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Everyday Junglist
Bio
Practicing mage of the natural sciences (Ph.D. micro/mol bio), Thought middle manager, Everyday Junglist, Boulderer, Cat lover, No tie shoelace user, Humorist, Argan oil aficionado. Occasional LinkedIn & Facebook user
Stories (582/0)
Writing from the Original Position Behind the Veil of Ignorance
I have been thinking and writing about writing a lot these days. Mostly it has been in response to other articles I have come across which suggest various ways you can become a more popular or successful writer. As is my usual m.o., I have taken some of these articles to task with satirical replies that attempt to illustrate with humor just how ridiculous such advice typically is. An example of one of the satirical pieces and one with a (slightly) more serious tone are linked below to give you a sense.
By Everyday Junglist10 months ago in Writers
A Personal Opinion on the Power of Redundancy to Lift Up Your Writing and Deliver a Better End Product
Author's preface: A few years back Random House copy chief Benjamin Dreyer published an article in which he suggested a list of redundant words which he said we should "delete" from our writing. I took that as a challenge and prepared a short essay using as many of these words as I could squeeze in. Below is the final result of that effort.
By Everyday Junglist11 months ago in Writers
There is a Price to Be Paid For “Dumbing Down” Your Writing to Appeal to the “Average” Reader
There seems to be some consensus, at least on across the blogosphere, that in order to appeal to the so called “average reader” and maximize readership it is necessary to “dumb down” one’s writings. In the past I have come down very hard against this idea. In particular I take issue with the idea of grade level writing, or trying to keep one’s style and grammar and vocabulary choices at or below a certain arbitrary grade level, sixth and eighth grade seem to be the most common options. The idea being that people are generally not all that smart, not that patient, and will quickly click away from anything that challenges their intellect or in which they encounter unusual words they are not familiar with. Basically anything that makes them to think too much or forces them to come to terms with their own ignorance. Recently a writing colleague on a different site responded to my insistence that I would never dumb down my writing by asking a very simple question, would it hurt to do so? She went on to explain that as a non native speaker of English it is even more difficult for her than for most to keep up with “higher level” writing and she lamented that it was very frustrating having to constantly “go up and get a dictionary” to look up words that she did not know. I will admit the non native speaker was not the stereotype of the person I had in my head when imagining these so called ordinary joe’s and jane’s, and her points had some validity. They certainly forced me to stop and think about my position, and ultimately caused me to write this piece. For that I am eminently thankful to her and her question.
By Everyday Junglist11 months ago in Writers
Eight Rules for Publishing Articles That No One Will Ever Notice
I get almost no views here on Vocal (and, until I got suspended for the second time, I got almost no views on my previous internet publishing home, Medium). On Vocal I have had just 74 reads in the past 30 days. I’ve been writing for close to seven years, one to three stories most days. It’s pretty exciting to think about how much time I have wasted.
By Everyday Junglist11 months ago in Writers
Writing Articles That People Want to Read is Not My Objective
I call your attention to two articles out of many millions that are available online purporting to give you the secret for success in writing on internet based web publishing sites or social platforms (linked below).
By Everyday Junglist11 months ago in Writers
So You Think You Want to Write Humor and Satire?
Author's prepreface: I published this on Vocal two years ago, and on Medium before that, but thought I would resurrect it yet again with just a few changes for Vocal's new Writing community. Hopefully it will get at least a few more views there then it has anywhere else. I happen to think it is quite funny.
By Everyday Junglist11 months ago in Writers
The Reason I Will Never Make any Money Writing
Author's preface: Hopefully now fully approved. lol! If you are anything like me (trust me, you are not), then you suck at writing. That said, just because you suck at something doesn’t mean you can’t make shit tons of cash by doing it. Look at this very website (Vocal.media). There are a few truly great writers who regularly contribute, some pretty darn good ones, a few more OK ones, a shit ton of average or below average ones, and the remaining who probably make up just over 51% of the writing population here, the terrible, horrible, downright craptastic ones. Oh, and then there’s me. I will leave it to the reader to decide where I fit in on that sliding scale of trainwreckage, but that is really beside the point. The point is that there are a boatload of writers in that 51% who are making gobs and gobs of cash by writing. Yep, you read that correctly, you don’t have to be one of the greats, or average, or any good at all, to fulfill your dreams of endless bags of cocaine and supermodel blowjobs by the gross, through writing. Female dreams and your own dreams may differ slightly from mine of course. And, no, btw, that is not my dream in case you were wondering. I was just trying to be funny, and failing terribly, as is my typical style, and a pretty good example of just how bad I suck at writing.
By Everyday Junglist11 months ago in Writers
A Warning About Warning
Warning by Jenny Joseph was written in 1961 and, unlike its main character, has not aged well. It's vision of rebellion which features wearing non-matching clothes and trampling flowers in your neighbors garden is so anodyne as to be offensive considering what was happening in the counterculture of the time.
By Everyday Junglist11 months ago in Critique
Brink of War
Author pre pre-preface: I think everything is now sorted, and while I did publish this story earlier with a different title, I am publishing it again with this title as a test and because it links to the earlier pieces in the series in the author's preface below. Why not just add the links to the other version you published Dan? you might be asking if you are not hopelessly confused or totally clueless or just pissed off at me right now. Great question, would be my reply. lol!
By Everyday Junglist11 months ago in Fiction
Can We Stop Writing Stories with Titles That Are Questions Now Please?. Top Story - August 2023.
Author's preface: Another story that was mysteriously not approved for publication the first time around. Somehow my account got flagged as AI or spam. Flattered but obviously not true. I am a real person I can assure you of that. Also, there is no such thing as AI, but that is a topic for a different article. LOL!
By Everyday Junglist11 months ago in Writers
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