h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hm, this is very well done. I would like to consider myself an amateur fan of sorts of astronomy and astrophotography, and I hadn't even heard of brown dwarfs.

Thankew.
It's difficult to find a balance between readbility and rigour, and this article took me a long time to formulate. Then it passed tthrough Joanna's hands who did a bloody good job of editing it.

Why don't you have a go at writing something star-related?

Regards
The FM

Well, I always get intimidated by stuff I read on h2g2. I say 'I can't write something like that' and besides, I don't know enough about any one subject to make a coherent entry. I'd donate psychobabble.

I know what you mean. However, I think the secret is to try to tell a story. I've written a quite a few articles now, most scientific, some not. All of these have a thread running through them. All (bar one, but that's only just been submitted) have made it into the Edited Guide and two have been Pick of the Day. I thought I had no chance when I started out but when I got into it I found out I was quite good at it. So I'd suggest, if you want to have a go:
* Try and pick a theme which has a story to it. It needn't be a finished story, even.
* Write about something you know and enjoy.
* If you are scared, put it through the writing workshop first
* Go for the quirky, factual article rather than the polemical. People don't like to be lectured.

Have a look at my personal space and read a couple of the articles. the tell me why you think they work (or even why they don't). Then you'll have some idea of what does (or doesn't) make a good article yourself.

FM
P.S. I do hope you're not the real AR: I'm Welsh!

Thank you. Perhaps after my finals are over and I have more time (and I'm in a better frame of mind) I'll take a crack at looking into your material, as well as starting my own.

Golly. My personal space. Hasn't been revised in quite some time. I'll get to that as well. By the way, you can relax. I'm a native of Los Angeles, California.