Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with writing

If I Told You, Would They Have to Kill Me, You, or Both of Us?

scaryblackdeath — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:18:31 -0800

If a civilian in the US (who does not work for the gov't) learns top secret national security information through no active choice of her own (not snooping, stuff just happens in front of her or she is clearly dragged into the matter against her will), can the government legally compel her to keep said secret? This is, for the record, a question about a fictional story I'm writing. There are no real people or real secrets involved. My story boils down to civilians being dragged into an investigation of espionage/terrorism, and the gov't agents don't want them to talk about it after it's over. On the one hand, it involves FBI types involved in legally questionable shenanigans, and on the other the revelation of said secrets would definitely lead to loss of lives. The gov't therefore wants the civilians to keep it all quiet.

Is there a statute for this? Does the gov't say, "Under [blah] act, if you pass this info on to anyone, you will be prosecuted and put in prison?" Is the gov't reduced to appeals to patriotism and/or intimidation?

Is my writing style overly complicated?

Unhyper — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:28:56 -0800

I learned English as a second language (native is Finnish). The emphasis in school was on vocabulary and very basic grammar; we did not to my recollection deal with stuff like passive voice etc. So in terms of writing in English, much of my "voice" has developed simply from what sounds right inside my head. However, I've been told that the way I write is overly complicated. Is this so? I never try to complicate my writing with unnecessary stylistic choices or fancy words. I believe that anything that makes it more difficult for my point to get across is detrimental to the writing. Yet, at the same time, I don't think one's writing should simply cater to the lowest intellectual denominator.

Anyway, occasionally when I let others read what I write, they suggest I simplify things. It's not necessarily bad advice, but it has made me a bit concerned over the quality of my command of the language. The trouble is, my natural way of constructing sentences is, I suppose, unnecessarily verbose - yet it is most natural for me. For instance, I was responding to something on Facebook and quipped the following: "By default, I just assume that any insect the nutritional habits of which I am not aware of, is one that sucks blood."

A friend of mine pointed out that I could have just said something like, "If I don't know what an insect eats, I assume it sucks blood." Okay, fair enough.

My question is, would that be better writing, grammatically? Phonetically? Is it simply easier to understand? A sentence like that just sounds so... I don't know. Inflexible? Rough?

teenage vigilantes

changeling — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:04:57 -0800

I'm revising a young adult novel that includes legal & police (sub)plotlines and have some questions. Hi all! I need some help with legal/police/court aspects of a young adult novel I've written. It's set in Southern California. Court stuff, etc., is in the background; the main plotline is how revenge events can stack up and spiral out of control, until the inciting incident (in this case, an unreported rape) is almost forgotten. But I want to make sure procedural stuff is correct.

In the book, a group of guys (ages 16 & 17) brutally beats up a guy (N, age 17) from another school, in vigilante retaliation for a rape. N ends up in the hospital for weeks. The guys are arrested, then released on bail a few days later to await a hearing.

A few weeks after the beating, an infection kills N.

1. What would happen to the guys, out on bail? Would they end up back in jail immediately? Would hearing timelines shift?
2. One of the guys & his family (which includes the rape victim) moves an hour away. They can still get to hearings, obviously. Would that be allowed?
3. Is this manslaughter or second-degree murder? Or what? What kind of punishment would the guys likely be facing?
4. What effect might the rape victim's testimony/reporting the rape have on the outcome?
5. Anything else I'm not thinking of, or got wrong?

Thanks so much!

How to say "au revoir mon professeure" in a slightly more creative way?

kbar1 — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:44:03 -0800

This week, my daughter (a sophomore in high school) will be bidding adieu to her French teacher, who is is retiring. Daughter is artistic and has decided to make a card for Madame but is looking for inspiration. She would like to use imagery and a quote from The Little Prince but it's been a long time since either of us read the book and we don't have a copy on hand, so I'm asking for your help. Is there an illustration or quote that you think is especially apt for this type of card? She likes the picture of the little prince taking off with a flock of birds, but we don't have a quote to go along with it. She's open to ideas unrelated to The Little Prince as long as there is a French connection and imagery that would work well in a farewell card. Ideas? Merci! (I speak no French at all, so please excuse my French if I butchered the title question)

Writers of Metafilter, please help me stay on track and keep going.

thinkpiece — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:07:55 -0800

Writers, and novelists or fiction writers in particular, can you share your goals, processes and timelines for each of your drafts? Ten months ago, I asked for advice on launching a writing project. I bought a dozen how-to-write-a-novel books, I carved out a schedule, I shut down my social life except for family, I covered my apartment in index cards and notebooks and inspiration. I (almost) stopped imbibing, so I could be fresh and ready every day. Thank you all for the good words of advice. And now I need some more.

