Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #wotf39, creativity, editing, genre fiction, perfectionism, Thoughts, Writers, Writers of the Future, writing on August 21, 2024| 2 Comments »
Consider this: when you over edit something, you polish off the edges that made it unique and vibrant. A little polish is good, but not too much. Nobody wants a diamond polished into a ball bearing. They want something unique. Something sparkly. The world is full of uniform ball bearings. Be a flawed diamond.
— David Hankins, award-winning writer, author of Death and the Taxman, and all-around good duck
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, persistence, Thoughts on August 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.”
— Earl Nightingale
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers on August 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Where did my imagination take root? In a yellow-brick house on a quiet country road, filled with bright windows and built-in bookshelves containing a wide range of genres, including science fiction and fantasy.
I remember that house well, not least because a friend recently sent me a listing for it on a rental site. It was odd to see the rooms looking so empty, with none of the life that still populates my memories. Even so, it was good to visit the house again.
And to remember what it was like to look out at the old willow shading the little creek behind our house, and dream.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #wotf, #wotf40, #WritersOfTheFuture, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Kal M, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »
If you are a writer, an illustrator or creator of any kind, this Writers of the Future winner has a message for you.
You Don’t Need to Fit In | Kal M
Hey, you. Yes, you, the one fretting in front of the computer because you’re too nervous to start on that story you promised yourself you’d work on. Come here a second; I have something to tell you.
Ready? Okay, here it is: you’ll be fine.
Maybe today is the day you need to hear this. If not, put it in your pocket and save it until you do.
Then pick yourself up and make something. It will be beautiful.
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Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #wotf39, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, learning, science fiction, sff, Thoughts, Writers, Writers of the Future, writing on August 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »
It’s Monday and my day job brain is a little tired. So why not take a little time to stretch my mind in other ways, like listening to a couple of cool dudes chat about a nice light topic… like controversies in quantum mechanics;)
Neil deGrasse Tyson and Sean Carroll Discuss Controversies in Quantum Mechanics
(We’re also watching 3 Body Problem, the series based on Liu Cixin’s award-winning novel, so it’s maybe kind of like semi-related big brain study material?)
Yeah, I don’t understand most of this at a deep level but I really like that there are other humans on this planet who do.
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Speaking of science, this is also an excellent opportunity to celebrate a new blog by scientist, award-winning author and friend Arthur H. Manners. He is currently working on The Sci-Fi Writer’s Guide to Reality, a series with the goal of helping SF writers understand the fundamentals of science.
I love this idea so much. One great session at last year’s Writers of the Future workshop was given by Dr. Beatrice Kondo. It was Day 6 of a long week. Many of us were half asleep, until the good doctor started talking in a serious, straightforward way about what it would take to make some of the crazy stuff in our heads work in real life. Really terrific stuff.
Writers & Illustrators of the Future Workshop Week 2023 – Day 6
Kondo talked the writers through the science of several common writing scenarios. Why can a submarine only travel at certain speeds underwater? What would happen to someone’s body if they tried to lift a car? How do exoskeletons work?
Then she touched on tissue engineering, stem cells, 3D bio-printing, breathing underwater, genetic engineering, and whether human wings or human photosynthesis would actually work.
Chatting after the session, a lot of the writers expressed a desire for a collection of introductory information on various scientific topics. Not a thick textbook for students of the field, but the sort of material one might need to both ground a story and to better imagine the possibilities of those topics.
I am so happy to see that Arthur has taken up this challenge.
New Release: Writing About Remote Sensing in Sci-Fi – Arthur H. Manners
I’ve just finished the first 6-part primer in my new blog called the Sci-fi Writer’s Guide to Reality. The blog aims to help science fiction writers with the fundamentals of science. The first primer focuses on remote sensing (the act of trying to determine what’s going on over there, i.e., at a distance, through means other than physical contact). This topic is rich and essential to many aspects of science fiction, from spaceship sensors to astronomical observations.
Yes, please!
Here’s the first installment of his six-part primer on remote sensing:
Sci-fi Primers- Remote Sensing – Part 1
Ensign: “Captain, the long-range scanners indicate that the aliens’ blood-type is O-negative.”
Captain: “My God… Universal donors. What else is on the scanners?”
Ensign: “That the aliens think Star Wars Episodes Seven through Nine were the best.”
Captain: “Monsters! Arm the photon torpedoes!”
So if you’re wondering how remote sensing works, what is handwavium (official writer terminology alert!), and what crosses the boundaries between science and magic, check out this guide:
Sci-fi Primers- Remote Sensing – Part 1
Sci-fi Primers- Remote Sensing – Part 2
Sci-fi Primers- Remote Sensing – Part 3
Sci-fi Primers- Remote Sensing – Part 4
Go, science!
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, ideas, Writers, writing, writing advice on July 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »
How does science fiction author Charlie Jane Anders record history that hasn’t happened, build cities that may never exist, and ground her stories in unreal realities? And what advice does she give for those of us working to build our own fictional futures?
…I kind of start by daydreaming the wildest stuff that I can possibly come up with, and then I go back into research mode, and I try to make it as plausible as I can by looking at a mixture of urban futurism, design porn and technological speculation. And then I go back, and I try to imagine what it would actually be like to be inside that city. So my process kind of begins and ends with imagination, and it’s like my imagination is two pieces of bread in a research sandwich.
Whatever works for you, works. So go ahead and dream.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, authors, creativity, genre fiction, GRRM, productivity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »
We gave a dinner party over the weekend and talk turned (as it does) to entertainment. When, one conversant asked, would the Game of Thrones books ever be published? I don’t know the answer to that question (obviously, but the timeline tells its own tale) but I was interested to read this take by editor and journalist Maddy Meyers.
If George R. R. Martin doesn’t want to write Winds of Winter, that’s OK – Polygon
…without speaking to the man or knowing him personally at all, I am nonetheless prepared to make the case that George R. R. Martin simply does not want to finish writing The Winds of Winter.
He’s just not into it. If he continues to force himself to do it, the end result will probably be a pretty terrible book — and I think he knows that, and that’s why he can’t finish it, because he doesn’t want to publish a bad book. The alternative? We don’t get the book at all. And for me, that’s actually preferable.
Honestly, I agree. While I’d love for him to finish the rest of the series, a bad book is far worse than no book at all.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, habits, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »
A lot of my work relies on habit. Be it the day job, chores, calling the parental units, these daily posts or other creative work, I made space for everything in my week. When the time came, I’d do the thing. Easy and good, a puzzle with all the pieces in place.
The problem with a system like that? Change. When one of those pieces breaks, is lost, grows in size, or (running out of puzzle-related associations, but you get the idea) otherwise shifts in ways that alter the system, the associated habits can break too.
For a long time, my habit was to spend an hour or so writing with breakfast, then shift over to the day job. But when my work schedule changed, my dedicated writing time disappeared too.
In sum: I’m not writing enough. Grr.
Time to get back to basics and rebuild my schedule.
Step one? Remember that urgency isn’t everything. Make time for what’s important.
“Everything is habit-forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing.”
— Wilt Chamberlain
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, persistence, purpose, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“A word after a word after a word is power.”
— Margaret Atwood
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, neil gaiman, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Most writers, and indeed, most creatives could tell you that quite often we are at our most creative when we’re staring into the middle distance, our mind engaged only with itself, silent and otherwise unoccupied.
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