“Imperfection inspires invention, imagination, creativity. It stimulates. The more I feel imperfect, the more I feel alive.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, In Other Words
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Posts Tagged ‘creativity’
So Alive
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Way to Go, Grandma
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, free fiction, genre fiction, Marissa Lingen, Nature's Futures, short stories, writing on January 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »
For today’s bit of fun, here’s a Nature‘s Futures story by Marissa Lingen: So your grandmother is a starship now- a quick guide for the bewildered.
Your grandmother is becoming a starship! She has gone through many phases in her life already — infant, child, teenager, young adult, student, worker, in many cases spouse, parent, retiree. She has had hobbies like knitting, volleyball and carbon mitigation. She has travelled in planetary atmosphere whenever her circumstances allowed. Now she is uploading her consciousness into a starship! The circle of life is beautiful.
I am now going to imagine that my grandmother is a spaceship.
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On the Off Chance
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 13, 2023| Leave a Comment »
On the off chance that you’re having doubts about how you stack up against others, in writing or elsewhere, here’s a thoughtful quote. Follow the link for his whole piece, which is part of a series of posts worth reading.
…I think it’s clear our pop culture and what passes for our media discourse have a dangerously romanticized view of creative work.
“Oh, what a talented person,” our stories go, “oh, how powerful their inspiration must have been!” Talent certainly exists and inspiration certainly exists, but I fear our popular view of creativity artificially centers both, eliding struggle, practice, failure, and the investment of time. Too often, we talk about something akin to magic, about early purity of vision, about the notion that we are chosen or anointed for certain tasks, and while I cannot speak to how the secret machinery of the cosmos operates, I can testify that most of my own moments of lovely inspiration have been purchased with long hours of study, planning, and practice.
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— Scott Lynch, The Post of Christmas Past
Write What You Like
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, Writers, writing on January 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »
If you can write beginnings and ends, you can make a nice living as a writer. If you write middles, you win Pulitzers and Nobel Prizes and stuff. But with beginnings and ends, you’re going to do okay.
— James Patterson
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On the Road
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Thoughts, writing on January 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »
On the road again today. Strangely, I find I come up with some of my best ideas while distracted by traveling.
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A Beginning
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on December 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »
So there I was, wading through old backups and oddly named files and all the other detritus that accumulates on the drives of most computers, when I stumbled across a story start. At some point in the hazy past, I was writing/still half-dreaming/avoiding other work when I came up with a snippet. (I do this a lot. Most of my story starters are corralled into a central file, but apparently this one escaped.)
Does the idea still speak to me? Maybe. Here is its beginning.
The room was twenty feet wide by fifty or so deep, and high enough to stash a semi trailer. The basement warehouse hid inside a larger complex designed to cloak all manner of shady dealings. The walls were concrete, bare in some spots and painted a dull grey in others. Dim afternoon light filtered in through a series of filthy windows set just below the ceiling. The west wall contained a pile of musty wooden crates stacked head high, and the door sported a series of aging and graffitied corporate memos. Whoever Toby was, I could call him for a good time. Dust bunnies occupied the corners. It was the dullest den of iniquity I’d seen yet.
Still, I wouldn’t have minded the decor so much if it weren’t on fire…
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Glorious Success Awaits
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on December 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.”
– Elbert Hubbard
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I Could Read This All Day
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Writers, writing on December 19, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I could read these Starfleet job postings all day:
The Best Jobs in Starfleet! Shares a new Starfleet job posting every half hour.
Users may request a job by using keywords “engineering”, “arts”, “counseling”, “trombone” or “user research”.
But of course it’s Monday, so I won’t.
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Cleaning Up
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, Fiction, haiku, Thoughts, Writers, writing on December 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I’m still working through my tech to-do list, and while there are still a few issues popping up, I’m close to being back on track. So no, I have not spent the weekend working on writing projects as planned, but I am ready to hit the ground running, swing into action, get cracking, or your preferred cliché here, etc. etc.
I also ran across a stack of notes that contained to-do lists from before we bought house. A decade ago. The pile also included story ideas, the lifetime warranty for my lucky fishing hat, and a random page of haiku. The poetry ranged from bright and sunny to, well, I’ll let you be the judge.
One cold, dark night.
Knee-deep mud and a shovel.
But that’s love for you.
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You’re My Only Hope
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, winter on December 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »
This is fast becoming an international tradition all over not just America, but the Northern Hemisphere. Contests are also being held by the Ohio DoT, the Massachusettes DoT, the Nebraska DoT, and several cities in Canada like Edmunton,and Calgary.
Misspelled locale names aside, this is excellent. There are still a few days left in these competitions, so cue up your creativity and start naming!
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