No, I'm not talking about Steve Martin. I've been working on a column for a magazine this week, and I'm a bit shocked about how...wordy...my conversational style of writing is.
I'm supposed to be about 1,000 words, and at just past the halfway point, I'm at 850. Hell, my outline was over 600.
It's difficult keeping a conversational tone with a technical topic. With a good conversational tone, you have to explain things in such a way that a person who isn't familiar with the topic can still grasp the general gist of the situation, while not delving so much into explanations that experienced readers get bored. It's a delicate balance, and I often feel that I err too much on the side of explaining to the neophytes.
What really frightening is that as verbose as I am writing, I've been described as "eerily laconic" when it comes to how I communicate in public. I tend to be a very quiet, reserved person most of the time unless you get me talking about something I'm passionate about. At that point, I'm fairly normal.
Maybe that's why I was a decent dinner guest the other night...
Anyway, I'll have a surprise sometime next week that is not related to employment, bounced check fees due to me from a certain company owned and operated by a total suck-ass, former employers, future employers, or certain plant phylums. Here's a hint: D/FW amateur game developers, brush up on your C#...
2 comments:
Pardon my ignorance: what does D/FW mean?
D/FW == Dallas/Fort Worth, but I'm trying to work out an arrangement so I can allow participation outside the D/FW Metroplex.
Post a Comment