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Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

The Gains of Brevity

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »

In writing, brevity works not only as a function of space on a page, but the time that an audience is willing to spend with you.

A friend sent me an excellent article this morning, with some of the most useful advice I can think of for writers. It can also be one of the least welcome suggestions:
Keep It Short.

Danny Heitman’s essay uses this pithy guidance to sum up a lot of bits writers hear when trying to improve their craft: be concise, be concrete, be on point, write for your audience, etc. This does not mean blindly banging away on the Delete button, mind you:

I frequently hear champions of brevity advising writers to cut their word counts by scratching all the adjectives or adverbs… The point of brevity isn’t to chop a certain kind of word, but to make sure that each word is essential.

Short version, keep it short. (Although I can’t help myself, here’s one more quote from the article, this time citing John Kenneth Galbraith):

The gains from brevity are obvious; in most efforts to achieve it, the worst and the dullest go. And it is the worst and the dullest that spoil the rest.

Draft your short story, essay, poem, novel or recipe, then if you have a little time, put it aside. When you come back to it fresh, make friends with that Delete button.

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No Place Like 127.0.0.1

Posted in Likes, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’m home from a trip and happily catching up on work. Lots to do, so I will leave you with this link to Nina Paley’s essay on The Cult of Originality:

The trick is, what’s completely obvious to you isn’t obvious to anyone else. Many people can tell exactly the same story about exactly the same event, but if each speaks from their authentic point of view, each story will seem “original.”

Well, that helps take the pressure off. Now to see if I can’t apply some of that originality to my current projects. In other news, this weekend I discovered the Rijksmuseum’s terrific online digital library, learned to stack wood, and can now tell a male partridge apart from a female.

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Scrivener Deal Through AppSumo

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Here’s a deal for anyone interested in the (excellent) writing program Scrivener: for the next five-ish days, the deal site AppSumo is offering the program for $20. Scrivener usually sells for $45, and even the NaNoWriMo winner price is 50% off. (That’s how I got my copy and it was 20-odd bucks very well spent.) It’s also a wonderful way to write, in my experience. I used to write in Word. I’m much happier now.

No ties to either AppSumo or Literature & Latte, just a satisfied user of the latter. Still not sure if Scrivener is right for you? Check out the free trial versions for Mac and Windows, and bask in the joys of a program written by writers, for writers.

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Amtrak Writers Residency Is Officially Official

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Yes, after much social media back and forth, The Amtrak Residency for Writers Is Now Accepting Applications. Like the idea of riding the rails with nothing to do but be inspired by the scenery and write write write? I know I do:) Check out all the details at Amtrak’s site:

#AmtrakResidency was designed to allow creative professionals who are passionate about train travel and writing to work on their craft in an inspiring environment. Round-trip train travel will be provided on an Amtrak long-distance route. Each resident will be given a private sleeper car, equipped with a desk, a bed and a window to watch the American countryside roll by for inspiration. Routes will be determined based on availability.

A desk too? Heaven!

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New Story Out at SQ Mag

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

I’m very pleased to tell you that my new story Catch of the Day is now out at SQ Mag, a delightful speculative fiction zine from Australia. This “tale of magical artefact smuggling, full of betrayal and twists and turns” is now freely available online. Enjoy!
SQ13

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Quote for the Day: On Action

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

Image

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Leave JK Rowling Alone, She’s Trying to Write

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 27, 2014| 2 Comments »

I planned to avoid the kerfuffle around Lynn Shepard’s call for JK Rowling to stop writing, because the idea that Rowling should quit for the good of other writers is flat-out ridiculous. The sensible approach to scarcity isn’t to fight over the last tiny slice; instead, make the pie bigger. Rowling has certainly done that.

Mark Pryor’s article says most of what I was thinking about Lynn Shepard’s essay, and I was glad to see it come out. Here he is on Rowling: “…authors like you actually bring more readers to our books. More books from you means more readers for us, not fewer.”

I do disagree with a point at the end of Pryor’s article, however. The part where the author says that writers don’t write to make money is an old excuse to explain away economic marginalization: “…writers don’t sit down and write books to make money… We write because we love to share our stories.”

It has been said before but bears repeating: Doctors don’t examine you out of the love of anatomy, plumbers don’t fix your pipes for free. Professional writers are, or should be, the same. Yes, most people can “write” in the broad sense of the word, but very few can do it at professional levels. It’s like dismissing an Olympic sprinter because “anyone can run.”

“…this is the sort of thinking, intentional or otherwise, that gives bad people cover to screw writers with regard to money, and gives uncertain writers a reason to shrug off being screwed.”
— John Scalzi

Writers have a lot of motivations, and the pleasure of being read is certainly one. But we also write because (we hope) it pays the bills, because it’s less physically demanding than ditch digging, or because we have something to say. We write to entertain, to connect with other human beings, to understand the world and to communicate what we see. We write to make sense of a problem or an emotion and to pass that knowledge along. We write to provide adventure or mystery or humor or a place of refuge. If we do it well (and that’s what we’re all striving for, is it not?), we give to the reader, not the other way around.

And Ms Rowling does it well.

 

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Inspirational TED Talks for Writers

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

Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.
—Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Perhaps your weekend will be spent climbing Everest or solving cold fusion, but if you plan to spend at least some time facing down a blank page in an effort to write, the following TED talks may be of some use. This collection comes to us via Aerogramme Writers’ Studio and includes a variety of topics and speakers:

  1. Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story
  2. Isabel Allende: Tales of Passion
  3. Andrew Stanton: The Clues to a Great Story
  4. Lisa Bu: How Books Can Open Your Mind
  5. Amy Tan: Where Does Creativity Hide?
  6. Billy Collins: Everyday Moments, Caught in Time
  7. Elif Shafak: The Politics of Fiction
  8. Joe Sabia: The Technology of Storytelling
  9. Elizabeth Gilbert: Your Elusive Creative Genius
  10.  Tracy Chevalier: Finding the Story Inside the Painting
  11. Jarred McGinnis: Writing is the Only Magic I Still Believe In
  12. Julian Friedmann: The Mystery of Storytelling
  13. John Green: The Paper Town Academy

I featured #9 in a previous post but there are a dozen other talks too. A baker’s dozen. … Hmm, baking… Perhaps I’ll make something tasty to go along with the above educational material. Because, cookies. Butterscotch ripple cookies, even:)

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Fifty Problems

Posted in Likes, tagged , , , , , , , on February 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

This is the coolest thing: a designer decided to tackle fifty problems in fifty days. I think it’s terrific when creative people find ways to use their talents to fix problems, particularly when they focus on challenges most of us have been living with for years. It’s easy to get used to doing things one way even when that way is not optimal, and once acclimated it can be hard to even see the issue, much less fix it.

http://50problems50days.com

This is what happens when creative people look at the world with fresh eyes, and decide that they can, and should, do something to make it better. Constructive creativity for the win.

What “fifty problems” would you choose?

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Not Today

Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on February 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The Onion does it again, succinctly summing up what so many of us have felt at one time or another in hilarious fashion.
Report: Today The Day They Find Out You’re A Fraud

While experts agree you’ve been remarkably successful so far at keeping up the ruse that you’re a capable, worthwhile individual, a new report out this week indicates that today is the day they finally figure out you’re a complete and utter fraud.

…

“They’re all on to you,” the report continues. “You do understand that, don’t you?”

Whatever, impostor syndrome, I’ve got work to do.

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