I didn't actually start until January, but I am now 250 pages in to my first draft, rounding the corner into Act Three, with a 100ish more pages to "The End," by the middle of June, I hope, I hope. I plan to take a couple weeks off and then go back and start again on page one for draft two.

My goal for draft #1 was just to get a beginning, a middle and an end on paper, stack the pages. My goal for draft #2 is to have a manuscript I actually show -- the whole thing -- to a few close, trusted readers.

Questions:

Did you find yourself writing in shorter chunks as you approached The End? I was regularly logging 1000 to 1500 words a day but as I come to the conclusion, I find it's taking me the same amount of time, with a smaller word output. Any thoughts on this?

Did you try to make all chapters the same length, or let each chapter be what it is? Did you name them or simply number them?

How did you approach draft two? What were your goals? How long did the second draft take?

Did you use online support (that isn't an official class)? Sites, blogs, etc.? I've got the podcasts covered, thanks to an earlier AskMe.

Sources for long-form non-fiction, essay, cultural crit on web

asher — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:55:13 -0800

I'm looking for websites that post longer pieces (3000 words+) on topics like science, culture, personal essay (not so much regular long-form journalism). These could be magazines like seed or nautil.us or online only. Recommendations?

Help me learn more about contemporary Indonesia!

tapir-whorf — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:04:41 -0800

I'm trying to learn more about contemporary Indonesia, and I'd love book & essay recommendations, especially of narrative non-fiction with a strong first person narrative voice! (But I'd also love suggestions of fiction, good travelogues, podcasts, blogs, zines, films, academic articles--really anything that doesn't demand prior in depth knowledge.) For me the most engaging way to learn about a place's history, culture, & ordinary life is through reading narrative non-fiction with a strong first person narrative/authorial voice. For example, for the past couple years I've been crazy about Peter Hessler's astute accounts of contemporary China (plus his ability to make fun of Chinese culture without coming across as a naive or culturally insensitive outsider is particularly great.), & I just finished a great, super-engaging anthro text about the Chungking Mansions as a nexus of so-called low-end globalization called Ghetto at the Center of the World by Gordon Mathews. In general I love thoughtful accounts of life in other places--especially when it goes beyond the standard received tropes and delves into nuances of history and subculture without becoming dry or pedantic. I'd love to find some books & shorter prose that paints a compelling and nuanced portrait of contemporary & modern Indonesia & is similarly accessible yet rigorously researched and information-dense (but also any other media is great). Thank you!

Tips on starting up a science-themed blog

daisyk — Sat, 11 May 2013 03:16:18 -0800

I was convinced to start a blog under my real name, for the purposes of being visible on the internet in a positive light while applying for jobs. Unfortunately, now it's up, I hate it and never want to write anything there. Since my partner is sick of me wailing about it, I thought I'd ask you guys for tips on low-effort ways to post on a blog with a general theme of 'interesting science news'. I've been blogging under pseudonyms for about ten years so the concept itself is not new to me. My problem is a combination of the following:

Raging, lifelong imposter syndrome, or so I'm told. I say it can't be imposter syndrome if I'm right about my inadequacy! </logic> (Yes, I am in therapy.)

Not wanting to merely recycle news stories from elsewhere with one picture, a link and my name stamped on it. I feel this adds no value and dislike blogs that only do this.

If I write about news within my field, but have no useful insights or expert knowledge about it, this will look worse than not saying anything.

If I write about news outside of my field, I definitely won't have useful insights or expert knowledge, so why bother?

I've been told (by my partner) that curating interesting science news is also a useful service, even if I don't write much about it myself, because there's such a lot of information out there. Unfortunately, I don't want to spend hours and hours wading through all this information myself either. I should probably use that time to look for jobs, right?

I'm a slow writer. I second-guess myself, worry that I'm accidentally writing something incorrect or offensive, and have to read my source materials through several times to feel sure I understand them completely. This is the case for my pseudonymous blog; for this real-name blog, it's worse.

