The bloggers behind the blogs: Scarlett de Courcier

This is part of an ongoing series of interviews with some of the world's leading psychology and neuroscience bloggers.

Next up, Scarlett De Courcier of Ramblings of an Academic Petrolhead, Paracademia and 28 others!

How did you become a psychology/neurosci blogger?

I've been on a psychology of religion research team for the past three years and have always been interested in psychology. I got into blogging through my day job, which is in new media advertising; I spend hours traversing the blogosphere so thought starting my own might be interesting. I then got a bit obsessed and now have 30 blogs overall, though not all are about psychology!

What's your blog's mission?

To take the bits of exciting information that drop into my inbox from journals and conferences, and make them into short, bite-sized articles people can easily understand, regardless of their academic background (or lack thereof).

Are you also on Twitter - if so, how do the two outlets complement each other?

I am indeed: @bohemiaacademia. I love Twitter, it's a great way to promote whatever blogs you're posting, but also to meet others who are working the same fields, both on and offline.

How does your blogging affect your day job?

It doesn't really; I'm lucky because my day job involves the blogosphere, so they see it as a positive thing that I blog a lot. Having said that, I do my blogging in my non-work hours, mainly because I like to maintain a line between 'home' and 'work'. If anything, blogging is affected (positively) by my day job: I often find interesting/beautiful/intriguing things in my internet travels at work, note them down and blog about them later.

What are your weapons of choice - i.e. what blogging platform/hardware do you use and why?

Blogger, because it's very simple.

What advice do you have for any budding psychology bloggers out there?

Just go for it. Blog about the things you like! It doesn't matter if someone has already covered it, because no one has covered it in exactly the same way you would. Also, don't give up after a little while when you discover no one's reading it! It takes time to build an
audience. Use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to augment your number of readers and connect with other bloggers.

What blogs do you read (list up to five)?

Mind Hacks, Not Exactly Rocket Science, Tom Froese's blog, The Lay Scientist, and various others!

What books or other traditional media are you reading at the moment?

Right now I'm reading 'The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana' by Umberto Eco (one of the greatest writers of all time, in my opinion!).

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