writing | J.R. Johnson

I wrote a thing, didn’t like it. Wrote another thing, didn’t like that either. Thought for a bit. Went off and made a mini version of this cool anti-gravity tensegriity thing. Came back and wrote a couple of new bits but nothing feels right.

Some days are just like that. Must be time for a quote and a picture.

“So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

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*Photo by Charles “Duck” Unitas on Unsplash*

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Gamgee the Wise

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, inspiration, procrastination, Thoughts, Writers, writing on December 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »

“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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When Sharing Isn’t Caring

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, drabble, Drabble Dabble Do, Fiction, inspiration, short stories, Thoughts, writing on December 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »

As mentioned the other day, I recently read a book starring interesting and complex retirees.* It got me thinking, and now I have a new drabble.

Enjoy!

When Sharing Isn’t Caring
There’s a lot to be said for the “sharing economy.”
My granddaughter DeeDee introduced me to the idea. Say, if you need to cleanup around the yard but don’t have all the tools. Because the neighbor is kicking up a fuss (and poor Mr. Kittikins), wasting Saturdays complaining about trees overhanging his fence.
And the things you can borrow these days!
Order up a tool here or there, pay a reasonable delivery fee and voila, the item comes right to your doorstep.
Like this nice policeman.
“Such terrible news about the neighbor. And no, officer, I don’t own an ax.”

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* Disclaimer: I also happen to be related to a number of interesting and complex individuals of a certain age, but they are in no way associated with mysteries or mayhem!

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How to Win by Losing

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, nanowrimo, sff, Thoughts, writing, yay on December 2, 2021| 2 Comments »

To Whom It May Concern,

Enclosed please find my NaNoWriMo after-action report. Please be advised that this AAR is a summary document of an ongoing project and may be reassessed upon future review.

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Project: NaNoWriMo 2021, Modified Edition (a.k.a. NaYes, a.k.a. NaNoFinMo)

Overview, or The NaNo Plan-Mo

Goal, Part 1: Plan a story
Did I do this? Yes!
Goal, Part 2: Let’s just focus on Part 1, shall we?

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Analysis

Looking back, how did it go?

After years of NaNo pantsing,* was planning the story a good idea? Yes, to a point. It got me out of being stuck mid-month, but then I went a little overboard and realized that I was probably planning myself into a corner. Backing off, making sure I had a solid foundation under the piece, getting inside the heads of my characters, that made the most sense. (And that wasn’t always easy. One of the characters is an alien space mouse.)
Was I efficient? Not so much. Taking the word count pressure off was great in many ways, but also allowed me to spend too long vacillating about which awesome idea was the most awesome of all the awesomes. And then writing, backtracking, and writing some more. Not helpful.
Was I creative? Yes. See the aforementioned space mouse.
Did I accomplish more than a big fat zero? I did!
I began the month writing countable words and considered putting out enough verbiage to qualify for the formal challenge. This option was rejected because 50,000 words to no apparent purpose? No thanks!

Notes on the process, using previous related posts and their goals as guides:

NaNo or NaYes?
Yes, I took on the challenge. Go me.
NaNoFinMo
No, I did not actually finish said story. And yes, I will expect this fact to be reflected in my end-of-year bonus package. No need to remind me.
I’m Doing It Again
I am happy to report that I fixed the stopping and restarting problem, picked one idea and rolled with it for the rest of the month.

About halfway through the month I decided that project parameters be damned, I really didn’t care about the word count. At all. What I wanted was a platform to act as a springboard for next steps. So that’s what I did.

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Recommendations & Action Items**

What would I change for next time?

Skip the prep reading; it was helpful but now I’ve crossed it off my list.
Go faster, not spend the whole month on one idea, develop more stories, spend more time noodling, more wandering the neighborhood thinking up fun stuff.
I considered a reading hiatus but then all my library books arrived and I just didn’t want to, frankly. Probably would have helped, though!
Make December the official followup month, where actual writing shall occur.

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In Conclusion!

Experimental or not, this year’s NaNoWriMo actually went pretty well. My main takeaway is not to stress very much. Or at all. I’m much more productive when I’m having fun.

Because I didn’t bother with the 50,000 words I didn’t count this NaNo as a “win” in the formal sense. I do count it as a win in the “getting things done my own dang way, thanks very much” sense, so yay.

I may be the only one in this particular race, but still. I win!

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*Photo by Bas van den Eijkhof on Unsplash*

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* A guide to NaNoWriMo strategies, including pantsing. I suppose you could say I’m a “plantser” at this point, but really, that’s a pretty terrible word.

** I just wanted to say “action items” because it’s ridiculous and fun.

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Ghosts and Fairies and Angels and A.I.

Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, Fiction, free fiction, genre fiction, sff, Thoughts, writing on December 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »

I’m a little too caught up in work to write the piece I was planning for today, so instead we have a free story via Slate’s Future Tense Fiction. It’s long, so save it for when you have time to do a little thinking about the environment, technology, and society.

“Ride,” a new short story about climate change, A.I., and social credit by Linda Nagata, with a non-fictional response by Henry Grabar, a journalist who reports on cities and autonomous vehicles.

Jasmine’s thoughts turned to the boy. He’d claimed he’d met someone on a shared taxi ride, a nameless stranger who’d told him about the Easter egg—a hidden bit of code embedded in the programming controlling the city’s autonomous taxi fleet.
Probably, the boy had been stringing her along. Yet there had been something about him, a sweetness, a rare sincerity that made her want to believe him—and anyway, what was the harm?

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Today’s Game

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, #amwritingscifi, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing, yay on November 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

“Read books. Care about things. Get excited. Try not to be too down on yourself. Enjoy the ever present game of knowing.”
― Hank Green

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A Day of Delights

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, inspiration, quotes, Thoughts, Writers, writing on November 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Our creativity is a wild and unexpected bonus from the universe. It’s as if all our gods and angels gathered together and said, “It’s tough down there as a human being, we know. Here—have some delights.
— Elizabeth Gilbert

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