I would be happier just to delete this blog, but it's keeping a couple of annoying hits for my name off the top of my Google results. (I started a PhD eighteen months ago that didn't work out, and the year I spent there is listed on my CV as 'research assistant'. I'm searching for another position as a doctoral student. Some links have recently surfaced that still refer to me as a PhD student in my old department, and I don't want to have to explain this in interviews if I can help it.)

Is there a way to make short, non-labour-intensive posts about science news that won't make me feel I'm just making the internet worse? Quigley's Cabinet is an example of what I'd love to make if it were possible, but it would take me hours and hours a day to keep it up. On the other end of the scale, I do like Science You Can Love, which is only reblogs. I feel you can get away with that on Tumblr, though, and not so much with a 'real' blog.

I like the idea of a science news blog. Unfortunately, I've worried about it so much that even thinking about making an entry can push me into a panic. Some outside advice would be great—thank you!

A grad program that deals with creative writing AND photography?

leecohen — Fri, 10 May 2013 04:30:28 -0800

I'm heading for a career change, and want to get better at my two passions: creative writing (creative non-fiction) and photography. I'm looking for a grad program that helps me integrate both so I can tell both my own stories and other people's (NGOs, Foundations, etc) more persuasively. I've kind of come full circle--I started my academic career studying creative writing, then moved on to teaching, then to international development, which I do now. I make a steady paycheck, and am saving money and paying off debt. I think in 1-2 years, I want to get back to being creative in my day-to-day life. While I'm a strong writer, I could use a program that forces me to be a bit more disciplined in my output. While I'm a strong photographer, I'm self-taught, and am sure I would benefit from studio time and workshops. I want to integrate my creative talents into a new career, and I want to find perhaps a MFA program that will set me down that path. So far, the only program I've found that comes close is Duke's Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts. Anyone out there know of any other programs that might be a good fit?

I may have jumped the gun a bit

deathpanels — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:57:09 -0800

I may have jumped the gun a bit in promising a friend that they could attend a writing workshop group we are starting. How should I navigate the resulting trickiness without marring any relationships? Help me out of my latest human relations debacle.

In my excitement at finally finding a writing workshop group, I extended an invitation to a friend of mine who I know is interested in writing. I was not aware at the time that this friend has never participated in a workshop before. She also doesn't seem very familiar with how such a group functions. And I've never read her writing. I also didn't consider that I ought to run this past the group first before inviting new people. I screwed up, and I feel bad – don't admonish me any more than I already have myself.

To explain the "seriousness" concerns: we all want to keep the group limited to people who have our level of experience. I don't know if I feel comfortable bringing someone into the group who has no experience workshopping at all, and if one of the other members were to invite a friend with a similar background, I would probably question whether they should be "allowed" to attend. I want the group to maintain a certain level of seriousness and commitment, both to the group and to writing. This is a little beyond a hobby for us.

We've had problems in the past with members who don't show up to meetings or don't read manuscripts, who clearly don't take the group as a serious commitment as opposed to a fun hobby to do if you have time. I feel like I screwed up by inviting this friend without explaining the commitment, even though I had the best of intentions. This is the sort of thing that we want to keep going for months and years, to help us meet our writing goals, and I fear that my friend doesn't understand the commitment required, or that she doesn't have the same goals as the rest of the group.

Then again, maybe I'm being overly cautious. I'd love for her to join our group, if she could get up to speed and be a contributing workshop member. It's entirely possible that she'll show up, figure it out quickly, and everything will work out fine. But I fear I'll have to "sell" this to the rest of the group. I consulted the other members of the group, and they don't seem too receptive of my friend joining us. I clearly jumped the gun quite a bit.

So now I feel like I'm in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, I want the group to be focused and serious, but on the other hand, I don't want to reneg on my invitation. And if I do need to back out on the invitation, I want to do so in a way that doesn't damage my relationship with either party.

Would it be totally crazy to write this friend a long email with an explanation of what the group is looking for in members, and explaining the commitment required? Put the ball in her court, so to speak? Or will that just come across as an elaborate way of backing out on the invitation?

Help with coming up with a titular character for my book

philosophistry — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:51:39 -0800

I need help coming up with a titular character of my book, someone who is sympathetic and sounds like a reasonable person to ask for advice. My book was called Dear Charlotte: A Geek's Life in Self-Improvement. It comprises 80 or so letters to my friend Charlotte about my adventures in self-improvement. Initially she was fine with me using her name, but now that I want to add some pseudo-fictional details about her, I need to do so without implying that they're about her.

