“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
A Few Reasonable Words
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, art, kindness, Thoughts on May 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Dispatch from The Story Mines
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, genre fiction, Thoughts, Writers on May 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Field report on current story progress, the eighth day of May, 2024:
I have drafted three drabbles recently but sadly, have nothing yet to share.
- The first drabble is refusing to shrink to the appropriate length.
- The second drabble needs a twist, something spicy.
- And the third drabble is a tiny bit (way too) dark for these pages. (I mean, my nephews are mostly grown now but still, I try to keep it light.)
I plan to finish at least some of these projects soon, but no guarantees. One of the (many) ideas I started for last year’s Writers of the Future 24-hour story has been requesting my attention. And it’s hard to ignore a telepathic dirigible!
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Happier Monday
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #becauseMonday, creativity, Thoughts on May 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »
It’s the beginning of the week and I’m cranking away at the day job while fielding texts from my father about the TV show Fallout (it’s based on a game, for those who don’t know). What do those two things have to do with each other? Not much, I’d say, except that I just ran across this article.
‘Fallout but in Excel’ Lets You Visit the Wasteland While Your Boss Thinks You’re Working
If you thought that Excel spreadsheets were just for mind-numbing office work, think again. A gaming hobbyist has created an Excel-based RPG game that he based on the popular post-apocalyptic game Fallout.
There are so many ways to be creative. Find yours where you can, and have fun.
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The Art of Flying
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers on May 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“The Guide says there is an art to flying”, said Ford, “or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
― Douglas Adams
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Your Story
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, Thoughts on May 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”
― Patrick Rothfuss
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Color Me Impressed
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, Fiction, inspiration, writer, Writers, writing on May 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »
You may remember that I’ve talked about NaNoWriMo, where intrepid writers challenge themselves to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. Professional writers often do much more than this (Dean Wesley Smith is a poster author for it), but I wouldn’t say it’s common. At all.
Now that AI is a thing, however, it’s easy to put many words in a line very fast. Not good words, mind you, but words.
I just ran across a reference to an author who has decided to embark on a writing challenge, pitting herself against AI.
Alberta author Alison McBain decided to do an “Author Vs AI” challenge. The goal? A well-written book a week for a total of two million words in 365 days. Dang.
She started a week or so ago and is posting daily word counts as she goes.
Here she is ramping up for the starting line: Three Days before Launch… Tips & Tricks to Writing Quickly
Here’s she is, taking off: TODAY Starts 2 MILLION+ Words in 365 days!
Of course, we aren’t really comparing apples to apples here. We’re comparing one person’s ability to convert their history, emotions and expertise into a coherent recipe for another person to experience, versus a predictive extrapolation of the collective yet selective distillation of humanity known as the internet, produced through many (many) hours of training and often poorly-paid drudgery.
(Trying to resist the obvious joke about it not being so different from writing after all, but also obviously failing. Even so.)
Writers write because they have something to say. They’re unable to shut up. They have a point of view. They put themselves through an emotional wringer to get it across, and sometimes lightning strikes and their work resonates with other people. — Ilona Andrews
I love that this writer has given herself a fun challenge, and frankly, she had me at “well-written.”
Color me impressed.
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Good Boye
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, medieval times, Thoughts on May 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Artistic masterpieces and upper class architecture can tell us a lot about what a society put on a pedestal at any particular time, but those items tend not to touch the lived experience of the 99% (that’s you and me).
Another way of peering into the past is to learn about the everyday, from what people ate and drank to (checks notes) what they named their dogs.
In the 15th century, Edward, Duke of York wrote a list of 1,065 names suitable for a dog.
Find the perfect name for your medieval mutt.
— for more background, check out 100 Weird and Wonderful Medieval Dog Names
If you click through the main link above, you’ll find yourself on an oddly addictive site that does nothing but generate dog names from the Duke of York’s original list.
No Snuggles or Cutiepie for them, but lots of creative medieval spellings like Misavisid, Fyndewell, Sergeaunt, Dere-ybowgt, Argument, Romwlus and of course, Boye.
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Rejoice!
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, inspiration, nature, Thoughts on April 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.”
— Eleonora Duse
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If One Thing
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, future me, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers on April 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Better with Magic
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, kurt vonnegut, magic, possibility, science, Thoughts on April 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »
A phrase in a recent Storybundle promo caught my eye: “real life would be better if it had magic.”
Not that I actually think there are werewolves and vampires lurking around every corner, and I definitely believe in the power of science and all its wonders, but in general? I couldn’t agree more.
For me, magic is possibility.
Magic is the sure and certain knowledge that while we like to think we know everything the world has to offer, we do not.
I find that encouraging. You may have noticed that our world has a number of pressing issues, from the social to the political to the environmental. It would be wonderful to be able to pull out a magic wand and make those problems go away, but that’s not how our magic works.
Our magic is anchored in reality. I’ve talked about this idea before, but think it bears repeating. Just like the best fantasy, it relies on people (that’s you and that’s me) who care about their family, their friends, and their communities.
This form of magic is slower, yes, but surer. A rogue warlock can’t come along one day and upend everything we’ve worked for, just because he stole a forbidden spell from the archives of Alexandria-Under-Sea. (The Lernaean Hydra has been protecting those archives for centuries, thankfully! If you visit, tell him I sent you. And bring salmon snacks, he loves those.)
It also means that the problems and constraints we face today aren’t necessarily permanent. Not if we continue to study, to observe, to understand the world around us. (To quote Kurt Vonnegut, science is magic that works.) Not if we understand that every face is a mirror of our own humanity. Not if we are brave and focused and keep our eyes on our goals.
And if someone tells you that there is no hope? That you might as well give up?
Don’t listen to them.
So what if you’ve misplaced your magic wand. That’s ok, you can still be a hero. You can make your own magic.
Just embrace a world of possibilities. And then work to make it real.
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