstein or O Pioneers or Madame Bovary, they were at their desks surrounded by problem sets and towering stacks of thick, heavy textbooks. I took astronomy for dummies to fulfill my science credit requirement.
This morning, though, David Wescott pointed out that I do think and write about science now, as a mom and a blogger and a mom blogger. At my fitness site, usually on the blog, I write regularly about scientific research on health and fitness. I report on these short posts just as I would a longer article for an on- or offline outlet. I get a copy of the original paper (no lifting info from press releases). Sometimes I interview the principal scientist. When necessary, I link to reliable definitions of words or concepts.
Most of all, I try to draw out the study’s most relevant, actionable, or interesting elements, and share them, accurately, with my readers without falling back on scare tactics or headline hype. I’ve even written about the process of responding to research.
And then there was the time I let my children set stuff on fire in the name of science. So thank you, David, for reminding me that I am a #scimom. If you are, too (I bet you are), write about it and let David know for his collection of mom blog posts about science and science blog posts about parenting.
by mayberry on March 17, 2011
Both Julie and Liz have written recently about their passion for writing, and how their blogs provide an important outlet for that writing.
Me, not so much. I can write. I do it all day long, in fact, and I like my job. But on this blog, writing isn’t about perfecting my craft, or even working through thorny problems or surging emotions.
It’s about telling stories. Five years’ worth, and counting. I’ve saved up a few from the last few weeks (when I’ve been busy doing who knows what, instead of blogging), if you’d like to hear them.
*
Jeff and I went to an event at a local community college, a fundraiser put on by the culinary students. Five teams presented five different themed buffets. I’m not sure who decided on these themes: Europe (that’s not at all broad and sweeping, or anything?), Mexico, Hawaii (but not, like, poi and pu pu platters; it was all desserts), Las Vegas (truly! have a crab cake), and … wait for it … Jersey Shore. This turned out to mean mini corned beef sandwiches, cheesesteaks (scandal! I refuse to eat cheesesteaks outside of the city of Philadelphia), and some kind of chowder.
So the Mexican food was the clear winner, and the volcano surrounding the chocolate fountain at the Hawaii table was a nice touch. But better than all of that was one fellow diner/buffet grazer. Although Mayberry is a small town, it is by no means cowboy country. But this man was fully committed to Western wear. He wore a cowboy hat, boots, jeans, huge belt buckle, string tie, and one of those leather jackets with the triangles on the back. But that wasn’t all. He also had the longest handlebar mustache I’ve seen on someone who wasn’t a cartoon character. It extended several inches out on either side of his face and was waxed to a fare-thee-well.
Come to think of it, his name might have been Rusty.
by mayberry on June 23, 2010
Recently my little concerned citizen/fanboy asked me to help him write a letter to President Obama. He dictated, I typed.
Dear Barack Obama,
From Opie. How much work do you have to do? I bet it’s a lot.
How fast is on board Air Force One? What do you like about on board Air Force One?
I would like to be a pilot of on board Air Force One.
I like basketball too. And my mom loves Honest Tea.
How fast does on board Marine One go?
Is Bo a good dog? How are you doing?
Bye.
P.S. I think you are doing a good job.
I wonder if it could make the daily top 10?
by mayberry on April 19, 2010
One of my favorite tasks as a magazine editor was copyfitting. As an issue of the magazine came together, a printed copy of each page or multi-page article was circulated among the staff. The assigning editor checked her pages for errors and also usually had to cut or fill so that the text would fit properly on the page.
I woke up the other day thinking about how much I liked doing that (I must have been having a flashback dream). It’s like a good word game. While retaining the meaning and intent of a passage, you must add, subtract, or change just the right number of words to fill the space without causing a dreaded widow or orphan. Plus, at the time, we did this on paper. So we got to use cool proofreaders’ marks.
What can I say? I am a word nerd. I recently took over editing and publishing our school’s monthly newsletter. It’s in a two-column format, so I returned to my old widow- and orphan-hunting roots. And I put everything in the same font. This revolutionary change earned me more than one heartfelt appreciation from a fellow parent.
We word nerds know a fellow traveler when we see one.
by mayberry on December 6, 2009
For homework, Jo had to write a funny story about a bear. The result:
Once a bear fell out of a tree. He landed on a bag of gummy bears. He was furious that someone would turn baby bears into gummy candy. So he started a petition with Fox to eat gummy worms not gummy bears. The worms were not happy, but that’s their problem.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
by mayberry on September 4, 2009
Really, to my family fitness site. It’s been live for a year now. So today is also known as “the day I start getting paid based on traffic.”
