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Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

Today’s Reads

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Pieces I want to read, have just read, or am reading again:

Writing Stuff:
Random Stuff:

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Reality, Transformed

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a nice piece by Lev Grossman in The New York Times on “Finding My Voice in Fantasy.”

We — as a whole, as a culture — seemed to be getting more interested in the kinds of questions fantasy deals with: questions about history, and about our connection to the natural world, and about power, how to find it in yourself, how to master it, what to do with it.

…

Fantasy is sometimes dismissed as childish, or escapist, but I take what I am doing very, very seriously. For me fantasy isn’t about escaping from reality, it’s about re-encountering the challenges of the real world, but externalized and transformed.

 

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Make Mistakes

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

If you’re making mistakes, it means you’re out there doing something.

This is a terrific saying. Thanks to Epic Reads for the lovely image, and thanks to Neil Gaiman for saying it.

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It’s Uncanny!

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »

A new pro-level magazine of science fiction and fantasy? Yes, please! Uncanny Magazine is being launched via Kickstarter, and as a supporter of things sfnal, writerly, and otherwise cool I signed on. It’s a project by three-time Hugo Award-winner Lynne M. Thomas and three-time Hugo Award nominee Michael Damian Thomas, and it already features a terrific contributor roster of authors and artists.

Also? Space unicorns!

So if you also like the idea of more markets for professional science fiction and fantasy, check out Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy.

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Went Fishing

Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Had fun fishing. Thought up lots of story ideas while trolling the lake. Did not fall in.

Non-typical wildlife observed on this trip:
— a black bear galloping across the road
— loons and loon chicks
— Merganser ducks
— one heron, Great
— two Trumpeter swans and their four signets
— deer, grazing
— a fox, sprinting
— lake trout, swimming
— terns and/or gulls, I can’t tell them apart
— a bald eagle nest, but the parents were away and the chick was having a bit of a snooze

Also, I learned that reeling in 550 feet of steel fishing line takes ages and is not for the weak of arm!

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Gone Fishing…

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

Literally. Time in the great outdoors will be good for all sorts of reasons, and we’ve even had reports of bald eagles nesting near the fishing spot. Have a great weekend!

 

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Museum of Lost Things

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on July 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Ah, Friday! I am coming to the end of this week’s work and so have the time for efforts of a less, shall we say, prosaic nature. My project for this weekend will be to build a Museum of Lost Things.

I imagine it will be just as difficult and interesting as one might expect:)

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Quick Week

Posted in Entertainment, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Canada Day was July 1st and American Independence Day is July 4th, neatly bookending the week with parties and fireworks and associated festivities. Yay. That said, work must be done and so I am a wee bit crunched for time. In lieu of a long essay on the state of the world and/or gracing you with my recipe for meringue, say, allow me to direct you to “The New Provisions,” a story by Adam-Troy Castro fresh out at Lightspeed.

It’s not true, but it’s not all false, either. Enjoy!

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Building Better Strong Female Characters

Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

We’re losing all our Strong Female Characters to Trinity Syndrome

This excellent piece by Tasha Robinson sums up a lot of the problems mainstream storytelling has with “Strong Female Characters.”

For the ordinary dude to be triumphant, the Strong Female Character has to entirely disappear into Subservient Trophy Character mode. This is Trinity Syndrome à la The Matrix: the hugely capable woman who never once becomes as independent, significant, and exciting as she is in her introductory scene.

If you are interested in learning how not to bury your SFC’s light under a bushel, I recommend this article. It highlights on-point questions creatives should ask themselves, like:

03. Could your Strong Female Character be seamlessly replaced with a floor lamp with some useful information written on it to help a male hero?

:p

In many instances, what starts out as an interesting character is hobbled in order to provide the male hero with whatever thing he needs (knowledge, motivation, etc.) to make it to the finish line. There are exceptions, of course, and I’m pleased to say that Emily Blunt’s character in Edge of Tomorrow was one such.

So maybe all the questions can boil down to this: Looking at a so-called Strong Female Character, would you—the writer, the director, the actor, the viewer—want to be her?

Like Tasha Robinson, I loved Cate Blanchett’s character in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and was as disappointed when the role for this supremely kick-ass woman who was willing to live in exile for twenty years to uphold her principles just sort of… fizzled out. I hope to see more from her in a third installment. In fact, I hope to see more Strong Female Characters across the board.

Who knows, one day we might even just call them, oh, I don’t know, “Female Characters.”

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Planet Boredom?

Posted in Science!, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Planet boredom
On Mars I learned that boredom has two sides – it can either rot the mind or rocket it to new places…

This essay provides a fascinating look at the HI-SEAS (Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) Mars training mission from the inside. Written by Kate Greene, a science and technology journalist (i.e. not an astronaut), the piece gives a great inside look at what a trip to Mars might be like. For speculative fiction writers, this sort of research provides terrific insight into what life in space would actually feel like to those living it.

Short answer? Boring. Longer answer? Sometimes boring can be a good thing…

Find the full essay at aeon Magazine. For more on the pitfalls of life on Mars, you could also check out Andy Weir’s recent novel The Martian.

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