Thoughts | J.R. Johnson

Posts Tagged ‘Thoughts’

Celebration Saturday

Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, good things happen too, inspiration, Thoughts on August 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Claim your space. Draw a circle of light around it. Push back against the dark. Don’t just survive. Celebrate.”

― Charles Frazier

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The Great Circle of Writing Life

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, submission manager, submissions, The Grinder, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

For various reasons, my new writing output has been a little slow, but today I thought to myself, “Self, if you don’t have any new material to submit for publication, you should submit some of your favorite reprints and see if they can find a new audience.”

I thought that was a great idea.

Perhaps you have the Next Great Novel all ready to go (more power to you, friend), but even if you don’t I bet you still have something you can send out.

If you use The Grinder for your submission tracking (and I recommend that site highly), it’s easy to search for reprint markets.

So keep writing and submitting, getting those ho hum rejections and delicious acceptances, as often as you can. It’s all part of the Great Circle of Writing Life™.

Submit early, submit often!

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Random Acts of Gnomeness

Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, books, Fiction, gnomes, kindness, Thoughts, whimsy on August 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Need a quick pick-me-up? Here you go:

Mystery Group Prowls Town Conducting Mischievous Kindness- Stealing, Restoring & Returning Garden Gnomes

Mischief reigns in a small Canada community after a kidnapping left a man’s garden vacant of the ten ceramic garden gnomes that resided there.

(Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending.)

I’ve had a soft spot for gnomes ever since my parents gave me a copy of this classic: Gnomes by Wil Huygenn (Rien Poortvliet, ill.)

Most of my childhood books went by the wayside over the years, but I’ve slowly built my library back up with replicas of my favorites. I’m looking at a new copy of Gnomes on my bookshelf right now.

“Those who shun the whimsy of things will experience rigor mortis before death.”

― Tom Robbins

May you never lose your childhood delights.

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So, Yeah, It’s Monday

Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Thoughts on July 29, 2024| Leave a Comment »

What are you working on today? Here at Chez J, we’re prepping three major house projects (okay, fine, Mr Man is currently the one wielding the power tools, but I am extremely supportive!), thinking up story ideas, and working the day job.

/cracks neck, ’90s action movie style

Let’s get this done, shall we?

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Reasons to Write

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Fiction, society, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The business of a novelist is, in my opinion, to create characters first and foremost, and then to set them in the snarl of the human currents of his time, so that there results an accurate permanent record of a phase of human history.

—John Dos Passos (1896–1970), U.S. novelist, poet, playwright, painter.

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Decisions, Decisions

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, me not writing, Thoughts on July 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I could spend the next hour writing up a thoughtful treatise on some writing-related topic, edit, re-edit, and finally post. Or I could treat you to a pretty picture and go chill in the backyard with a book.

Hmm. Which would you pick?

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Look Deeper

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, inspiration, Thoughts, writing on July 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“When it looks impossible, look deeper. And then fight like you can win.”

—Aloy, Horizon Forbidden West

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*Photo by Vitaliy Shevchenko on Unsplash*

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Arguments vs. Distractions

Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, language, linguistic shenanigans, politics, Thoughts on July 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Perhaps you keep up with the news or discuss issues with people who have different opinions than you? If so, good for you, but at the same time, it helps to be wary of bad arguments and language traps. How can you see these traps and sidestep them like the distractions they are?

This article highlights some of the most common reasoning flaws you’re likely to encounter, and how to get around them.

Logical fallacies: Seven ways to spot a bad argument

Once you know about logical fallacies, you’ll see them everywhere. Why does this matter? Because the more practised you become at spotting them, the better you can be at identifying flaws in people’s thinking, and refocusing dialogue back to an argument’s merit. You’ll also get better at thinking critically yourself.

Because forewarned is forearmed!

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Good Books Only, Please!

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, authors, creativity, genre fiction, GRRM, productivity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

We gave a dinner party over the weekend and talk turned (as it does) to entertainment. When, one conversant asked, would the Game of Thrones books ever be published? I don’t know the answer to that question (obviously, but the timeline tells its own tale) but I was interested to read this take by editor and journalist Maddy Meyers.

If George R. R. Martin doesn’t want to write Winds of Winter, that’s OK – Polygon

…without speaking to the man or knowing him personally at all, I am nonetheless prepared to make the case that George R. R. Martin simply does not want to finish writing The Winds of Winter.

He’s just not into it. If he continues to force himself to do it, the end result will probably be a pretty terrible book — and I think he knows that, and that’s why he can’t finish it, because he doesn’t want to publish a bad book. The alternative? We don’t get the book at all. And for me, that’s actually preferable.

Honestly, I agree. While I’d love for him to finish the rest of the series, a bad book is far worse than no book at all.

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