Which means … please click! Early, often, every day!
Some popular pages:
Lots more where that came from. I very much appreciate visits, comments, suggestions, feedback, tweets, Stumbles, Kirtsys, links from your blog or Facebook … everything helps.
by mayberry on July 15, 2009
I am feeling a little stumped for blog fodder right now, not to mention pressed for time. It didn’t help that I had some kind of one-day guinea pig flu (not as bad as swine flu, but crappy nonetheless) on Sunday, accompanied by a nauseating migraine.
Anyway, sorry, I hate posts about why I haven’t been posting. So I’m cruising through my reader today and come to a post on The Blog Herald which is a “wow, this is great” item about someone else’s post describing his writing routine. It’s basically: start with an idea, put calls out to sources, do research while waiting for sources to reply, talk to sources, write.
Really? This is news??? Marshall, I am sure you are very talented and all and your blog probably has about 500,000 more readers than mine, but … wow. There are lots of things I don’t blog about because I think, “Everyone already knows that.” Clearly I need to rethink this position.
Next week, look for posts on how to pour a glass of water (I will reveal my stance on the all important question: ice or no ice?) and the best ways to put on socks.
by mayberry on June 7, 2009
The last week of school killed me, on the work-life balance front. We had the talent shows–a second, extracurricular, and ridiculously long one followed the school one. We had family night at the Y, field day, the zoo, the last day picnic, the first day of tennis lessons, umpteen thank-you notes and gifts to prepare, and on and on. Both last Sunday and this past Friday, I fell asleep in Owen’s room while I was putting him to bed and never got back up. Feeling all hungover from that Sunday night episode didn’t really help get my week off to a good start (although I guess repeating the 8:30 p.m. bedtime on Friday was an appropriate way to end the week).
It’s a good thing I have 15 more months to work up to having two kids in school simultaneously.
It’s also good that among the huge pile of papers Jo brought home from school was a mad-libs assignment called … wait for it … “The Talent Show.” And demonstrating that a little knowledge (of parts of speech) is a dangerous thing, here’s what she wrote (underscores are her fill-in-the-blanks).
Tonight was our school talent show, and the theme for the event was toylets, and the whole gym was decorated with knives. It looked dertie! The first contestant was Sarah. Her talent was juggling. She juggled 10000 trees without dropping a single one!
Next, Sam came on stage. He played an instrument that looked like a cross between a dineasor and a elafent. As he playd, everyone began to berp and toot.
… [edited to spare you some more sentences about toylets and berps]
The lucky winner was given a very dirty trophy. After the show, everyone gathered in the cafeteria to eat some green fat worms.
Summer vacation ahoy!
by mayberry on March 1, 2009
As an editor, I had to attend my share of stultifying meetings. Anything with the word “analysis” or “budget” or “strategic” in the title would usually fall into that category. But we had fun meetings too. The whole editorial staff would gather, ostensibly to generate ideas for articles and columns for the magazine/website. Really, we would spend a couple of hours complaining about our kids/husbands/friends/hair/thighs. The ideas were simply a byproduct of the bitch session.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all get together and have a blog ideas meeting? At my fitness site, I have a list of ideas a mile long, because I have a particular topic to target. Here, the wide-open space overwhelms me.
Back when I had to come up with a batch of ideas to present at a meeting, I’d start by thinking I had nothing. But then I’d force myself to sit down and brainstorm and sooner or later I’d have something written down, enough to get me in the door of the meeting.
I don’t like to think of this blog as a job. It’s not (and in fact I am so tired of reading about marketing yourself, the business of blogging, blahdeblahblah–even though I know that I really need to do all that on my fitness site if I am ever to earn a living wage from it). But I still think I might have to summon myself to an offsite ideas meeting to liven up this place a bit. I might even treat myself to doughnuts to make sure I arrive on time.
P.S. The other good meetings were coverline meetings. You know, where we came up with new, creative ways to promise to solve problems with 5 steps or 11 tips or 49 steals and deals. Numbers sell, baby!
P.P.S. Most of the blog-as-brand posts have been very good. They just always give me a case of the (self-imposed) “shoulds.”
