creativity | J.R. Johnson

Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

Nonfictional Fiction

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, public policy, science fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I started multiple posts today (mackerel? Winnie the Pooh? cracking CIA kiddie codes?) but none seemed quite right. I think I’ll go shovel some snow and see if that gets my mind going.

In the meantime, here’s a piece about the usefulness of science fiction in the nonfictional world.

Connecting Science Fiction to Science Policy by Avital Percher

Science fiction can help the science policy community envision both where we end up as well as how we get there. As our social-technological problems grow ever more complex, we need a range of stories that spans the human experience and even beyond. How will we leverage new tools to improve equity and democracy in society? Science fiction can help us imagine future possibilities, opening not just our minds but our hearts as well.

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Hope, Revived

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, free fiction, genre fiction, reprints, Writers, writing, yay on February 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I am pleased to announce that the new edition of Polar Borealis is out, and it includes “A Needle Pulling Thread.”

I wrote the story in 2018 but the themes of humanity and hope still strike a chord. My thanks to editor R. Graeme Cameron, who remains dedicated to furthering the cause of Canadian speculative fiction, and congratulations to all those in the issue.

Find the free PDF online:

POLAR BOREALIS #24 – February 2023

Poems by Roxanne Barbour, Rodolfo Boskovic, Carlyn Clink, Robert Dawson, Catherine Girczyc, Jim Smith, Richard Stevenson, and Dean Wirth.

Stories by Warren Brown, Victoria K. Martin, J.R. Johnson (hey, that’s me), Cathy Smith, Rhea E. Rose, Jacqueline Thorpe, Gerald L. Truscott, and David Wiseman.

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And Over Again

Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, Thoughts, Writers on February 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I’m trying to deal with an online renewal and it is taking forever.

Click, load, spinning wheel, error.

Over and over again. It’s like it’s Groundhog Day.

I check the calendar. Wait, it actually is Groundhog Day!

Here’s some holiday history (and a little movie-related fun).

Groundhog Day – Wikipedia

Groundhog Day (Pennsylvania German: Grund’sau dåk, Grundsaudaag, Grundsow Dawg, Murmeltiertag; Nova Scotia: Daks Day)^[1] is a popular North American tradition observed in the United States and Canada on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrows on this day and sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow because of cloudiness, spring will arrive early.

While the tradition remains popular in the 21st century, studies have found no consistent association between a groundhog seeing its shadow and the subsequent arrival time of spring-like weather.^[2]

Groundhog Day- the perfect comedy, for ever | Groundhog Day | The Guardian

“What’s so remarkable about it,” Jones observes over a pint in a north London pub, “is that normally when you’re writing a screenplay you try to avoid repetition. And that’s the whole thing here, it’s built on repetition. That’s so bold.”

Whatever is happening in your day, I hope it’s a good one!

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It’s Tuesday But

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Tuesdays, Writers, writing on January 31, 2023| Leave a Comment »

“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”
— Charles M. Schulz

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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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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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