Right now, my working alternative in Dear Samantha, but I like it only 85% as much as I like Charlotte. Charlotte is a nice recipient because of its connection to Charlotte's web. It's an older name. It sort of calls to some refined, but compassionate sensibility. Samantha shares some of those features, but the ring of it isn't as great as Dear Charlotte.

Dear Katie, for example, wouldn't sound as good. It sounds like you're writing letters to your grand-daughter.

Further details if it helps: Charlotte/Samantha, in the book, is my age, and ages with me, as I write these letters. She likes to read books, wants to be a fantasy novelist, but also is ambitious. (She goes to Stanford, working for Google, etc.). She's half-Chinese, half-white, and potentially a lesbian.

The name Samantha came to mind quickly, because Charlotte and Samantha are characters on Sex and the City.

Thanks!

Getting Your Creative Motivation Back After A Long Dry Spell?

Anonymous — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:56:30 -0800

I went on a long, long break form my creative career cause I was feeling burnt out due to some failures and now I can't seem to get back into it, possibly because I no longer have a financial incentive to do so. How can I fix this? Warning: Long, super privileged person problems. Back-story: Due to some very lucky sets of circumstances I got to basically retire at 30. If I keep my expenses small and baring some horrible catastrophe, I don't really *have* to work ever again. I can devote all my time to my creative career(s). To celebrate this, I took a six-month break from working.

During this break I wasn't eating bon bons on the couch - I learned how to cook, to clean, to garden, went to the gym five days a week, got boots on the ground involved in politics, I helped friends out with their creative projects, spent a lot of time with my SO, and traveled around the world.

I had a set time to end this "vacation" where I didn't think of or work on anything "important". It passed three months ago. I still can't concentrate on my work. I sit with my brain and go "This is what we are doing now. We are working on THIS now."

And I can't. It's not block, I know what block feels like. It's not depression, I know what that feels like. I know exactly what I have to do and made charts and graphs and research notes for years and then I sit down and a fog descends over me and I can't physically make myself think about what I have to do. It's a complete and total fear response. Just thinking about the work ahead makes me literally start to sweat and want to flee the room.

My last two/three big projects have been flops or didn't perform as well as expected and now people are starting to not return my calls/e-mails. I've had success before, I know I'm not untalented. I know I am good at this. But I'm not getting a lot of ....external validation that I should keep trying now that I no longer *have to* for economic reasons.

What do you do when one of the one things you're really very good at just stops being fun? Like at all? I'm getting a little tight-chested just writing this but I can't take another failure, it takes so much effort for so little reward, and it makes me feel weak and self-involved that I'm hurt so much by professional rejection or lack of recognition.

And then I feel guilty for being such a whiny bitch who has a perfect fucking life and is totally an ideal situation to do whatever they want that people would kill for so buck up, shut up, and just do it. Everyday spent avoiding it is another day wasted.

And then I don't do it and feel worse. I'm terrible with self imposed deadlines cause I know I can ignore them and that makes me feel even worse. All my other successful projects have been contract work, with strict deadlines attached. Now I'm doing mostly spec and it's impossible to visualize the end-game.

So, how do I get myself out of this funk? And it really feels like a funk, like I crashed from the highs of the vacation and now can't will myself out of no matter how I try and chant CBT slogans to myself. How do I get my desire to work back? How can make myself do things I don't *have* to do? Where did my ambition go and how can I get it back?

What is this called

AceRock — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:16:03 -0800

I'm seeing a trend emerge, but I can't quite put my finger on how to identify it. Does it already have a name? If not, help me come up with one (for an article I'm writing). The article's jumping off point is RapGenius's foray into annotating everything not just lyrics, the NYTimes' Quips tool, Medium.com's paragraph-level commenting/annotation system, and Findings.com. I go on to (attempt) to try to tie in the NYT's Snowfall piece, Grantland's recent Iditarod piece, David Foster Wallace's footnotes, the Annotated Alice by Martin Gardner, and marginalia in general at its best.

The idea is that moving commentary and discussion from below the fold of an article into the margins represents an evolution of commentary from annotation to a closer relationship to the target/main text, giving it more of an equal footing and moving it towards something more like elucidation and illumination rather than mere annotation.

Is there already some term or turn-of-phrase that describes what I'm talking about here? If not, can you help me come up with one? I am struggling with it. Thanks!

