Writing

How writers can fight unreason

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged ethics honesty reason on by

American society is being torn apart by widespread efforts to deceive and distort. Two broadly defined groups dominate these efforts. One is associated with the Republican Party and Donald Trump and has the support of many elected officials. It has significant representation among media outlets but a limited presence in the academic world. The other is associated with the Democrats but tends to be on its fringes. It doesn’t have a lot of outright support in the mainstream media, but many outlets are reluctant to challenge its outrages. It’s very strong in academia.

The two factions always at each other’s throats, but they’re similar in many important ways. Their goal is power. Keeping their own group in line is as important as attacking those who disagree with them. The important thing is to control their followers and promote hatred of non-followers. They use similar techniques to deceive and control. They want fear and hatred to replace reason.

Writers of nonfiction (and even writers of fiction, in a less direct way) should be on the front lines to challenge all promoters of unreason, taking on their false statements and identifying their methods. It’s a tricky challenge. We’re all subject to manipulation when we let our guard down. We can’t always tell facts from fabrications. We’re each well-informed in some areas and ignorant in others.

Each of us will make mistakes, but we can all contribute to rebuilding a culture of reason. Always double-check the facts and look for logical fallacies. Be ready to call out any of these stunts:
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Fanatical publishers

This entry was posted in Writer ethics Writing Writing as business and tagged music publishers on by

This post deals with a music publisher, GIA. That puts it a little beyond my blog’s usual scope, but it’s still publishing, and I write lots of songs (though only one has ever made me money) and have edited convention songbooks. The story is hard to believe, but the reports I’ve seen support it. My primary source is a Reason article by Robby Soave. I’ll grant that since I tend to agree with Reason‘s positions, I have to watch out for bias, but in my experience the site’s fact-checking is good, and they don’t often publish wild fictions.

On the other hand, if the report is accurate, the company it calls “the major publisher of religious content” (in choral music) is run by fanatics who don’t just support arson but think there’s “no justification” for opposing it. Or perhaps GIA is run by miserable cowards who will do anything that they think will help their revenues, no matter how unjust. Both possibilities are disturbing.
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Blogs vs. podcasts

This entry was posted in Writing and tagged blogs podcasts on by

To be “cool,” you need to have a podcast, not a blog. Or so a lot of podcasters think. There are certainly times when a podcast is more appropriate. When musical performances are the point — FilkCast, for instance — then a blog with links to audio files doesn’t work as well as an all-audio presentation.

But if the point is to present news and commentary, then give me a blog. Here are a handful of reasons why blogs are better:
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Negotiating a world of suppressed information 1

This entry was posted in Censorship Commentary Writing and tagged coronavirus writing on by

When information on a topic is broadly suppressed, what are we writers supposed to do? There are two easy answers, both error-prone. One is to reject all claims that there’s suppression and call them a “conspiracy theory.” The other is to assume that whatever is being suppressed is true.

Let’s look at the hypothesis that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan and somehow escaped into the population. I don’t know if that’s true, but the circumstances make it a possibility worth investigating. There have been many attempts to discourage an examination of the question. A Vanity Fair article by Katherine Eban summarizes the battle.
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Writing about music

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged music writing on by

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” It’s not clear who first said this, but it reflects the difficulty of discussing music in words. It doesn’t mean either one is impossible — I can imagine a good ballet on the creation of a monumental building — but both are challenges.

The problem comes when addressing a general audience. If you’re writing for musicians or music students, there’s a whole technical language for the job. But how do you say meaningful things about a musical piece without talking about voice leading, diminished chords, tonality, and other esoteric concepts?

I like to make music and write about it, though I haven’t often been paid for either. I enjoy good writing about music and have a lot of books on the subject. Based on that, here are some of my thoughts on how to write about it, with examples that I didn’t write.
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The “Pro Act” bill threatens free expression

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing Writing as business and tagged law liberty writing on by

The more I hear about the “Pro Act” bill (it’s not an act till Biden signs it), especially from its supporters, the more convinced I am that it’s a threat not just to writers’ livelihoods but to free expression.

As I wrote in an earlier post, the bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. On the surface, it just grants freelancers a freedom we didn’t have before, the freedom to deal with clients through organizations. This ignores the reality of labor law, which gives unions the power to compel employers by force of law to enter into agreements. Outsiders often have the choice of joining the union, giving the union money without joining, or not working for a unionized employer.
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Sunk costs and opportunity costs for writers

This entry was posted in Writing Writing as business and tagged business economics writing on by

Economics is more personal than most people realize. Every choice about how to allocate your resources is an economic decision, and time is your most basic resource as a writer. You expend time on your work in order to get income. Sometimes you know exactly what you’re going to do today and what you’ll get in return. A lot of the time you face choices. Which of your customers should get your attention first? Should you put them aside for a while and look for new income opportunities? Should you keep working on a time-consuming project or give it up as a lost cause?

Two economic concepts are useful in making these decisions: sunk cost and opportunity cost.
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An assault in Congress on freelance writers

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing Writing as business and tagged law liberty writing on by

Previously I’d written about California’s AB-5, which put heavy restrictions on the number of articles freelance writers could sell. That was ultimately amended, after some major companies stopped using freelancers.

A bill now in Congress is raising similar concerns. It’s different from AB-5 in important respects but is still disturbing. The “PRO Act” has passed the House of Representatives and gone to the Senate. It would require clients to treat freelance writers as employees, but only in certain respects. To be exempt, writers would have to pass all three requirements of the “ABC test”:
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Enough with the “phobia” epithets

This entry was posted in Writing and tagged phobia usage writing on by

Sometimes, to make a point you just have to lecture. This is one of those times. I don’t think most of my regular readers need the lecture, but you might like to point it out to those who do.

Start of lecture:

Do you know what the word “phobia” means? Merriam-Webster gives a single definition: “an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.”

The central word is “fear,” which is what “phobia” means in Greek. It’s generally a reaction someone has no immediate control over, though it’s possible to reduce it with long-term measures. Examples are acrophobia (fear of heights), claustrophobia (fear of enclosed places), and agoraphobia (fear of crowds). They don’t normally entail hostility, just a strong desire to avoid whatever it is.
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What does “Trust science” mean for writers?

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged science writing on by

Writing about science is hard. To start with, it’s complicated. Scientists deal in concepts which most people outside their field don’t understand. Most of us have no more than a vague idea of what a boson is (my spell checker doesn’t even recognize the word) or what the difference is between a brontosaurus and an apatosaurus (they’re the same beast).

An even bigger complication is the way science works. Scientists accumulate information, form hypotheses, and try to find out if their hypotheses explain the data. If they do, hypotheses build up into a theory. The term “theory” doesn’t mean a tentative guess, as it does in ordinary speech; it means a set of ideas which is the best explanation available.
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