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

You may have read about my gastrectomy (first ever Entry) piece going through to the editorial process to be considered for the Edited Guide.
You went to some lengths to sort out my use of GuideML and give general advice to me as a 'newby'.
I wish to thank you publically for your interest and input.

Ron

My pleasure Ron. It was clear right from the beginning that you had written a good piece that was certain to get into the EG - it just needed that bit of work that all entries need when they go through PR. I had no doubt that with that work, you'd have a front page entry on your hands

Cheers man!

Now go away and write another one

I don't even know whether I've got another one in me!

Like a lot of people in h2g2, this is now my main problem.

Meantime, I'll try to do some more research for my 'Power of Attorney' piece.


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I can't believe I spelt 'publicly' that way!


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I didn't think I had another one me after my first entry, but I've got 20 solo entries under my belt now, one more has just been picked, another is in PR, and I'm working on yet another

How the hell do you think them up? Everything I think about is usually already done! With a bit of luck something may come to mind; but it'll probably take a lot of research to knock something together.


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Writing about where you live is a good way to find subjects that haven't yet been covered. I'm lucky in living in a place that has a lot going on and has plenty of characters living here in its time (A830378, A3865926, A3866015, A3814021, A3814012) but almost every place of human habitation from the largest city down to the smallest village has stories to tell.

Write about what you know and about what interests you (cacti and succulents, working in a used CD store, and making sweets in my case A4552841, A2654732, A1149284, A1090630, A1075646, A998021, A776081, A755769). Write about everyday things that people never think of writing about (getting the best out of a waste disposal unit A1081252). Write about oddities (Didi Senft A791228). Write about something that sticks in your mind from a book or a film (Max Patkin A855290). Write about something terribly mundane (waxing a cheese A778197).

There are people who write many more entries than I do - it's taken me three years to write just 20 solo entries. There are some who have written two, three, four, even five times as many as that.

Great! Thanks for the tips.

Since I sent you that last message I've started writing about my own home town; not where I live now, but where I spent my boyhood and schooldays, and worked and lived until I got married in 1963.
I've started with its history from the Conquest, and even before, where its roots started under the Anglo-Saxon warrior princess Aetheldreda.


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Local history is often a great place to get interesting entries from That Moonlight Towers entry was probably the fastest entry I've ever written - about five hours altogether, including research. But that's an exception - most take me several weeks, and there's one I started even before I wrote my first ever edited entry and which I've yet to finish

Right, yes. I, too, am getting the 'writing bug' now that I'm more used to the culture and conventions of h2g2! There's still a lot for me to learn about this particular on-line environment though, and how to use the various 'tools' for images, such as those great 'mobile' images that the site's whizz-kids use on their personal space introduction screens.

I shall take my time with this new 'home town' project; try to make it as interesting as I can!

But still very much a 'newby' to our interesting community!


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