Scrolling through NASWOnline on an icy day last January, a few
anxious months into my career as a freelance science writer, I
came across Sandra Blakeslee's announce-
ment of an upcoming science writers' workshop.
It sounded right for me-a sort of one-year tune-up of my writing skills after graduate school. The five-day conference promised a blend of writing instruction and presentations on topics such as book-writing, on-line research and dealing with scientists. Along with Blakeslee and fellow Times writers George Johnson and Natalie Angier and editor Cory Dean, faculty were to include health writer Rick Weiss of the Washington Post and author Timothy Ferris. (We later learned that Angier and Weiss would not attend).
The price was reasonable: $680 for registration, double accommodations and two meals a day. Friends in Santa Fe put me up, bringing the cost down to $480. With airfare from Philadelphia, the overall cost was about $1000-money well spent in my view.
There were 44 participants in all-freelance writers with varying degrees of experience; institutional public information officers as well as scientific researchers and students.
Several more-experienced participants echoed one freelancer's sentiments that she came for "a kick in the butt" while biologist Kate Clark, a graduate student at the University of California at Davis came to explore a career alternative to lab research.
On such topics as reporting for newspapers, dealing with scientists and the like, and the editor-writer relationship, instructors tended to share their own experiences rather than offer "how-to" advice. These hands-on discussions were the most useful part of the conference for Patrick Regan, a public-relations manager and science writer at Bell Labs: "They removed most of the mystery and distance that lay between me and this particular set of creative processes." Freelance Marjorie Centofanti was grateful to find that participants "were helping each other, suggesting story ideas, recommending publications, writing down sources. I never had that happen to that extent at a science convention."
Nevertheless, several participants felt that the workshop-like many promising experiments-didn't entirely live up to its ambitious goals. Least useful, to me, was the assignment to produce a solid lede and story outline based on one of three talks given by Santa Fe-area scientists. Fascinating though they were, the presentations-on the (mis)interpretation of information from the human genome project, the use of complexity theory to predict financial markets, and the local Anasazi peoples' mysterious abandonment of once-thriving settlements during the 14th century-provided the sort of spark I typically fan with lots of reporting before attempting to forge ledes or outlines. But there was no time for that.
I might have tried my hand at writing spot news, as did several of Dean's students. Instead, I used the half hour allotted for one-on-one instruction to discuss a book idea with Blakeslee. I couldn't have done that had Ferris been my instructor, for he chose to lead a group critique session, rather than meet with each student. That pleased some participants, who felt they learned from others' work, but disappointed those who expected individual attention, or who didn't wish to share their writing widely.
A few students requested critiques of published articles or works in progress. Others found the writing exercise useful, but would have liked more challenging assignments. Susan Gedutis, a publicist and writer at the New England Aquarium in Boston, said she "would have liked much more structured writing assistance, tighter deadlines, and another assignment or two."
On the whole, most participants were pleased with the experience. "I came away from the workshop feeling that for a brief instant, I'd been an insider," recalled freelance Meg Gordon, of Davis, California.
Johnson said that he and Blakeslee are planning to make the workshop an annual event. Next year, he reports, "we'll have a different cast of instructors, though since Sandy and I live in Santa Fe, we'll certainly teach as well." Interested writers can check Johnson's Web page (http://www.santafe.edu/~johnson/sciwrite.html) for details on the program, as it develops.
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Alison J. Mack is a Wilmington, DE, freelancer.