Archival Digital Texts

dylan_k — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:12:31 -0800

I have inherited my grandmother's writings. I'm scanning them, doing OCR and in some cases retyping them so that I can have them digitized. I'd like to know, is there a format for text that is best for archival purposes? I was thinking of .rtf, since so many applications can open it. Is it considered "archival quality"?

Writers, how do you cope with being jealous of other writers?

angrycat — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:08:53 -0800

Folks I know get published! Yay them! Go them! But shamefully, it.. the ...the flames, flames...on the side of my face...breathing...heaving breaths. How do I tame my inner envy monster? So, once in a while I hear about a contemporary writer who got A Big Publishing Deal and because I know them via FB and twitter, I am carpetbombed with their understandable pushing of their book. I feel guilty even considering blocking them, because I want to be proud of them. But ZOMG the red mist after I get the fourth message about a different book signing or press clipping or whatever. Writers, you who are more sane than I, how do you deal with it?
p.s. I am in therapy, so, got that covered. Also, I am not jealous of any metafilter writers. Seriously. Just real-life people. Really.

Interest in writers and the writing process

okay-quiet-time — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:11:54 -0800

What films and/or podcasts would you recommend for someone interested in writing (mainly fiction and/or screenwriting)? So far, I've really enjoyed watching "Bad Writing" and "Tales from the Script."

Examples of beautiful writing

switcheroo — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:02:08 -0800

I aspire to write beautifully -- what is some great writing that uses colorful, creative language and style? I’m a college kid, and I find that my writing is not very pleasing. I write...functionally, but not beautifully. My writing style is bland, lacking character, overly straightforward and structurally simple, and my vocabulary is terribly boring. While this is fine for school papers, I crave the satisfaction of being able to write well -- being able to write things that I find beautiful and want to read again and share with others.

I recently read a short non-fiction work by E. B. White (linked to on Mefi recently). The writing is fantastic, and the way the ideas are expressed is so imaginative and colorful -- completely new to me! Another work I've come across that had the same feeling (even in translation!) was Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg. I aspire to write like this, and want to read more works written with such refreshing and captivating use of language!

Help me expand my linguistic horizons -- What else can I read to get an idea of colorful, creative, enchanting writing?

2nd gen Asian American writing re: parents and family

dede — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:36:52 -0800

I'm looking for something written from a second generation Asian American perspective that starts with this premise: [My parents/family treat(ed) me badly] But does NOT end with this conclusion: [...but they are immigrants and don't know the culture so I can't really judge them, and they sacrificed so much for me and I feel guilty and they just wanted the best for me, so therefore, I love them to pieces]. Any other conclusion or lesson is acceptable. Can be fiction or nonfiction. Could be a book, article, blog post, comment or scribbles on a napkin. It doesn't have to be specifically about the Asian American experience (although that is preferred); it could be about conflict between 1st and 2nd immigrant generations from any culture or country if it follows the same kind of arc.

Who are all these editors?

Ookseer — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:23:35 -0800

Help me understand the editor hierarchy at the magazine I write for. Every article I do for them seems to take a different path, with different editors contacting me about different things, but it's never consistnet. I can never figure out if I'm communicating with the right person. My list of contacts there include: Editorial director, editor-in-chief, editor at large, section editor, senior editor, assistant editor, contributing editor, staff editor, and (plain old) editor. What do all of these people do that is different from the others?

(Also an online editor and copy editor, but it's pretty clear what they do.)

The perils of listening to your readers

fearfulsymmetry — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:00:25 -0800

A while ago I read an essay/article/rant online re a fantasy author / series and I'd like to read it again but google is failing me because I can't remember any specifics. Anyway I'm fairly sure I remember that it had originally been on usenet but someone had copied it onto a website somewhere. The gist of it was the problems a writer had run into with a fantasy series. He had been interacting with this fans online and taking on board too many of their suggestions ('the X's are cool! we want more of those!') Consequentially the series was spiralling out of control because he kept adding more and more elements - especially more and more villains / big bads and it was becoming increasingly obvious that it would be very hard / next to impossible to finish the series by concluding all the mushrooming complications. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the series or the author but I think it was a High Fantasy tolkienesque type of thing (I'm pretty certain it wasn't Game of Thrones because I'm reading that now)

I hope rings some bells for someone.

