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Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

On Practice

Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

This may be the best advice I’ve given myself all week:

Don’t worry about being good – worry about getting better.

 

P.S. More good advice – don’t run barefoot over these sand dunes in the middle of summer. Ask me how I know!
 

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Maya Angelou (1928–2014)

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 28, 2014| 2 Comments »

Maya Angelou, Poet, Activist And Singular Storyteller, Dies At 86

This is such a loss. And yet…

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.” I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
― Maya Angelou

I still remember finding a battered, much-read copy of Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings on my parents’ bookshelf, and meeting her singular voice. That woman knew how to live.

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Nebula Awards Announced

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

In case you missed it over the weekend, the SFWA has announced the winners of this year’s Nebula Awards. (You may remember the winner for best novel from an earlier post here at this site.) Congratulations to all!

AncillaryJustice

 

Novel

Winner: Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Nominees:
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Marian Wood)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review)
Fire with Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
Hild, Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata (Mythic Island)
A Stranger in Olondria, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer)
The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker (Harper)

Novella

Winner: ‘‘The Weight of the Sunrise,’’ Vylar Kaftan (Asimov’s 2/13)
Nominees:
‘‘Wakulla Springs,’’ Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages (Tor.com 10/2/13)
‘‘Annabel Lee,’’ Nancy Kress (New Under the Sun)
‘‘Burning Girls,’’ Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com 6/19/13)
‘‘Trial of the Century,’’ Lawrence M. Schoen (www.lawrencemschoen.com; World Jumping)
Six-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean)

Novelette

Winner: ‘‘The Waiting Stars,’’ Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky)
Nominees:
‘‘Paranormal Romance,’’ Christopher Barzak (Lightspeed 6/13)
‘‘They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass,’’ Alaya Dawn Johnson (Asimov’s 1/13)
‘‘Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters,’’ Henry Lien (Asimov’s 12/13)
‘‘The Litigation Master and the Monkey King,’’ Ken Liu (Lightspeed 8/13)
‘‘In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind,’’ Sarah Pinsker (Strange Horizons 7/1 – 7/8/13)

Short Story

Winner: ‘‘If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love,’’ Rachel Swirsky (Apex 3/13)
Nominees:
‘‘The Sounds of Old Earth,’’ Matthew Kressel (Lightspeed 1/13)
‘‘Selkie Stories Are for Losers,’’ Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons 1/7/13)
‘‘Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer,’’ Kenneth Schneyer (Clockwork Phoenix 4)
‘‘Alive, Alive Oh,’’ Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (Lightspeed 6/13)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Winner: Gravity
Nominees:
Doctor Who: ‘‘The Day of the Doctor’’
Europa Report
Her
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Pacific Rim

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book

Winner: Sister Mine, Nalo Hopkinson (Grand Central)
Nominees:
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Indigo)
When We Wake, Karen Healey (Allen & Unwin; Little, Brown)
The Summer Prince, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Levine)
Hero, Alethea Kontis (Harcourt)
September Girls, Bennett Madison (Harper Teen)
A Corner of White, Jaclyn Moriarty (Levine)

Kevin O’Donnell Jr. Service to SFWA Award: Michael Armstrong

2013 Damon Knight Grand Master Award: Samuel R. Delany  

2013 Special Honoree: Frank M. Robinson

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The Shape of Stories

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on May 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’m work, work, working this week, getting lots done and I hope you are too. Today I bring you Kurt Vonnegut’s ideas on the shapes of stories, posted by Aerogramme Writers’ Studio with a terrific infographic designed by Maya Eilam. If you are a visual person, like to shore up your understanding of concepts with images, or just enjoy seeing how a great storyteller conceptualizes his work, you may find this useful.

The Shapes of Stories by Kurt Vonnegut

Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.
― Kurt Vonnegut

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Writing Objects, Not Ideas

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 2, 2014| 1 Comment »

Best writing advice I’ve read all week:

How to avoid abstractitis: “Write physically. Write with physical objects… No matter how abstract your topic, how intangible, your first step is to find things you can drop on your foot.”

