I’m very pleased to tell you that my new story Catch of the Day is now out at SQ Mag, a delightful speculative fiction zine from Australia. This “tale of magical artefact smuggling, full of betrayal and twists and turns” is now freely available online. Enjoy!
Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Quote for the Day: On Action
Posted in Writing, tagged creativity, Dale Carnegie, finishing, inspiration, Motivation, quotes, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on February 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Leave JK Rowling Alone, She’s Trying to Write
Posted in Writing, tagged books, creativity, Fiction, harry potter, inspiration, JK Rowling, john scalzi, Lynn Shepard, Mark Pryor, more pie, quotes, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 27, 2014| 2 Comments »
I planned to avoid the kerfuffle around Lynn Shepard’s call for JK Rowling to stop writing, because the idea that Rowling should quit for the good of other writers is flat-out ridiculous. The sensible approach to scarcity isn’t to fight over the last tiny slice; instead, make the pie bigger. Rowling has certainly done that.
Mark Pryor’s article says most of what I was thinking about Lynn Shepard’s essay, and I was glad to see it come out. Here he is on Rowling: “…authors like you actually bring more readers to our books. More books from you means more readers for us, not fewer.”
I do disagree with a point at the end of Pryor’s article, however. The part where the author says that writers don’t write to make money is an old excuse to explain away economic marginalization: “…writers don’t sit down and write books to make money… We write because we love to share our stories.”
It has been said before but bears repeating: Doctors don’t examine you out of the love of anatomy, plumbers don’t fix your pipes for free. Professional writers are, or should be, the same. Yes, most people can “write” in the broad sense of the word, but very few can do it at professional levels. It’s like dismissing an Olympic sprinter because “anyone can run.”
“…this is the sort of thinking, intentional or otherwise, that gives bad people cover to screw writers with regard to money, and gives uncertain writers a reason to shrug off being screwed.”
— John Scalzi
Writers have a lot of motivations, and the pleasure of being read is certainly one. But we also write because (we hope) it pays the bills, because it’s less physically demanding than ditch digging, or because we have something to say. We write to entertain, to connect with other human beings, to understand the world and to communicate what we see. We write to make sense of a problem or an emotion and to pass that knowledge along. We write to provide adventure or mystery or humor or a place of refuge. If we do it well (and that’s what we’re all striving for, is it not?), we give to the reader, not the other way around.
And Ms Rowling does it well.
Inspirational TED Talks for Writers
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, creativity, Fiction, fun, inspiration, Motivation, storytelling, TED talks, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.
—Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Perhaps your weekend will be spent climbing Everest or solving cold fusion, but if you plan to spend at least some time facing down a blank page in an effort to write, the following TED talks may be of some use. This collection comes to us via Aerogramme Writers’ Studio and includes a variety of topics and speakers:
- Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story
- Isabel Allende: Tales of Passion
- Andrew Stanton: The Clues to a Great Story
- Lisa Bu: How Books Can Open Your Mind
- Amy Tan: Where Does Creativity Hide?
- Billy Collins: Everyday Moments, Caught in Time
- Elif Shafak: The Politics of Fiction
- Joe Sabia: The Technology of Storytelling
- Elizabeth Gilbert: Your Elusive Creative Genius
- Tracy Chevalier: Finding the Story Inside the Painting
- Jarred McGinnis: Writing is the Only Magic I Still Believe In
- Julian Friedmann: The Mystery of Storytelling
- John Green: The Paper Town Academy
I featured #9 in a previous post but there are a dozen other talks too. A baker’s dozen. … Hmm, baking… Perhaps I’ll make something tasty to go along with the above educational material. Because, cookies. Butterscotch ripple cookies, even:)
Ancillary Justice
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged Ann Leckie, awesome, books, Fiction, genre fiction, recommendations, science fiction, sff, spaceships, speculative fiction, writing on February 17, 2014| 1 Comment »
I don’t post book reviews per se but I’m all for recommendations. I’ve just finished Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie and enjoyed it thoroughly. This space opera follows the humanoid remnants of a self-aware starship on a quest for justice. Well-written and beautifully developed, it was an entertaining and unexpected read. Worth reading for the reprogramming of your neural pathways around gender alone, and it’s so much more than that.
Recommended.
Happy Valentine’s Day
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, finishing, inspiration, Michael Faraday, quotes, Thoughts, work, writing on February 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Not Today
Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged creativity, funny, impostor syndrome, The Onion, Thoughts, work, writing on February 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The Onion does it again, succinctly summing up what so many of us have felt at one time or another in hilarious fashion.
Report: Today The Day They Find Out You’re A Fraud
While experts agree you’ve been remarkably successful so far at keeping up the ruse that you’re a capable, worthwhile individual, a new report out this week indicates that today is the day they finally figure out you’re a complete and utter fraud.
…
“They’re all on to you,” the report continues. “You do understand that, don’t you?”
Whatever, impostor syndrome, I’ve got work to do.
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