Where did my brain go?

avocet — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:02:09 -0800

Help me rescue my analytical faculties so I can survive the last months of grad school with my dignity intact. I'm in my final semester of a research-based MA program in the social sciences, currently trying to get my thesis written so I can defend by a September deadline. My project has been incredibly intellectually and emotionally challenging – I'm researching the public commemoration of violent death among two populations in Canada – and a portion of my fieldwork was downright traumatic. That said, I know I have a compelling, stimulating and fairly original project on my hands, and numerous people both inside and outside of academia have been very supportive of my work. I'm just really not sure I'm able to carry it out.

While completing my coursework last year, I suddenly lost all confidence in my ability to comprehend and synthesize everything I was reading – I'd come to class having done the readings multiple times and always seemed to be on a totally different page from everyone else, many of whom didn't have the advantage of having a background in the discipline like I did, which led to great doubts about my abilities to critically engage texts. The crippling anxiety associated with getting it/not getting it led to me feeling totally unable to participate in what was actually an incredibly supportive small seminar environment. Everything that came out of my mouth was rambling and incoherent and frequently irrelevant. Through some miracle I managed to submit some decent written work and received As in all my classes, but the psychological barriers persisted and seemed to get worse.

I don't really know what happened this year, but it feels like I no longer understand the theory at the core of my project (and I think I've kept it pretty simple, theory has never been my strong suit) and my abilities to analyze and argue seem to have completely disappeared. I don't know how to explain my way from A to B anymore. I just got a big unsettling load of major edits back from my supervisors on everything I've written so far, pointing to an overreliance on empirics and lack of theory and absence of analysis throughout the chapter – yeah, I should have known this was coming. I've apparently totally misunderstood key texts, elided major theoretical arguments, and the whole thing reads as just so facile and simplistic. I've been following my supervisors' cues when they explain to me what my argument is all about, furiously scribbling down things I need to write about when we're in meetings together, then getting home and looking at my notes and realizing I don't understand what they said at all. This all just seems to big for my brain to process, and my mind is becoming increasingly sieve-like with respect to everything I read. I seem to forget and misunderstand so easily.

My supervisors have been wonderfully supportive but I fear they're getting really sick of me and my lack of intellectual progress (or even regression – I feel like I wasn't always this bad). I'm hugely embarrassed by the fact that I can't answer ostensibly simple questions about my project on the spot – how will I manage to get through a thesis defense if I can't string together cogent answers in meetings? I've done very good work for both of them before – it's not like I was admitted to the program by mistake – but I'm ashamed by the fact that I feel like I'm starting to waste their time. It just feels like everyone around me knows my project much better than I do. (I feel like the academic version of Guido, the protagonist of 8 1/2.)

How do I relearn how to think critically, analyze and argue in a really short period of time? I've got a big pile of substantial edits (more like a massive rewrite) due at the end of the month, and the whole thesis (most of which remains to be written) needs to be done by the beginning of August, at the latest. The government and the banks will not give me any more money if I'm not done by then, and I'll have to drop out if I'm not ready for a defense/get to a defense and end up failing.

I know this is all just a bad case of performance anxiety/impostor syndrome/self-defeating thoughts at its core. Through CBT I learned how to shut certain depression-related self-defeating thoughts down, but I don't know how to suddenly reconfigure my thought patterns to understand texts and theory and logic again. I sit down to write/lie awake at night and attempt to logically think through the questions that have been presented to me in the simplest terms possible and my mind gets stuck in this endless 20 GOTO 10 loop in which I can't think past step one of my argument, let alone follow it through to its conclusion – it's not like I've got a negative thought that I can step in and interrupt. My mind is a mess. (And yes, I'm on medication for depression, but it doesn't seem to be doing a damn thing these days. Given my previous experiences changing drugs, having to taper off and start on a new one does not seem like a good idea right now.)

Is there any way to salvage my confidence and mental faculties from this mess in time? MeMail me if you need to. Thanks for listening.

Insert Obligatory Joke About Seamen

wolfdreams01 — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 07:32:57 -0800

In older times, ships used to have sailors. These sailors had actual job functions, like adjusting the sails, checking on the rigging, etc. Later on, when ships were steam-powered, there were jobs like "putting coal in the engine" or "maintaining the boiler." However, in modern times, with all the technology in a cargo vessel, it seems to me that sailing it is something that could be done by a single person. So what do all the other sailors do? To put it another way, what are the actual "job functions" and titles of sailors about a modern cargo ship?

