Well howdy folks.

We’re gonna dive right into this, because we have a lot of ground to cover.

Where Have I been?

I’ve been drowning in my PhD. I wish I was kidding when I say this paper has been “all consuming,” but it really has been. It’s one thing to write the darn thing, but it’s a whole other ball game to also do the experiments, redo those experiments (I’ve had to redo so many… why??), hunt down edits, make the figures, edit the figures simultaneously with the text (because if you change one, you change the other), and so on.

(The redoing of experiments is what’s getting me. The time and prep for some of these assays…)

I told someone the other day, “It’s like I’m expected to do all of these jobs, and I can only do them in a mediocre way.” I was able to get our figures in the hands of professionals (the figures look AMAZING now).

PHD RANT INCOMING: I should also add that I’m doing this without almost any guidance from my mentors. Heck, one of the reasons I brought on the professional artists was so that someone could walk me through at least one of the processes. This may come as a shock to people outside of STEM, but at least in my program, we have zero training on “how to write a paper.” The process is shockingly similar to birds shoving their young out of the nest for a first flight.

Unlike baby birds, however, grad students lack built-in instincts that tell us how to flap, and we instead tumble down headfirst while hoping we land on soft moss instead of a rock.

Which is moronic, if you ask me. I can be a little candid in my own newsletter: for a profession that depends so heavily on writing— grants, protocols, reviews— you’d think we’d have better writing training. But nope, it’s all through osmosis, which is a surprisingly terrible way to learn how to write. Much of my writing skills have come from 1) my AP English and AP literature classes back in high school, and 2) self teaching from self-help writing books.

Like, all of this is teachable. This should be a whole semester class that would teach people how to write cohesively.

(Wait, I’m going on a different rant. Lemme pivot back to the original diatribe.)

Anyway, this whole mess has caused so much stress for me that I’ve started to physically manifest my stress. Gut pain, fatigue, and even soreness. It’s why you haven’t seen much in way of blogs, political posts, scicom posts, etc on my social medias. We’re in month 5 of burnout.

Oh, and the stress of the election multiplied said stress by 10.

Combating The Next 4 Years As A Science Communicator

I have very, very strong opinions on America’s joke of an election, but honestly? They’re not really important.

I don’t mean that in a “we can’t do anything about it,” sort of way but in a “Time to stop despairing and start mobilizing” sort of way.

And I mean really mobilizing. We can’t be reactive to the new administration, we need to put on our big girl boots and start preparing for the worst.

My goal is going to be going HARD on combating misinformation and carving my place in Scicomm as not only a communicator to the public, but also as a mentor to other scientists on how to be communicators, because what we have currently in STEM is not working. I’m not going to solve the whole systemic problem, but I can at least start making resources that hopefully can help someone out there.

The List

1) Develop workshops around combating misinformation. This is going to be more than “present people with the facts,” because that’s a surefire way to fail and we scientists need to change tactics immediately. This includes learning how and why misinformation (hint; it’s all about people hearing what they want. It’s all in the packaging). And yes, this is going to involve talking about social media. I know many scientists hate social media—I’m right there with you, believe it or not— but that’s how our intended audience are getting the majority of their “science facts.” We have to learn to deal with it.

2) Develop videos that break down papers. What better way to make science accessible to the public than to have laymen-focused journal clubs? These kinds of videos could be an invaluable source to journalists, who can use this as a reference while writing their articles.

3) Develop workshops/videos for scientists on how to write. Our scientists need basic, and I mean BASIC, writing classes to make their findings understandable. I’m no expert, but my goodness, I know how to do basic grammar and weave together a cohesive sentence.

4) Learn science journalism. Yep! I’m going to learn how to write for news outlets. Currently, I’m dabbling in it to build up my writing resumé (currently learning how to craft a pitch), but I do expect to do it after I complete my PhD. I considered doing opinion pieces, but I decided to go all in with writing articles. This is a very different type of writing compared to my blog, as my blog is far more lax and laid back in terms of style.

5) Network more with science communicators. There’s been a mass exodus on social media from Twitter to other sites, and already I’m finding it so much easier to find a multitude of scientists to chat with. I’ve been putting my name out there, but it’s a little difficult to maintain since I’m not producing scicomm content until the paper’s done.

That Sounds Like A Lot

It is, especially on top of my usual blog writing, but thankfully it’s a multi-year plan. Believe me, once this time-sink of a paper is out the door (and I survive my next big presentation on Dec 17th), I’m gonna be unleashed like Loony Toon’s Tasmanian Devil.

Updates on DnD Sicomm Project

I fell really bad that I haven’t been able to finish the last round of edits on the scicomm DnD game. People have really enjoyed it, and I’m so excited to put it out into the world… Just after I rewrite parts.

That’s what’s getting me is the rewrites, which would be a synch if it weren’t coinciding with PhD rewriting. Thankfully, the folks I’m writing it for are super understanding about it being late.

Finally, A Question For You All…

So, I’ve had some talk with people outside of my DnD group about the little dragon book I’m writing. It’s made me wonder if I should be more open about my creative writing beyond the few mentions, because there’s a lot I could cover. I know I’ve posted a little bit about it in the past, but do people actually want to see that kind of content in my newsletter? Like actual updates on what I’m writing?

Let me know in the little google survey form below.

The link is here for the survey.

It’s 3 questions. Well, really 2. One’s a fun, unrelated question!

That’s all I got! A small rant, a list, and a survey. The next newsletter is going to be full of scicomm content and celebrating turning my paper in. I know it!

Happy holidays!