inner snark

In re-crafting and editing “Eat Up,” I catch myself slipping into a mildly snarky tone.  Maybe it’s just my inner snark breaching the surface, or maybe it’s because rooftop agriculture is a relatively wild subject matter, that demands a little humor.

The book touches upon technical information, fairly serious subject matter, and cultural critiques, and I find myself inadvertently inserting some snark to lighted the load.  Sometimes the snark grows out of control, though, and I have to prune it back with care and precision.  An example of an over the top sentence that was removed from the book introduced a chapter on agricultural methodologies (the chapter is called “Seed to Plate”).  The sentence initially read: “There are almost as many ways to grow a tomato on a roof as there are to skin a cat.”  Admittedly, this sentence grew out of a late night writing session, and it seemed rather brilliant until I read it the next morning and quickly deleted the nonsense.

The introductory sentence to the chapter now reads: “There are many ways to grow a tomato on a roof, but the most effective growing method may be dictated by production goals and building conditions.”  Lets save the snark for later.