I have an extra busy day today so I bring you a quote and a pretty picture:)
Just because things hadn’t gone the way I had planned didn’t necessarily mean they had gone wrong.
― Ann Patchett
Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’
Things Going Right
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged Ann Patchett, inspiration, quotes, work, Writers, writing on December 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »
What Lies Beyond
Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Science!, tagged awesome, carl sagan, entertainment, inspiration, NASA, nature, science, space on December 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Erik Wernquist’s lovely short film “Wanderers” is making the rounds online, and deservedly so. The piece uses dramatic visualizations of our solar system and is narrated with audio excerpts from Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot. If you have four minutes and a yen for optimistic futurism, let this film help you imagine humanity’s future on the open road, “out there.” And it’s always good to hear Carl Sagan.
More Thoughts on Creativity, from Twyla Tharp
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, arts, choreography, creativity, dancing, ideas, inspiration, that pesky muse, Thoughts, Twyla Tharp, work, writing on November 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »
After my post last week about Isaac Asimov’s ideas on, well, ideas, a friend sent me a great link on creativity. It’s over at Kim Manley Ort’s blog and is a nice introduction to Twyla Tharp’s 2006 book, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life.
As one of America’s preeminent choreographers with more than half a century of creative experience, Tharp has a handle on how to channel the muse. The post introduces Tharp’s thoughts on creativity, how to call it, how to harness it and where to ride it when you do. Not all of her lessons may apply to you but most of it can be translated from person to person, and discipline to discipline. The fact that her chosen form of communication is dance does not mean that her advice is necessarily less relevant for those of us who write.
I found her thoughts insightful; I hope you do too.
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How Do People Get New Ideas?
Posted in Writing, tagged arts, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, Isaac Asimov, literature, MIT’s Technology Review, nanowrimo, science, science fiction, sff, speculative fiction, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on November 14, 2014| 2 Comments »
Like many of you I’m doing NaNoWriMo and as such I am more than usually interested in questions of creativity and how to help it along. The following is from an essay in MIT’s Technology Review by Isaac Asimov, in which he asks that most fundamental of questions, “How Do People Get New Ideas?”
… what is needed is not only people with a good background in a particular field, but also people capable of making a connection between item 1 and item 2 which might not ordinarily seem connected… Making the cross-connection requires a certain daring.
And so to you I say (with a nod to Theodore Roosevelt), dare greatly!
I’m Doing It. Are You?
Posted in Writing, tagged creativity, Fiction, finishing, fun, genre fiction, inspiration, Motivation, nanowrimo, National Novel Writing Month, persistence, work, Writers, writing on November 10, 2014| 1 Comment »
I haven’t posted anything about National Novel Writing Month this year because I hadn’t quite decided whether or not to do it. I’m busy, I said. I’ve already proven I can churn out 50,000 words in thirty days, I said. I can do it when I’m happy. I can do it when I’m busy. I can do it when I’m sick. (I am, in fact, something of a freaking Dr. Seuss when it comes to NaNoWriMo.) Do I really need to prove that I can do it again? Would my time be better spent finding a new way to expand my writing experience?
Well, no. That’s what I decided. And when I committed to finding a new way to make the most of my 50,000 words this November, I had a mini breakthrough. Work on one thing, I told myself. Well, ok, work on 50,000 words and one other thing. That’s it. Practice high levels of word production while learning how to do better at *X* and see how that goes.
Turns out it’s going pretty well.
I’m traveling, and finding time to get my word count in has been a challenge. That’s ok. In fact, that’s a great part of this lesson. It is in fact possible to cram in that last 350 words in the ten minutes before dinner. Doing it while also remembering to focus on maximizing the conflict between your characters?
Priceless:)
Happy National Novel Writing Month, all!
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too… Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.
― William Hutchison Murray
How Wolves Change Rivers
Posted in Writing, tagged apex predators, inspiration, nature, rewilding, science, trophic cascades, wolves, writing on October 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.— John Muir
This video from Sustainable Human is a fascinating look at the impact of an apex predator species on not just an area’s wildlife, but its ecology and even geography. As this article at Nature.com discusses, such trophic cascades can have far-reaching impacts:
When the impact of a predator on its prey’s ecology trickles down one more feeding level to affect the density and/or behavior of the prey’s prey, ecologists term this interaction a feeding, or trophic cascade…
Interesting information, both for denizens of Planet Earth and creators of other worlds as well.
Bootstrapping A Solar System Civilization
Posted in Science!, tagged creativity, future of civilization, inspiration, io9, Office of Science and Technology Policy, rocket science, science, science fiction, space, space exploration, Writers on October 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »
via io9, a call for creative new ways to get the heck off this rock:
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is planning ahead — way ahead. The agency wants you to email ideas for how “the Administration, the private sector, philanthropists, the research community and storytellers” can develop “massless” space exploration and a robust civilization beyond Earth.
Tell me that this challenge isn’t exactly in our wheelhouse, people. Hard sci-fi writers, mechanical and other engineers, and practical dreamers of all stripes, your skills are needed!
What Kids Eat for Breakfast
Posted in Food and..., Writing, tagged food, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, writing on October 24, 2014| 1 Comment »
When I meet someone new, especially if they are from another culture or country, I like to ask what they eat at home. It’s a simple yet often intriguing question, with the potential to upend basic assumptions while also opening a door onto the experience of another life.
In that spirit, I was fascinated to come across this New York Times Magazine article on what kids eat for breakfast. Sounds dull? Nay, say I. The article and accompanying photos provide an engaging glimpse into one of the most basic facets of our lives: breakfast.
Children begin to acquire a taste for pickled egg or fermented lentils early — in the womb, even.
How do we start the day? What do parents consider appropriate fuel for their children? How do those choices reflect their economic realities, historical trends, and geographic locations? Their societies?
The child in Japan eats much different food than the child in Holland or Turkey. Which looks best to you, and why? There is such variety in the food described, and of course this only scratches the surface. It’s the sort of thing I try to keep in mind when I’m writing. My breakfast is not necessarily your breakfast, especially if “you” grew up on Mars.
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