Eccentric Flower:199905/stagnation and jargon
From Eccentric Flower
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may nineteenth stagnation and jargon Mouth organ tonight. Better come up with a topic. Bad night last night because I can't seem to focus on any of my projects - the work is stacking up and I'm getting guilt, but when I sit down, my brain won't do it. This is why there hasn't been an H story, or any more Aedie work for several days. In both of those cases I've made another common mistake: I broke off at the wrong spot. Here's a tip to avoid writer's block: Never break off at the end of a chapter. Always know the first hundred words or so you are going to write next time before you leave off this time. If you stop at a point where you're not sure what to write next, it will just get worse the longer you wait. In the case of the H story, I know what it should involve - it's a story of a dominant woman who transforms her lovers - but beyond that I have no good ideas. In the case of the Aedie novel, I am at a point where Aedie has just hit rock bottom and an event has to come along to shake him out of the emotional pit he's in ... and I'm not sure how to write that event yet, how subtle to be about it. Poor Aedie. He's surrounded by an alien people and he hasn't learned yet that the reason things aren't working out for him is because he refuses to correspond with their rules. Since I believe in stubbornly not corresponding with Someone Else's Rules - remember my screed about why I hated the end of Time Pressure - I feel sorry for him. I hate having to drag him out of this pit. In a way, I am writing exactly the kind of story that I sometimes get angry at others for writing. But if I don't do it, he will spend the rest of the book in semi-self-imposed isolation, living on this alien world but never really interacting with it or seeing it, defiant but miserable. I'd like Aedie to keep his principles as well - he's the newcomer, why won't these damned aliens come talk to him? - but it makes bad reading. Poor little guy. His own author is about to slap him in the face. - - - Anyway there won't be any writing tonight - mouth organ eats all of Wednesday nights. So I'll just have to live with my guilt for another night. My CGI projects are also in bad shape - if I can't focus enought for fiction, I certainly can't focus enough for code. Speaking of which .... I was having a conversation online yesterday and it struck me once again that the technology industries - and the software folks in particular - have developed an absolutely obnoxious amount of jargon. You'd think that engineers and programmers, who are usually no-nonsense people, wouldn't stand for it. But I think that sometimes these tech folks have an inferiority complex about themselves, and I can't understand why they do. If you're a programmer, then call yourself a programmer. I see no problem with this description. What set me off was a reference to QE, which I take to be a Quality Engineer - that's jargon for a software tester. Look, it's a noble enough profession. When I was a software tester, I called myself one. When I did tech support, I did tech support - I wasn't a Customer Service Representative. This jargon serves no one's needs, except possibly a need of the bosses to keep the underlings guessing. Oh, and while I'm there: I'm an employee. I'm not an associate or a team member. I have a boss, I am in someone else's employ, ergo I am an employee. It's not a disgraceful term. It's not something to be ashamed of. Nor is "secretary." Nor is "janitor." Et cetera. These are straightforward descriptions of what people do. I would feel a lot more embarrassed telling someone I was a Quality Engineer than that I was a janitor. © columbine |
