Why I Stepped Away from Science Writing And What Brought Me Back

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In this episode, we’ll chat about how I started my science communication journey and what I’ve learned. I will also read my most recent article that was published in The Dish Wisconsin, a food literary magazine at UW-Madison.

I have never really been the type of person to do only one thing. From a young age I have been involved in many kinds of extracurricular activities, like ballet, piano, kung-fu, and violin. When I was in college, I did so many other side quests. For example, starting my own music organization, the Non-music Major Orchestra and doing undergraduate research.

A side quest is a short experience or project or just something that you do for fun. Maybe it was unexpected, maybe it’s not, it might not advance the plot, but it will certainly make it more interesting or it will make it more enjoyable towards your destination. And it’s all part of your exploration of yourself or your career development. To me, these things were never additional responsibilities. I’ve always pursued them because I thought it would be fun for me or that I would learn something from that experience. I brought the same mentality to my PhD journey as well.

My First Experience with Science Writing

This story is about my side quests into science communication and writing. When I first started in the online space around 2018 or so, I thought I wanted to become a science communication writer. My first article was “How Non-sugar Sweeteners Affect Your Gut Health.” I learned a lot about the writing process, the editing process, and how difficult it is to be a science communication writer or science journalist because it required a lot of in depth reading and more clear writing.

This experience made me think that science writing was not for me because I felt unprepared to read the scientific articles and to really understand it at the level required to write something that was concise, informative and engaging. I gave up on science writing for a while, until recently.

The Process of Contributing to a Local Magazine

I wanted to give writing a try again, so I started looking for opportunities to write. This time I wanted to write about food. I found a literary food magazine on campus called The Dish. The theme of the edition was food and your major or your field of study. My article was about fear mongering in food marketing and chemicals in our food. You can read the full article here.

The process for writing this article was actually pretty easy. I just emailed the editor in chief of the magazine and asked how I could contribute. The editor was very kind and offered to give me about a month to write my article and so I just wrote it slowly over the course of the month. I felt pretty nervous about writing this because of the chemistry, even though the chemistry topics that I addressed in the article are pretty common safety knowledge among chemists. I didn’t want to mess it up or accidentally spread misinformation. I had to do a lot of fact checking. I wanted to also create a good hook and have a strong takeaway.

The copy editor read it, fixed some grammar, and offered some suggestions and phrasing. I asked other chemist friends to review it for accuracy and readability to make sure that I was using the right words and it was being interpreted properly. After I submitted it, I waited a few months as I prepared it for the print edition. At the end of the spring semester, I attended a publication party where I got a printed edition of the Dish with my work in it. I really loved seeing my work in published in a physical magazine.

When You Should Try a Side Quest and When You Shouldn’t

If there’s like a side quest that you have been interested in and you want to try out, just find a way to make it work. There are so many opportunities out there that you can try out. And even if they’re not openly soliciting applications, you can always contact them and ask and see how you can contribute. Sometimes they’re challenging and ultimately it’s a good way to just test out a little bit and see what you like, what you don’t like, what you could be good at, what you enjoy in a relatively low stakes environment.

The one caveat is that obviously sometimes these side quests are unpaid. It does take up time and energy that you may or may not have. Be very selective about the types of opportunities you take on. Only take on the opportunities that you think that you feel really lighted up about and don’t do things just because you think they’re going to be a really good line on your resume. If you don’t enjoy it and it’s going to be a time suck, it’s not worth the investment.

I hope this story has kind of encouraged you to go try out a side quest. If you do end up going on a side quest, I would love to know. Please feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn about what your side quest is. If you have finished a side quest and have a finished product to share, I would love to also see that as well.

My Science Communication Articles: