“Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.”
― Steve Martin
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Posts Tagged ‘writing’
Thankful
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, persistence, some days, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »
How to Be Real, Writers Edition
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, espionage, Fiction, how to, master of disguise, spies, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Today’s Now I Know (a fun free newsletter, recommended) talks about some of the fundamental elements of being a successful spy. Essentially, the key is to play a character as truthfully as possible.
When I moved to Canada I was suddenly surrounded by people and places that were just subtly different from what I was used to. The way people dress, talk, eat, smile, and yes, stand, are all signifiers of culture and place. It made me more conscious of what was the same and what was different, or what made me look at an actor in a commercial and immediately say, “Sooo Canadian!” when Mr Man didn’t register a difference.
Here’s the video referenced in the article, with Jonna Mendez, former CIA agent and Chief of Disguise:
What makes a character look “right” or not, or act as if they are rooted in a particular time and place? Understanding those fundamental cues is a great way to think about adding depth to stories and the characters who drive them.
While we’re here, Mendez also has a fun video critiquing scenes in spy movies, useful to anyone writing a story with espionage:
Alias for the win!
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Psych Eval
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, drabble, genre fiction, Thoughts, writing on February 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »
One of my first drabbles, originally published in Grand Science Fiction. Scroll right to read it in full.
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Random Thought: What If Clouds Were Alive?
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, writing on February 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”
― Terry Pratchett
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Empathy Engines
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, cognitive behavior, creativity, genre fiction, science, Thoughts, writing on February 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Today, an essay by Cecilia Tan in Uncanny magazine: A Novel Is an Empathy Engine.
The idea that story can have an effect on the humans that consume it is not new. It’s well accepted across many cultures, and well supported by studies, that children’s development is aided by hearing stories, with benefits ranging from emotional development and improved communication skills to increased vocabulary and social maturity. But adults are also affected and changed by story.
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Thought I’d Share
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I just posted this to a writer’s group and then thought, what the heck, maybe other people would appreciate this too. And here we are.
I saw a writer on Twitter feeling not great about his work, of the “everything’s terrible, no one wants this stupid book, what’s the point, why am I even bothering?” variety. Been there, of course, who hasn’t, and I had some thoughts. Sharing in case someone else needs to hear it too:
Think of the last book you read that brought you joy, or showed you that there is light at the end of darkness.
Your book is you, repaying the favor.
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Inspiration is a Fair Weather Friend
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Octavia Butler, quotes, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice. You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”
― Octavia E. Butler
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Default Settings
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, characters, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Today, an excerpt from David Foster Wallace‘s 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College. It was made in to a book titled This is Water, but is also available online as text and audio.
It’s the sort of essay that can help if you start tripping over yourself, which everyone does at some point.
It’s also an interesting way for an author to approach their characters. What do they know? What do they take for granted? What do they love? What do they hope for? What do they fear, bone deep?
What is water to them?
If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.
Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful, it’s that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.
They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing.
And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving…. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.
That is real freedom.
— David Foster Wallace, 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College
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The T-4200, Take Two
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Escape Pod, evil ice cream carts, free fiction, genre fiction, more weaponized food, scifi, sff, short stories, speculative fiction, Writers, writing on February 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I have mentioned a story called “The T-4200” on this site in posts before. Originally published at Andromeda Spaceways Magazine in 2017 (yay), it was not available online (so sad!).
Until now.
That’s right, the good folks at Escape Pod looked at this goofy sci-fi adventure featuring a beleaguered civil servant just trying to do the right thing, dimension-hopping animals, and murderous ice cream carts and said, “Yes, please.”
(Fine, I may have added the “please.”)
The thing about Escape Pod is that they are an audio magazine. Because they also publish the transcript, this story (all 9,000 or so words of it), is now available in both audio and text formats.
Which means that you, fair reader (or listener!) are now able to sample the delights of this story for yourself.
Enjoy the audio performance or read the transcript at Escape Pod.
Escape Pod 923: The T-4200 (Part 1 of 2)
Escape Pod 924: The T-4200 (Part 2 of 2)
- Author (that’s me!): J.R. Johnson
- Narrator: J. S. Arquin
- Host: Valerie Valdes
- Audio Producer: Adam Pracht
I had a great time with this story. Hope you do too!
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Endless Possibilities
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #wotf39, free fiction, genre fiction, short stories, Writers, Writers of the Future, writing on January 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Today, I’m happy to share a lovely short story from friend and fellow Writers of the Future alum Elaine Midcoh.
Papa’s (Not) Gone – MetaStellar
Later, people wondered why I didn’t cry.
It cheered me up. I hope it does you, too.
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