“Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence.”
— Tennessee Williams
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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Good Hunting, Artists
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, art, artists, creativity, quoteandaprettypicture, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Curious Horses Change History
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, cool facts, history, knowledge on February 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Last night, we watched the original Ghostbusters, which is always fun. Coincidentally and just in time to inspire this post, today I ran across this article from Dan Lewis at Now I Know that opens with that film and evolves into a fascinating discussion of why firehouses have poles.
Curious horses, that’s why!
How Horses Created Firehouse Poles – Now I Know
…in the late 1870s, “David Kenyon of Company 21, an all-African-American firehouse in Chicago [. . .] reached the ground by sliding down a wooden pole normally used to bale hay for horses.” Kenyon realized that this could be made into a permanent feature…
Read the whole thing for more on why poles were not just a good idea, but critical for firefighters. Spoiler alert, it’s not just because sliding down poles is fun!
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Leveling Up
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, art, creativity, current events, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Storytelling is good for so many things: entertainment, shared cultural touchstones, lessons from elders, or other instruction manuals for living. Even so, speculative fiction has always been burdened by accusations that it is less able to comment on reality than, say, literary fiction.
I disagree.
In fiction or nonfiction, no matter the genre or approach, storytelling is always, always, grounded in the cultural currents from which it springs. It’s how we pass on what’s important, even if it isn’t always “real.” Whether it shows us futures to avoid, goals to achieve, values of importance or daily ways to survive, the work’s foundation always reflects its context.
On a related note, here’s a short document on surviving difficult times, written in the form of an RPG-style guide. It wouldn’t surprise me to see an actual game follow soon.
Because life and art are two facets of the same die. And we’re all just players, trying to level up.
“The idea that any of us can do everything is instant failure. We all have our own skill sets and our own passions and we will accomplish the most if each of us works within those arenas to do what we’re already good at, what we already care about. You don’t have to do it all. Just a little.”
— Bree Bridges
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Telling Stories for the Future
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, art, climate change, creativity, storytelling, Writers, writing on February 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“To care about climate change, you only have to be one thing, a human living on Planet Earth.”
— Katharine Hayhoe
(I submit that other animals and any Earth-bound aliens also qualify, but “humans” is a good place to start.)
If you are a creator concerned with the livability of the planet, this guide from This Is Planet Ed may be useful. It’s designed for works aimed largely at younger audiences, but the ideas apply across the board.
A Toolkit For Climate Storytelling
Whether you want to develop a whole show, a story line, or embed climate solutions in your character’s world, this guide offers ideas, strategies, and tips to help.
Because as my landing page reminds us:
“Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
— G.K. Chesterton
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Dreaming Sweet Dreams
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, poem, Thoughts, writing on February 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The cat lies dreaming
claws spread wide to catch the Moon,
Her bright wings outstretched.
The cat’s fine, thanks for asking:)
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A Brief Technical Update From the Future
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, innovation, inspiration, quantum, science, Thoughts on February 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Some days you realize that yes, we really are living in the future. Point in case:
Oxford Scientists Say They’ve Achieved Quantum Teleportation
Researchers at the University of Oxford say they’ve achieved quantum teleportation — stitching together separate quantum computers to run an algorithm collaboratively, across a distance, in a “breakthrough” they say could lead to powerful quantum supercomputers.
Still lots to do on the road to practicality, of course, but how cool is that?
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A Little Humor for These Times
Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, current events, free fiction on February 15, 2025| 1 Comment »
Voting for the Mayor Who Promised to Blow Up the City Doesn’t Mean I Approve of the Mayor Blowing Up the City
by Mike Drucker
It’s so easy to label people these days. From the way folks have been talking, you’d think everyone falls into two buckets: those who voted against the mayor who promised to blow up the city and those who voted for the mayor who promised to blow up the city. And now that the mayor, whom I voted for, is blowing up the city, as he promised, I’m one of many people who are being unfairly blamed for something I didn’t want. Okay? I didn’t want the mayor to blow up the city like he mentioned many times; I just wanted him to fix the old bowling alley like he promised in passing once.
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Naught But Joy
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, bright side, haiku, nature, Thoughts, writing on February 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Of all Nature’s gifts
Bright sun, warm rain, skies above…
You bring naught but joy.
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Time to Move
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, art, change, creativity, power, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 6, 2025| 1 Comment »
“Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change. It can not only move us, it makes us move.”
— Ossie Davis
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You’re Ready
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, artists, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“If l’d waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started ‘being creative,’ well, I’d still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it’s in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are. You’re ready. Start making stuff.”
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