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Posts Tagged ‘writing’

Today I give you a funny animal photo, because it’s Monday and my current levels of inspiration could fit into a thimble.

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Photo by Nitty Ditty on Unsplash

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What kind of day is today? The kind where I discover that at some point during my recent computer update, several important files were overwritten by earlier versions of themselves.

Sure, that’s the stuff of fiction, and authors could have a field day building a world where people can buy younger versions of themselves. In my case, however, I wouldn’t want to slough off a decade of experience and I really didn’t want to lose three months of data. 

Happy news, however! I am paranoid about such things (the data part, not the “waking up to find that someone has siphoned off years and you’re left to bumble around in a world that has moved on without you” part). 

Backups. I have many (many) backups. One of them came through.

I spent too long rescuing files from the depths of this software update, but 1) rescue them I did, and 2) I came up with a fun new story idea. So it’s all good:)

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Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash

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“Libraries are a force for good. They wear capes. They fight evil. They don’t get upset when you don’t send them a card on their birthdays. (Though they will charge you if you’re late returning a book.) They serve communities. The town without a library is a town without a soul. The library card is a passport to wonders and miracles, glimpses into other lives, religions, experiences, the hopes and dreams and strivings of ALL human beings, and it is this passport that opens our eyes and hearts to the world beyond our front doors, that is one of our best hopes against tyranny, xenophobia, hopelessness, despair, anarchy, and ignorance. Libraries are the torch of the world, illuminating the path when it feels too dark to see. We mustn’t allow that torch to be extinguished.”

― Libba Bray

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Photo by Ran Ding on Unsplash

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Where has this day gone? Despite constant motion since pre-dawn, I have accomplished exactly two of the many things on my list for today. Ok, fine, three if I stretch it. It’s time to buckle down and finalize the edits on this story.

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

― Alexander Graham Bell

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Photo by Romain Vignes on Unsplash

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“You are perfectly cast in your life. I can’t imagine anyone but you in the role. Go play.”

— Lin-Manuel Miranda

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Photo by Cleyton Ewerton on Unsplash

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Today’s post-day job project is to start editing the final proof of my Writers of the Future story. Because words are magic, even when they have typos.

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Photo by Tetiana Shadrina on Unsplash

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“Imperfection inspires invention, imagination, creativity. It stimulates. The more I feel imperfect, the more I feel alive.”

― Jhumpa Lahiri, In Other Words

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Photo by Renzo D’souza on Unsplash

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For today’s bit of fun, here’s a Nature‘s Futures story by Marissa Lingen: So your grandmother is a starship now- a quick guide for the bewildered.

Your grandmother is becoming a starship! She has gone through many phases in her life already — infant, child, teenager, young adult, student, worker, in many cases spouse, parent, retiree. She has had hobbies like knitting, volleyball and carbon mitigation. She has travelled in planetary atmosphere whenever her circumstances allowed. Now she is uploading her consciousness into a starship! The circle of life is beautiful.

I am now going to imagine that my grandmother is a spaceship.

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Photo by Shyam on Unsplash

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On the off chance that you’re having doubts about how you stack up against others, in writing or elsewhere, here’s a thoughtful quote. Follow the link for his whole piece, which is part of a series of posts worth reading.

…I think it’s clear our pop culture and what passes for our media discourse have a dangerously romanticized view of creative work.

“Oh, what a talented person,” our stories go, “oh, how powerful their inspiration must have been!” Talent certainly exists and inspiration certainly exists, but I fear our popular view of creativity artificially centers both, eliding struggle, practice, failure, and the investment of time. Too often, we talk about something akin to magic, about early purity of vision, about the notion that we are chosen or anointed for certain tasks, and while I cannot speak to how the secret machinery of the cosmos operates, I can testify that most of my own moments of lovely inspiration have been purchased with long hours of study, planning, and practice.

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— Scott Lynch, The Post of Christmas Past
Photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash

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If you can write beginnings and ends, you can make a nice living as a writer. If you write middles, you win Pulitzers and Nobel Prizes and stuff. But with beginnings and ends, you’re going to do okay.

— James Patterson

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Photo by Eilis Garvey on Unsplash

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