Writing | J.R. Johnson

Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Filling the Shelf

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, Thoughts on October 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“We are born an empty bookshelf. Life is what we fill it with.”

― Felicia Day

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This Is Excellent

Posted in Likes, Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Whee, I just realized that our library has added two new libraries to its partner system and now I can haz alllll the books!

(Seriously, I can now check out something like 75 books at one time. I won’t, but I could!)

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A Very Brief Snippet

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, Writers, writing on September 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

For whatever reason, today I have nothing. I have an extensive folder filled with potentially fun links, ideas, quotes, etc. but none of them are catching my eye. So instead, here’s the first line for a little story I started a few days ago. It’s sitting open on my desktop, waiting for me to have time and bandwidth. I hope I get to it soon because I think it’s going to be entertaining.

You ever watch a movie where the bad guy is up on stage, monologuing for all he’s worth, and then look behind him at the B-team and wonder, “What the hell are they thinking?”

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My Pain, Your Gain

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #ImperfectButStillTrying, creativity, perfectionism, Thoughts, with apologies on September 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I try to push back against perfectionism here, encouraging you to do your best but to also push ahead and just get things done.

I try to follow those guidelines in my own creative work, but it doesn’t always happen that way.

Case in point: I’ve been working on a card for a friend, and was all set to make her something fun. Then I came up with another idea. And then another. And then her birthday came and went and I was still working out my plan.

No problem, my cards are often late and it’s just an excuse to extend the celebration.

Well, this time, it’s possible that the card will be Very late.

It’s finally almost done and I’m feeling pretty good about it. Except.

Canada Post workers walk off the job after government demands reforms | CBC News

Whoops.

So this card, which would have been just fine if perhaps not perfect (what is?) will now be Very Very Late. Perhaps it will arrive in time for Canadian Thanksgiving? American Thanksgiving? Christmas?

Well, that’ll learn me.

In case you needed another example of the downsides of perfectionism or a reason to just Get On With It, here it is.

Hoping that my pain will be your gain!

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Everyday Magic

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, art, creativity, inspiration, practice, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Whether you want to draw, write, or some other creativity, this is pretty good advice.

The Artist Who Couldn’t Draw | The Kid Should See This

Roger didn’t like his drawings. He didn’t feel that he had any drawing talent. But then a girl named Zoe moved next door and handed him a magic black pen.

The lesson? Sometimes it helps to take things literally.

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This Perfect Autumn

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, fall, Thoughts, Writers on September 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Yes, the wind blows colder now, teasing the last summer petals from their stems.

But oh, the sky!

“It was the golden time of year. Every day the leaves grew brighter, the air sharper, the grass more brilliant. The sunsets seemed to expand and melt and stretch for hours, and the brick façades glowed pink, and everything got bluer. How many perfect autumns did a person get?”

— Elif Batuman

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Advice for Writers, or Anyone, Really

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, inner monologue, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Don’t talk to yourself like someone you hate.

— Arthur Brooks

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What Sci-Fi Says About Us

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, data, history, problem solving, sci-fi, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I like the data-driven articles from The Pudding, which include fun topics, great graphics and easy-to-digest research.

And hey, here’s one by Alvin Chang about science fiction!

Who killed the world?

I analyzed the top 200 sci-fi films and tv shows every decade from the 1950s to present day. What I found was that sci-fi narratives from yesteryear were quite different from today’s stories….

Sci-fi is an amazing genre.

It helps us explore our feelings about the unknown, the future, and the possible. It lets us imagine “what if” scenarios, and then build out rich worlds that our minds can occupy. It depicts dystopias we should fend off and utopias we should seek – and it teases us with the scintillating possibility that humans may actually be able to build the world we want.

But over the last few generations, it’s been harder for us to imagine this better world – and our sci-fi reflects that.

And while that may be so, sci-fi is also a critical part of highlighting society’s important problems. That’s the first step to finding a fix.

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