You can’t create and critique at the same time. It’s like being pulled in two different directions with equal force. You will just end up spinning your wheels.
— Ilona Andrews
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Posts Tagged ‘writing’
Some Advice
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing, writing advice on October 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Writing It Down
Posted in Food and..., Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, recipes, Thoughts, writing on October 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, I had the nice but somewhat complicated experience of having someone ask me for a recipe.
That’s right, my mushroom soup has fans both inside this house and out! And as this site frequently demonstrates, I’m happy to share my recipes.
The problem is that in this case, I don’t actually have a recipe to share.
Like so many of the things I make, be it soup or a story, I tend to start with an idea, triangulate, course correct, confabulate and finally create a whole new version of whatever it is I’m making.
That’s fine for fiction, but more complicated when what I’m trying to share is not just the result of the creative process, but the process itself.
This is a long way of saying that I don’t actually have a mushroom soup recipe, not exactly.
But for this particular person, I’ll figure it out. And if it makes any kind of sense, I’ll share it with you too.
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Potential Market
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, Fiction, genre fiction, submissions, Writers, writing on October 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Are you a writer with a short story looking for a market? You’re in luck, because the award-winning Uncanny Magazine is open for submissions.
Uncanny Magazine will be open to short story submissions from October 2 to October 16.
Submissions – Uncanny Magazine
Uncanny is looking for original, unpublished speculative fiction stories between 750-10,000 words. Payment is $.10 per word (including audio rights).
They pay better than pro rates and are right up at the top of the short story game. Your name could be in their table of contents.
Good luck!
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StoryBundle Last Call!
Posted in Entertainment, Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, adventure, creativity, deals, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, science fiction, Writers, writing on October 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »
It’s last call for StoryBundle’s To the Stars Adventure SciFi bundle, featuring Writers of the Future v.39 and so much more!
This new StoryBundle will take your autumn, and your e-reader, to the far edges of the universe. Curated by bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson, this cosmic batch of eighteen books showcases the range of epic science fiction, from galactic empires to time-travel adventures to alien invasions. These books are from classic award-winning science fiction authors and hot new indie authors.
Only a few hours left to grab this Great Deal on Sci-Fi. Enjoy!
Am I biased? Sure, I happen to think our collection is great. But the bundle is curated by Kevin J. Anderson and also includes books by other names sci-fi/fantasy fans may have heard of, like Todd McCaffrey and Nancy Kress, as well as others I look forward to discovering.
Enjoy!
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Measure of Achievement
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, inspiration, quoteandaprettypicture, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It’s doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile.
— Julia Child
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Worlds of Their Own
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, @postsecret, creativity, Fiction, ideas, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Other people are some of the best, most interesting sources for story ideas, if you can find your way behind their facades.
Most of us would prefer to avoid awkward conversations with strangers, however.
PostSecret is one way to get a glimpse of the former without the latter.
You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to a group art project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything – as long
as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.
Some secrets are funny, some poignant, and all are reminders that every person you meet is a complex, ever-changing world of their own.
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The Secret of Creativity
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »
According to Ray Bradbury (who ought to know), this is the secret to creativity:
As soon as things get difficult, I walk away. That’s the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you. If you try to approach a cat and pick it up, hell, it won’t let you do it. You’ve got to say, “Well, to hell with you.” And the cat says, “Wait a minute. He’s not behaving the way most humans do.” Then the cat follows you out of curiosity: “Well, what’s wrong with you that you don’t love me?” Well, that’s what an idea is. See? You just say, “Well, hell, I don’t need depression. I don’t need worry. I don’t need to push.” The ideas will follow me. When they’re off-guard, and ready to be born, I’ll turn around and grab them.
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in The Art of Writing
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Or Any Age, Really
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, life, Thoughts, writing on September 16, 2023| 2 Comments »
“There’s a point, around the age of twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin
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New Visions, New Worlds
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, Kickstarter, Ukraine, Writers, writing on September 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Elizabeth Bear recently posted about a new Ukrainian speculative fiction anthology at Kickstarter.
Heads up about a very cool Ukrainian SFF Anthology!
The project is focused on Ukrainian and diaspora writers, all translated into English.
I enjoy supporting artists where I can, particularly those in such difficult situations.
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I’m interested in seeing the current and future world through new perspectives.
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Sign me up.
Here’s a link to the project.
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Atwood on AI
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, copyright, creativity, genre fiction, technology, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 5, 2023| 1 Comment »
What does one of the great speculative fiction writers of our time have to say about AI (or at least, her own AI doppelgänger)?
Margaret Atwood: Murdered by My Replica?
Apparently, 33 of my books have been used as training material for their wordsmithing computer programs. Once fully trained, the bot may be given a command—“Write a Margaret Atwood novel”—and the thing will glurp forth 50,000 words, like soft ice cream spiraling out of its dispenser, that will be indistinguishable from something I might grind out. (But minus the typos.) I myself can then be dispensed with—murdered by my replica, as it were—because, to quote a vulgar saying of my youth, who needs the cow when the milk’s free?
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