Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, art, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers on October 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Here’s an illustrated short by Rich Wells, capturing an epiphany he had outside a tire shop.
“I thought l’d take the words from my notebook and make something visual.
A reminder to myself that all this everyday stuff – admin, errands, school runs, park trips, waiting in lines, meal times –
it’s all a gift”
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, inspiration, possibilities, scifi, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.
— Ray Bradbury
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, cliffhangers, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Today, Mr Man is out in the woods being woodsy, and his cell connection is weak at best. He called with a story about an adventure, full of drama and excitement, near misses and impossible tasks.
Ninety seconds into the tale, the call cut out. Oh no, I thought, he just set up the problem, how will he triumph? What happened next? I waited by the phone in anticipation.
Another call, another 90 seconds, another cut line, another moment of drama as he hung, metaphorically speaking, between victory and defeat. It happened again, then again.
I started answering his callbacks with “And then what happened?”
After many episodes I got the whole story, and it was a good one. Let’s just say that most of us would have found ourselves stranded in the bush waiting to become a bear’s dinner, but through creativity, deductive thinking and mechanical know how, he found a way!
And I enjoyed an excellent reminder of the power of suspense in story.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #QuittingIsForQuitters, creativity, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 17, 2025| 2 Comments »
The only guaranteed way to succeed is simple: don’t quit.
— Arnold Schwarzenegger
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, free fiction, jobs in space, sci-fi, Writers, writing on October 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Today, a fun bit of free short fiction from Carrie Vaughn and Clarkesworld Magazine.
She hit send and hoped that this would be the last she had to think of it. Engineering would get the work order, run the diagnostics, the glitch would get fixed, all would be well. She was also very aware that this would probably not be the end of it. She couldn’t tell if the cramping in her stomach was lunchtime hunger or simmering rage.
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Posted in Likes, Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Whee, I just realized that our library has added two new libraries to its partner system and now I can haz alllll the books!
(Seriously, I can now check out something like 75 books at one time. I won’t, but I could!)
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, Writers, writing on September 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »
For whatever reason, today I have nothing. I have an extensive folder filled with potentially fun links, ideas, quotes, etc. but none of them are catching my eye. So instead, here’s the first line for a little story I started a few days ago. It’s sitting open on my desktop, waiting for me to have time and bandwidth. I hope I get to it soon because I think it’s going to be entertaining.
You ever watch a movie where the bad guy is up on stage, monologuing for all he’s worth, and then look behind him at the B-team and wonder, “What the hell are they thinking?”
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, art, creativity, inspiration, practice, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Whether you want to draw, write, or some other creativity, this is pretty good advice.
The Artist Who Couldn’t Draw | The Kid Should See This
Roger didn’t like his drawings. He didn’t feel that he had any drawing talent. But then a girl named Zoe moved next door and handed him a magic black pen.
The lesson? Sometimes it helps to take things literally.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, fall, Thoughts, Writers on September 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Yes, the wind blows colder now, teasing the last summer petals from their stems.
But oh, the sky!
“It was the golden time of year. Every day the leaves grew brighter, the air sharper, the grass more brilliant. The sunsets seemed to expand and melt and stretch for hours, and the brick façades glowed pink, and everything got bluer. How many perfect autumns did a person get?”
— Elif Batuman
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, inner monologue, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Don’t talk to yourself like someone you hate.
— Arthur Brooks
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J.R. Johnson 
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