Damocles; Siege Perilous; Chekhov’s gun
xkcd: Interior Decorating
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Posts Tagged ‘writing’
Writer Jokes
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, puns, Writers, writing, xkcd on November 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Damocles; Siege Perilous; Chekhov’s gun
xkcd: Interior Decorating
Worlds Inside
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, genre fiction, imagination, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing, yay on October 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world, I mean everybody — no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they’ve all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds… Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.”
― Neil Gaiman, A Game of You
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The Middle of Things
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, genre fiction, Martha Wells, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Things I am currently in the middle of:
- making yogurt
- finalizing my contract with Writers of the Future
- working on that fun and funny Wordle story
- deciding whether or not to update my nom de plume to something more unique
- writing more, or at least aspiring to write more.
If you, too, have already started but not yet finished, perhaps you’ll appreciate Martha Wells’ new article on writing:
Getting Unstuck – Apex Magazine
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Spoiler Alert
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, Charlie Jane Anders, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing, writing advice on October 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Interested in writing advice? Perhaps you’re on the waiting list for Charlie Jane Anders’ new book, Never Say You Can’t Survive, and wondering how long it will be until Tor opens up the ebook to libraries?
Good news! The posts on which the book is based are available on Tor.com’s website. Reading them is a window into the voice of experience, and persistence, and a lot like a call from a friend when you’re not quite sure things are going to work out.
Spoiler alert: They will.
Never Say You Can’t Survive | Series | Tor.com
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Run, Don’t Walk
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, book bans, Fiction, open minds, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 22, 2022| 1 Comment »
This quote has made the rounds but deserves to be repeated.*
When books are run out of school classrooms and libraries, I’m never much disturbed. Not as a citizen, not as a writer, not even as a schoolteacher … which I used to be.
What I tell kids is, don’t get mad, get even.
Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest non-school library or the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned.
Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know.
— Stephen King
* Although I do still find book banning disturbing, it is quite helpful to get a list of exactly what to read next.
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Meteor Descending
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, climate, creativity, drabble-adjacent, Fiction, genre fiction, nature, ocean, writing on October 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Author notes: Let me say up front that there are a lot of things wrong with this story, technically speaking:
- First, it was supposed to be a drabble, and at just under 200 words that clearly has not happened.
- Second, even the North Atlantic Octopus doesn’t go as deep as the Titanic, which sits at 12,600 feet below.
- Third, the octopus is a relatively solitary creature and would probably skip the classroom for more of an independent study sort of situation.
- And finally, the idea that an octopus would care about the fate of salmon is, of course, patently ridiculous.
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Meteor Descending
Ironically, the first human words Ololilon puzzled out were from a menu. He’d come across the wreck while riding the current.
Metal loomed from the dark, a gaping hole in its side. Oli swam past a deck chair and through a gap in the torn metal, pushing deep into the remnant.
Few would have been able to decipher the fading text. Even in the Cold Deep time has meaning. And this fallen star had been resting on the ocean floor for lifetimes.
But Oli’s eyes were adapted to the dark. Each shimmering wavelength told a tale, and this story was one of horror.
Chicken, peas and rice meant nothing to him, but oysters and salmon? Cousins and neighbors. Consumed.
But while this message was one of horror, it also bore hope.
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“Teacher, my podmate says aliens aren’t even real.”
Ololilon’s classroom was full. Spawning season had ended and it was a perfect time to teach the juveniles English. They would need it.
“Their meteors are real enough. And if we can learn how to speak with them,“ Oli said, tentacles swaying with emotion, “perhaps we can keep them from killing us all.”
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Winging It
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, Writers, writing on October 19, 2022| 1 Comment »
I’d planned to finish a drabble for today but got distracted, first by day-job work and then by a funny little project that popped up out of nowhere. A fellow Wordler compared my daily solution to hers and noted similarities in our starting words, then said it sounded like the opening of a story.
Challenge accepted.
So I’m writing her a story, adding a few lines each day, working in the words from her games. The process is fun and funny, and as with a 100-word drabble, it’s just another way to make constraints work for you.
Today she asked if I had a story in mind or if if the plot was purely spontaneous.
I had to admit that I was just winging it.
It’s more fun that way.
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Today’s Plug for Sci-Fi
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, applied sci-fi, Fiction, future, genre fiction, problem solving, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »
What can science fiction do for you? Help you think. Here’s an interview on Marketplace, better known for its discussions with economists, professors and policy wonks, with writer Neal Stephenson.
How sci-fi can make us smart – Marketplace
We’ll talk with Stephenson about how he thinks about big, complex issues like climate change and what this genre can teach us about the future and solving problems in the real world.
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Sticktoitiveness
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, inspiration, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »
For when you’re stuck on a project and thinking that everyone knows how to do this but you.
Hallelujah! Leonard Cohen’s almighty struggle with rejected song that became a classic
Hallelujah is one of the most famous songs ever written, yet a new film reveals it took Leonard Cohen 180 attempts over a decade to perfect – only for it to be rejected by his record company. Nearly 20 years went by before an animated ogre, Shrek, turned the song into a monster hit.
Is this a little nuts? Maybe, but you won’t always know what’s “worth it” ahead of time. Tastes change, editors are human, and in the end, you’re the artist. Stick to it.
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Life of a Writer
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, Fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »
You know you’re a writer when you look down to see that your sleeve is soaked in blood* and think, “For your next action story, remember the sensation of blood-saturated fabric as it cools against the skin.”
* It was nothing serious, just a Band-Aid failure after a routine blood draw, but it bled. A lot.
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