Roadblocks

By the end of the summer, I had written the first chapter. I gave the chapter to Chris Dvonch and Bill Baxter to review, and turned my attention to the issue of surveys, brought up by Phil Sidel. I've made very little progress in my writing since.

Surveys

My original plan had been to include profiles of climbers. But Phil suggested a survey approach, even a non-scientific one, would be better. I did invest about two months into the survey question. The survey I posted to the ECP generated a large and interesting data set. So much so, that it would require many weeks to analyze.

My conclusion after having given surveys a try, and some reading in the social science arena is that I, as a scientist, cannot live with anything less than the perfect scientific survey, fully analyzed. The time I'd have to invest in that is way beyond the scope of writing an interesting and inspiring book in about one year.

I have been trying to find a compromise. My thinking right now is to utilize profiles plus a few brief non-scientific surveys addressing key questions posted to climbing forums such as mountainproject.com.

Chapter 1

Chris raised several issues which I have been thinking about for many weeks now. First, she found that my introduction was not really an introduction. She thought the purpose of the introduction is to tell the reader about the book, perhaps with a personal motivation explaining why I wrote the book and what purpose I believe it is serving.

I had thought to put some of this in a foreword. The foreword would be a very personal motivation, then the first chapter would launch right into the issue of age.

Chris made a second very good point, in telling me that I had to figure out what voice I was going to use for the book. She noted I was mixing first person singular and plural and third person voices, and she described some of the perceptions she was getting from my style. Some of what she said I found written up by Daphne Gray-Grant in The power of "point of view".

I am now considering using the first singular and second person voices, for passion and inclusiveness. And with voice and audience in mind, I need to re-write the introduction. I'm getting ready to do just that.

Photography

To keep working on the book, and to make progress toward getting profiles, I have been studying about legal issues connected with publishing photographs of my subjects.

The book by Andrew Hudson, The Law of Photographers, clarifies many issues related to copyright and model releases. Another useful resource is the asmp website.

Several climbers have shared their backgrounds with me and given me permission to publish their photographs via email. I am currently following up on the permissions with asmp informed release forms.