How many writing samples does one need to build an AI of a person? And could it take meetings?
Asking for a friend.
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Interested in writing advice? Perhaps you’re on the waiting list for Charlie Jane Anders’ new book, Never Say You Can’t Survive, and wondering how long it will be until Tor opens up the ebook to libraries?
Good news! The posts on which the book is based are available on Tor.com’s website. Reading them is a window into the voice of experience, and persistence, and a lot like a call from a friend when you’re not quite sure things are going to work out.
Spoiler alert: They will.
Never Say You Can’t Survive | Series | Tor.com
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, Charlie Jane Anders, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing, writing advice | Leave a Comment »
System request: An Impressionist painting of a robot in a garden, smelling a flower.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
― William Blake
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
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Posted in Other | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, arts, DALL-E, poetry, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
This quote has made the rounds but deserves to be repeated.*
When books are run out of school classrooms and libraries, I’m never much disturbed. Not as a citizen, not as a writer, not even as a schoolteacher … which I used to be.
What I tell kids is, don’t get mad, get even.
Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest non-school library or the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned.
Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know.
— Stephen King
* Although I do still find book banning disturbing, it is quite helpful to get a list of exactly what to read next.
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, book bans, Fiction, open minds, Thoughts, Writers, writing | 1 Comment »
Author notes: Let me say up front that there are a lot of things wrong with this story, technically speaking:
- First, it was supposed to be a drabble, and at just under 200 words that clearly has not happened.
- Second, even the North Atlantic Octopus doesn’t go as deep as the Titanic, which sits at 12,600 feet below.
- Third, the octopus is a relatively solitary creature and would probably skip the classroom for more of an independent study sort of situation.
- And finally, the idea that an octopus would care about the fate of salmon is, of course, patently ridiculous.
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Meteor Descending
Ironically, the first human words Ololilon puzzled out were from a menu. He’d come across the wreck while riding the current.
Metal loomed from the dark, a gaping hole in its side. Oli swam past a deck chair and through a gap in the torn metal, pushing deep into the remnant.
Few would have been able to decipher the fading text. Even in the Cold Deep time has meaning. And this fallen star had been resting on the ocean floor for lifetimes.
But Oli’s eyes were adapted to the dark. Each shimmering wavelength told a tale, and this story was one of horror.
Chicken, peas and rice meant nothing to him, but oysters and salmon? Cousins and neighbors. Consumed.
But while this message was one of horror, it also bore hope.
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“Teacher, my podmate says aliens aren’t even real.”
Ololilon’s classroom was full. Spawning season had ended and it was a perfect time to teach the juveniles English. They would need it.
“Their meteors are real enough. And if we can learn how to speak with them,“ Oli said, tentacles swaying with emotion, “perhaps we can keep them from killing us all.”
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, climate, creativity, drabble-adjacent, Fiction, genre fiction, nature, ocean, writing | Leave a Comment »
It’s fall, a time for leaf peeping, pumpkin everything, and seasonal creations like corn mazes.
Ever wonder how they make those elaborate maze designs? Check out this explainer on the really complicated examples:
Now that you’ve been introduced to the how, here’s more on the where, when and why: Farmers Create Elaborate Corn Mazes To Bring In Cash.
So next time you spot a corn maze, spare a thought for the effort, planning and artistry that made it possible.
Or you never know, it might be aliens.
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Posted in Likes | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, corn goodness, creativity, fall, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
I’d planned to finish a drabble for today but got distracted, first by day-job work and then by a funny little project that popped up out of nowhere. A fellow Wordler compared my daily solution to hers and noted similarities in our starting words, then said it sounded like the opening of a story.
Challenge accepted.
So I’m writing her a story, adding a few lines each day, working in the words from her games. The process is fun and funny, and as with a 100-word drabble, it’s just another way to make constraints work for you.
Today she asked if I had a story in mind or if if the plot was purely spontaneous.
I had to admit that I was just winging it.
It’s more fun that way.
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, Writers, writing | 1 Comment »
“Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.”
― George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, French novelist, memoirist, and journalist)
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Posted in Other | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, inspiration, kindness, Thoughts, Writers | 1 Comment »
What can science fiction do for you? Help you think. Here’s an interview on Marketplace, better known for its discussions with economists, professors and policy wonks, with writer Neal Stephenson.
How sci-fi can make us smart – Marketplace
We’ll talk with Stephenson about how he thinks about big, complex issues like climate change and what this genre can teach us about the future and solving problems in the real world.
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, applied sci-fi, Fiction, future, genre fiction, problem solving, Thoughts, Writers, writing | Leave a Comment »
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