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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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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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, ideas, Writers, writing, writing advice on July 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »
How does science fiction author Charlie Jane Anders record history that hasn’t happened, build cities that may never exist, and ground her stories in unreal realities? And what advice does she give for those of us working to build our own fictional futures?
…I kind of start by daydreaming the wildest stuff that I can possibly come up with, and then I go back into research mode, and I try to make it as plausible as I can by looking at a mixture of urban futurism, design porn and technological speculation. And then I go back, and I try to imagine what it would actually be like to be inside that city. So my process kind of begins and ends with imagination, and it’s like my imagination is two pieces of bread in a research sandwich.
Whatever works for you, works. So go ahead and dream.
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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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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Grandiosity lessens as work proceeds.
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927), U.S. aphorist.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, habits, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »
A lot of my work relies on habit. Be it the day job, chores, calling the parental units, these daily posts or other creative work, I made space for everything in my week. When the time came, I’d do the thing. Easy and good, a puzzle with all the pieces in place.
The problem with a system like that? Change. When one of those pieces breaks, is lost, grows in size, or (running out of puzzle-related associations, but you get the idea) otherwise shifts in ways that alter the system, the associated habits can break too.
For a long time, my habit was to spend an hour or so writing with breakfast, then shift over to the day job. But when my work schedule changed, my dedicated writing time disappeared too.
In sum: I’m not writing enough. Grr.
Time to get back to basics and rebuild my schedule.
Step one? Remember that urgency isn’t everything. Make time for what’s important.
“Everything is habit-forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing.”
— Wilt Chamberlain
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, persistence, purpose, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“A word after a word after a word is power.”
— Margaret Atwood
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, neil gaiman, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Most writers, and indeed, most creatives could tell you that quite often we are at our most creative when we’re staring into the middle distance, our mind engaged only with itself, silent and otherwise unoccupied.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“If you’re only going to accept winning as the condition for your participation, you play a very small game.”
— Michael Bungay Stanier
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, fantasy, free fiction, inspiration, Scott Lynch, sff, Writers, writing on July 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Scott Lynch is the author of a favorite series, The Gentleman Bastard (start with The Lies of Locke Lamora). His writing is crisp, clear, and clever, but not what I’d call copious. So imagine how pleased I was when a notification popped up in my inbox, letting me know that he has a short story out. Even better, it’s part of a free multi-author newsletter dedicated to sharing science fiction and fantasy every Sunday: The Sunday Morning Transport.
Here’s the story. If you’d like more weekly fiction, subscribe at the link above.
Selected Scenes from the Ecologies of the Labyrinth by Scott Lynch
Akayla Sethrys’s boot hits the door just below the lock.
She’s been kicking these things in for eight or nine years now and she knows where to put her emphasis. She favors a pair of bespoke basilisk leather and steel sabatons for this purpose; today some additional luck is with her in the form of rotten wood. Jagged wet splinters fly as the broken door slams inward, peeling out of its frame. Another dungeon chamber breached.
“Onward!” cries Sethrys, crouched over her shield, blade up for quick thrusts past the rim.
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