Writing | J.R. Johnson

Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Art as Time Travel

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, artists, creativity, inspiration, Rijksmuseum, Vermeer on January 30, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Hello! So nice of you to stop by and see what’s up on this Mondayest of Mondays. I’m a little busy and I don’t want to bore you, so perhaps you might enjoy a bit of cultural enrichment? Maybe learn a bit about a master like Vermeer?

I just discovered that the Rijksmuseum has an online tour of Vermeer’s work and world narrated by Stephen Fry. Sounds fun, right?

Closer to Johannes Vermeer – Rijksmuseum

I enjoy Vermeer’s paintings because 1) that light, so amazing, and 2) he captured the details of regular people doing regular things. Not always, of course, an artist still has to pay the bills, but enough to pass on the sense of real people doing real things.

Art as time travel, is how I like to think of it.

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Action Is Hope

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, Motivation, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Action is hope. At the end of each day, when you’ve done your work, you lie there and think, Well, I’ll be damned, I did this today. It doesn’t matter how good it is, or how bad—you did it. At the end of the week you’ll have a certain amount of accumulation. At the end of a year, you look back and say, I’ll be damned, it’s been a good year.
— Ray Bradbury

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*A portrait of productivity. Photo by ModCatShop on Unsplash*

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Add Title Here…

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I have come to the conclusion that I typically have enough space in my brain for two things a day: work and one other project.

Today, my brain overfloweth.

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*Quick, get out while you still can! Photo by Vishwesh Jirgale on Unsplash*

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Crime Without Punishment

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, cozy is as cozy does, genre fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »

You know how some nights you’re looking forward to a nice relaxing book by the fire? … But then you realize that “cozy mystery” is really just another way of saying “obstruction of justice.”

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Wild and Unpredictable

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, Kafka, music, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Some days you wake up with a story idea crystallized in your mind, bright and shiny and ready to go. And some days you wake up with “She’s An Easy Lover” by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins stuck on repeat.

Guess which kind of day I’m having.

The funny part is that it’s not a song I’ve ever actively liked, I wasn’t dreaming about anything related to its subject, and it’s not the sort of fiction I tend to write. I mean, it’s not as if the song is about the lead singer of a band telling the story of how he stumbled into a dark street one night after a show and into the arms of a beautiful and deadly vampire or anything.

Right?

So maybe there’s a story seed here after all. I still don’t know why this particular song came to me at this particular time, but that’s the wild and unpredictable nature of creativity for you.

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
― Franz Kafka

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*Photo by Valentin BEAUVAIS on Unsplash*

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Tasty Tasty Words

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you.”
― Beatrix Potter

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Unexpected Overwrite

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, computer triumphs, computer woes, ideas, writing on January 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

What kind of day is today? The kind where I discover that at some point during my recent computer update, several important files were overwritten by earlier versions of themselves.

Sure, that’s the stuff of fiction, and authors could have a field day building a world where people can buy younger versions of themselves. In my case, however, I wouldn’t want to slough off a decade of experience and I really didn’t want to lose three months of data.

Happy news, however! I am paranoid about such things (the data part, not the “waking up to find that someone has siphoned off years and you’re left to bumble around in a world that has moved on without you” part).

Backups. I have many (many) backups. One of them came through.

I spent too long rescuing files from the depths of this software update, but 1) rescue them I did, and 2) I came up with a fun new story idea. So it’s all good:)

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Passport to Wonders

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, inspiration, libraries, Writers, writing, yay on January 20, 2023| 1 Comment »

“Libraries are a force for good. They wear capes. They fight evil. They don’t get upset when you don’t send them a card on their birthdays. (Though they will charge you if you’re late returning a book.) They serve communities. The town without a library is a town without a soul. The library card is a passport to wonders and miracles, glimpses into other lives, religions, experiences, the hopes and dreams and strivings of ALL human beings, and it is this passport that opens our eyes and hearts to the world beyond our front doors, that is one of our best hopes against tyranny, xenophobia, hopelessness, despair, anarchy, and ignorance. Libraries are the torch of the world, illuminating the path when it feels too dark to see. We mustn’t allow that torch to be extinguished.”
― Libba Bray

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Seriously, Though…

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, back to work!, creativity, Fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Where has this day gone? Despite constant motion since pre-dawn, I have accomplished exactly two of the many things on my list for today. Ok, fine, three if I stretch it. It’s time to buckle down and finalize the edits on this story.