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Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

Truer Words…

Posted in Funny, Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

 

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From Annihilation to Acceptance

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This week there’s a fascinating piece in The Atlantic by Jeff VanderMeer, author and editor, on the experience of writing:

From Annihilation to Acceptance: A Writer’s Surreal Journey: The author agreed to publish three novels in one year—and then things got weird.

In it, the author details the terrors, trials and triumphs that went into the making of his latest series. Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance make up the Southern Reach trilogy, about “a dysfunctional secret agency called Southern Reach and its efforts to solve the mysteries behind Area X, a strange pristine wilderness.”

I’ve had this series on my books to read list and now plan to bump them up to the top. For more on the books, including sample chapters and links to retailers, or on the author, check out the links above.

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Writers, If You Are Feeling Old…

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 26, 2015| 1 Comment »

Here’s an encouraging article for writers via HuffPost:
New Authors, Fret Not. Most Successful Authors Made Their Mark After 30

The headline sums it up but if this topic interests you it’s worth checking out the attached infographic. It allows you to highlight author age at first published book, at their “breakthrough” book, and also shows a nice timeline of the number of books published before and after death. J.R.R. Tolkien was 46 when The Hobbit was published (also, Nora Roberts is a publishing machine, and I mean that in the best possible way).

So fret not, and keep at it. Because writing well is a skill, and skills take time.

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Cleese on Creativity

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 13, 2015| 1 Comment »

There are a lot of books, essays, posts and (no doubt) scratchings on cave walls discussing ways to be more creative. One of the most useful and compact versions I’ve found so far is a talk (via David Farland) by John Cleese, Monty Python funny man and deep thinker on this and other topics.

The video is only ten minutes long but does a terrific job of summarizing the essential requirements one needs to be creative. You don’t have to quit your day job or win a year-long fellowship or even trap your very own Muse. It’s simple really, and not what one might guess when thinking about the problem. We don’t need “more,” we need less. We need boundaries. Specifically, boundaries of time and boundaries of space.

If you’d like to hear Cleese in a longer discussion on the topic, check out his speech from 1991 as well.

Enjoy!

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Speculation on Writing Speculation

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Someone asked me why I write fantasy and science fiction. Even better, the question was posed with the sort of genuine interest and curiosity everyone hopes to hear in a personal question that holds meaning. I gave an involved answer that I won’t repeat here because I’m going to give you a better one:

It’s what I love. So that’s what I do.

It’s that simple, and that complicated:)

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Description of a Work of Art, Possibly Imaginary

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

There’s a very funny piece by Brian Staveley today over at the Tor/Forge blog titled “Three Ekphrastic Dialogues; or NO DUAL WIELDING UNTIL BOOK THREE.” Or at least it would be funny, if it weren’t so true;)

SCENE ONE
Setting: Book One of the Epic Trilogy

In the first scene the WRITER is bright-eyed, fresh-faced, and recently showered, perhaps even wearing a jaunty blazer. The CHARACTER looks confused, wary, even a little frightened.
…
Character: If I have a life of my own, why can’t I shave my…hey! HEY! What the hell just happened?
Writer: Your house burned down. That guy in the black cloak did it.
C: You made him do it.
W: Sorry. Needed an inciting incident.

Apologies to every character I’ve put through the wringer:) See the full post for the hilarious, somewhat potty-mouthed conclusion…

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Happy Holidays, and Some Reflections on Writing

Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all. If you have time between the presents and the eggnog and family celebrations, consider spending a few moments with The Atlantic’s series on writers, writing and the creative process, “By Heart.” I spotlighted the By Heart interview with William Gibson a few weeks ago, but there are dozens of other perspectives on creativity here as well.

…we live so many lives, contain so much experience, that even the people who know us best don’t know.

— Claire Messud

Featured artists start with a favorite line from literature and go from there, discussing how that line shaped them, sharing practical advice on getting started, revision, productivity, genre fiction and more. Joe Fassler has a nice summary column called “How to Write: A Year in Advice from David Mitchell, Yiyun Li, and More” with highlights from the past year; the full series lives here.

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Fun, No Nonsense

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 15, 2014| 1 Comment »

David Farland put out a nice piece last week titled Be Excited, and (unsurprisingly:) that pretty much sums up his thesis. Essentially, he says that the writers he sees who are the most productive are those able to get and stay excited about their work. That hit home for me, not just in terms of quantity, but also quality. I find that my best stories tend to be those I find most entertaining. Granted, I may be biased, but what’s more fun than… fun?

With that in mind, I recommend a short fiction from the September issue of Lightspeed.* Holly Black’s Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind) is everything I love about a story: it’s funny, poignant, trying and triumphant. And fun.

* This story also appeared in the excellent Monstrous Affections anthology edited by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, which I read on the strength of this piece.

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A Brief Introduction to Resources for New Writers

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 8, 2014| 1 Comment »

Writing is simple, right? Writing is considered a basic skill in our society and as such, people often look down on it as, well, a basic skill. Sadly, thinking that you can write an effective book/story/memoir/etc. because you are literate is like saying that because you can run down the block, you have what it takes to do the Boston Marathon.

As always, the devil is in the details. Sorting out those details, by understanding the process and which of the many aspects of art and craft you should work on, is key to becoming (and staying) a writer.

Much of what I read and write is speculative and genre fiction, and a few of my specific suggestions and references are colored accordingly. If speculative fiction isn’t your thing that doesn’t mean you can’t use these references. It just means that you may need to ask yourself questions like, “This is great, but how would an alien sea monkey’s need for interstellar love translate to a tailor in modern-day Calcutta?” All the better to exercise your creative faculties, I say. As you’ll see, though, most writing advice translates well across boundaries.

Here are a few pointers to get you started…

Resources I’ve Found Useful:

It will shock no one to learn that there are also a lot of writing resources on the web; often the problem is sorting through them all. Search for talks, interviews and essays by authors whose work speaks to you, see if their ideas or suggestions offer fuel for your fires. I’ve mentioned some links in previous discussions on writing and creativity already, and there are many (many, many) more. To get you started:

 

Life rewards action…. That story isn’t going to unf*ck itself.
— Chuck Wendig [asterisk mine]

There are all kinds of writers. Fiction vs. not, certainly, but also binge writers, morning writers, middle of the night writers, must have my pencils just so writers, deadline writers and cabin in the woods writers, can only write on used envelope writers, take your pick. Find what works for you.

Then write.

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We All Start Somewhere

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

In the wake of NaNoWriMo, I thought it instructive to point out Jim C. Hines’s new book, Rise of the Spider Goddess. This is an annotated version of a novel he wrote in his formative years. In other words, it is a bad book. And he’s sharing it, on purpose, for entertainment, for edification, and to help other writers recognize that we all start somewhere.

So, fair NaNo’ers (and others), as you review your 50,000+ word opus, do not despair if you realize that the draft over which you slaved is actually really very awfully bad;) And as Jim says in his introduction to the book on John Scalzi’s Whatever:

Writing a bad book is nothing to be ashamed of, because dammit, I still wrote a book. Then I wrote more of them. And with each one, I got better.

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