Posted in Writing on October 18, 2012| 1 Comment »
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince, once said,
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
photo by Tasslehoff Burrfoot on Flickr
Posted in Writing, tagged creativity, inspiration, Writers, writing on October 12, 2012| 1 Comment »
I stumbled on this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert yesterday and loved her characterization of creative genius as something that we encounter, rather than have (or, more devastatingly, do not). Sure, it could be considered a cop-out, but any idea that can help artists move forward while avoiding the pitfalls of despair seems like a good thing. Also? She’s funny.
Posted in Writing on September 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The study referred to in the following quote struck me as interesting, not just because I tend to be curious about gender differences (or not), but also because of the results’ potential implications for storytelling:
…the impulse to sympathize with a fictional character seems to be triggered in different ways for males and females.
At least, that’s the conclusion of a new study by psychologists Thalia Goldstein and Ellen Winner, which tracked reactions to Leonard Bernstein’s musical theater masterpiece [West Side Story]. It found men tend to sympathize with the people on stage only if they are personally moved by their plight.
For women, merely perceiving a character is in pain is sufficient to elicit feelings of compassion.
So. Writing with the average male audience in mind and trying to generate empathy? Just stabbing your character in the leg may not be enough:)
Posted in Writing, tagged yay on September 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I’m very pleased to have sold the short story “Heaven’s Lot” to Not One of Us.
Posted in Writing, tagged writing on August 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Now this is fascinating:) If you’ve ever wanted to chart word usage and speculate on how it reflects societal transformation, that is… and you know you do!
Posted in Writing, tagged writing on August 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I’m happy to announce that today I became a member of SF Canada, Canada’s National Association of Speculative Fiction Professionals. Because I like to speculate, and sometimes I do it in print.
Posted in Writing, tagged fun, writing on June 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Yes, I am one of those people who saddles up in November to draft a novel, in a month, with NaNoWriMo. It’s a terrific way to circumvent all those annoyingly reasonable excuses for doing other, much more practical things, like laundry and work that actually pays. I’ve done it for two years now and (looks aside modestly) won both times. All that means, of course, is that I’ve managed to pump out a surprising amount of text in a surprisingly short time. As someone who sometimes over-thinks their writing (do I really need that comma?), I liked that. I liked it so much, in fact, that I decided to run my own version of the challenge in May, for short stories.
Short Story Writing Month, a.k.a. ShoStoWriMo
— The goal? To draft a lot of short stories. Thirty stories. In a month.
— The rules: No rules, just writing. Ok, I decided to cut myself some slack and only write on workdays, but whatever works, right?
How did it go? Quite well, actually. Nothing like impossible goals, caffeine-fueled enthusiasm, and a complete lack of editorial criticism to finish a draft.
Would I recommend this exercise? Definitely. Obviously, I’ve still got lots of editing work to do, but I’m not looking at a blank page anymore. Awesome. And while NaNoWriMo is satisfying, there’s something truly terrific about starting and finishing a draft in a single day.
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