“What is a concrete noun?” a student might ask.

“It’s something you can drop on your foot,” I always answer. “It’s that simple.”

“So if I am writing about markets, productivity and wealth, I am going to….”

“Yes indeed — you are going to write about things you can drop on your foot, and people, too. Green peppers, ears of corn, windshield wipers, or a grimy mechanic changing your car’s oil. No matter how abstract your topic, how intangible, your first step is to find things you can drop on your foot.”

From John Maguire’s 2012 essay in The Atlantic, “The Secret to Good Writing: It’s About Objects, Not Ideas.”

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How Science Fiction Leads to Science Futures

Posted in Likes, Science!, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Writer and editor Eileen Gunn has a new piece out on science fiction writers and the art of possibility. For Smithsonian, no less.

How America’s Leading Science Fiction Authors Are Shaping Your Future

The literary genre isn’t meant to predict the future, but implausible ideas that fire inventors’ imaginations often, amazingly, come true

An instructor at MIT’s Media Lab “laments that researchers whose work deals with emerging technologies are often unfamiliar with science fiction. ‘With the development of new biotech and genetic engineering, you see authors like Margaret Atwood writing about dystopian worlds centered on those technologies,’ she says. ‘Authors have explored these exact topics in incredible depth for decades…'”

Check out the full article for more on the role of science fiction in imagining, and creating, potential futures.

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Excising “To Be” With Applescript

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 28, 2014| 1 Comment »

I code sometimes. I also write. Occasionally the two come together.

As I’ve mentioned, coding helps me find new ways to think about my work. Here’s a new Applescript I whipped up to highlight instances of “to be” in my drafts, as well as certain filler words that don’t add much to the text. Open your document in MS Word, then run the following code. The selected words will be replaced with bold versions of themselves.

Alter the list as necessary, or use this as an example of how to do a list-based loop in Applescript (hint: the “repeat” line is key;). Enjoy!

set my_word_list to {"am", "are", "be", "been", "being", "felt", "had", "has", "have", "heard", "is", "looked", "was", "wasn't", "were", "weren't"}
repeat with each_word in my_word_list
	set FindWordsToReplace to each_word as text
	tell application "Microsoft Word"
		set GetTxt to find object of selection
		tell GetTxt
			clear formatting
			set its content to FindWordsToReplace
			tell its replacement
				clear formatting
				set its content to FindWordsToReplace
				tell its font object
					set bold to true
				end tell
			end tell
			execute find wrap find find continue replace replace all with match forward and match whole word without match case
		end tell
	end tell
end repeat

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GRRM: Rolling Stone

Posted in Entertainment, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 24, 2014| 1 Comment »

What’s that? You’d like to read an interview with George R.R. Martin with lunch? Well, I happen to have just the thing for you, via the good people at Longreads:

George R.R. Martin: The Rolling Stone Interview

 

In which GRRM discusses his history as a writer, the evolution of his epic (and as yet incomplete!) The Song of Ice and Fire cycle and how, despite the great swaths of death that characterize those books, his “worldview is anything but nihilistic.”

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April Fool

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on April 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Some days are just off, for whatever reason. Days when you hit all the wrong buttons on your computer, make foolish mistakes because your brain isn’t firing on all cylinders, fumble everything you touch and your nose won’t stop bleeding. Yeah, it’s that kind of day for me.

What to do in the face of such pitfalls?

Keep going.

Apologize to self and others for calls not made, for eating too much cake (or not enough), for not finishing the to-do list or not writing the perfect story. Do better next time.

Persist.

Even if it happens to be April Fool’s Day.

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Fireside

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I just pledged to support Year 3 of the excellent Fireside Magazine on Kickstarter. They’re close to the end of their funding cycle, so if quality fiction and terrific rates for authors are your cup of tea, check it out!

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. ― Charles Kingsley

Update 04.01.14: In happy news, the Kickstarter was successful!

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