Reeeeelax. (But I am!)

Phalene — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:45:29 -0800

I am not casual. My job requires me to write casually. I keep getting told to be less "direct" in my intercommunication style with people. Oh yeah, and I'm an Aspie woman. I have a clinical diagnosis of Aspergers syndrome and I'm a cis gendered, female presenting adult woman (long hair, no makeup, usually in skirts). I tend to be very prim and reserved by outward presentation, and my workplace requires me to keep a more "casual" wardrobe than I would wear voluntarily. I'm not helped by an intonation that is a little "off", though it tends to sound like over enunciation.

I also can't tell how much this is me, and how much is expected gender presentation. For example I feel like when I am know to be a male online (by accident), people take my behavior for granted, but I get called hysterical/irrationally angry a lot when people know I'm a woman. So everything criticizing my behaviour has to be filtered through what is expected on me as a woman. By nature I think I’m more aggressive than many people, male or female. If I can socially self-select my milieu, that usually means lots of introverted nerdy types because I tend to bridge pretty well between being dynamic and not overloading the easily socially over stimulated.

Usually I fly under the radar pretty well at jobs, because I put on my customer service face and smile, smile, smile (or put on a hyper exaggerated mommy pout, if it’s apology time). I can do diddly about my intonation, but for phone work I’m easy to understand and melodious and get good results. In crappy face to face sales jobs, I had to push myself away from “Hello!” in favour of “Hi there!” to positive result, so I can learn.

But in this particular job, my presentation, formality and communication style is providing a barrier. When I create writing for clients, about 50% of the time it needs to sound more “casual” and my editing people are not good at communicating what that means to me (the poor woman used to take my work and change it completely, she’s since quit and I am my own editor) in a way I can understand and this must therefore be my responsibility to fix since it’s my problem.

Recently my boss “promoted” me (wages have yet to follow). He told me my challenge is that I need to learn to be less “direct”, with the caveat that is was perfectly fine to be my usual self with him, and that he liked it, but that I needed to be sensitive to how I might come across to clients or managing people older than me. Unfortunately we have all sorts of as yet non-serious communication problems: For example he points out some things I need to fix. I say “okay, I need to work on X, Y and Z?” He starts effusively reassuring me I’m not in trouble. I, bewildered, reassuring him I simply want to make sure I take care of this properly. So I think he needs me to be less “direct” with him.

I will bracket that in person, I tend to either read as being too calm or too “stressed”, if not otherwise dizzyingly enthusiastic and high morale. My actual emotions don’t necessarily reflect what I appear to be feeling, and my presentation is completely an act. 80% of the time I pass as normal, but this particular office has been really shaking my confidence as things like a sorta co-worker (office neighbour in another company actually) started picking at my primness until I took him aside and told him that I was, y’know, autistic, and picking on the disabled was making me wonder which one of us had better social skills.

Normally I never disclose my status in a work/education setting and nobody else knows. I would like to keep it that way, as whenever I’ve told, people generally treat me like I’m slightly retarded, too fragile to live or cheerfully run out and educate themselves through dubious sources and then try to use me as a teaching moment to enlighten themselves. Office troll is behaving now.

Advice I can easily find on casual writing/acting tends to assume that the person just needs to reach for a stream of consciousness approach. My stream of consciousness is an OCD accountant in a three piece suit. So how can I become more “relaxed” seeming as a professional tool, when I am inherently more relaxed being “direct” and task focused? Break it down really, really simple for best results, please. :)

How to format a writing portfolio for an online job application

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:42:56 -0800

I'm job hunting for the first time in a few years, and I just saw a perfectly delicious looking Content Editor gig at a women's apparel website. They want me to include my writing portfolio, for obvious reasons. What's the most current best practice for how this should be formatted and attached to my application email? I have a variety of blog, website, and social media content from my current and former jobs. Should I just pick my favorite clips, toss them in a word doc, and attach it? Something fancier? Any formatting specifics? Should I also include a link to my personal website with more samples? Thanks, writerly Mefites!

Help me to better express expressive expressions.

pakoothefakoo — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:38:27 -0800

I read a lot, and my receptive vocabulary is excellent. However, no so much on the expressive side. I tend to repeat the same word over and over in my writing, and sometimes have difficulty picking appropriate word to succinctly capture a concept. So, what's a good and specific exercise(s) for increasing one's expressive vocabulary?