NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and we're in it right now — or at least Barry Shell, a Vancouver freelance writer, is in it. Shell writes about what it's like to switch to fiction from writing about university research: "They say that by week three most NaNoWriMo participants get stuck, and the best advice at that point: kill off one of your characters. So I know that day will come." Also, why writers should join NaNoWriMo.
Science writing news
Forget what you've heard about the modern reader's short attention span. Lucia Moses writes that the optimum story length is about twice the standard 700-800 words: "It’s tempting to think the Internet has not all but killed our ability to slow down and sustain our attention in an era of slide shows, listicles and other easily digestible posts. But the truth is actually more complicated. It turns out that longer is better at drawing attention, but only to a point."
The debate over adding fluoride to water has lasted almost a lifetime in places like Portland, Ore., where voters last year rebelled against their city's fluoridation plans. A Mary Otto post on the AHCJ website debunks some of the opposition's evidence: "Numerous studies credit water fluoridation efforts with major reductions in tooth decay during the second half of the 20th century … Yet in spite of reams of scientific evidence, debate and fear remain in some places."
Jack Limpert recalls a story he rejected for The Washingtonian and why he reconsidered. "Like Something the Lord Made," the story of a heart surgery pioneer who wasn't even a doctor, won a National Magazine Award and became an HBO movie. Limpert's award acceptance mentioned other magazines that passed on the story: "I was trying to make the case to fellow editors that if you read a story that brings tears to your eyes, publish it no matter what."
In a post-election roundup, Tabitha M. Powledge discusses what Tuesday's results could mean for the environment, the GMO controversy, and marijuana: "It looks to me as if it will be many years before we have a handle on what marijuana is good for and where its bodily dangers lie. Meanwhile, a vast experiment has been launched by the citizenry on the citizenry. Life being what it is, some bad things are going to happen that might have been prevented if we knew more."
Michael Meyer writes in CJR about an energetic news operation in the corporate environment of Nestlé Purina PetCare. "The Feed" produces information for audiences on social media platforms, and its work may threaten traditional news organizations: "As journalism newsrooms have diminished in strength and ambition over the last decade, 'brand newsrooms,' a term that’s now used casually within the marketing and PR industry, are booming — and have been for some time."
During the ScienceWriters2014 meeting, Amber Dance and Dennis Meredith were awarded the annual Diane McGurgan Service award, which recognizes outstanding volunteer contributions to the National Association of Science Writers. The award is named after NASW's former executive director Diane McGurgan. Amber and Dennis co-chair the Science in Society Journalism Awards program. Read more to learn about their contributions to NASW.
Mizzou's Katherine Reed discusses the changes that are needed in journalism education, and the obstacles to those changes — especially faculty members whose expertise and teaching methods are more appropriate for the ink-on-paper past than the digital present and future: "Universities are being starved for cash, and endowments don’t necessarily come bearing gift tags for faculty training. So faculty teach what they know, and that might not be cutting edge."
Amid the remembrances of legendary editor Ben Bradlee, Carol Felsenthal writes about Howard Simons, who was the Washington Post's second-in-command during the Watergate era: "If Bradlee was the great man of Watergate, Simons, who died in 1989 at age 60, was the forgotten man, without whom Bradlee might never have been seen as so great," Felsenthal writes. "He had started at the Post in 1961 as a science writer, one of the subjects that particularly bored Bradlee."