Not that I’ve let Alexa into my life or anything, but this might be the one ability that would convince me to do it!
Posts Tagged ‘writing’
Maybe Someday!
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, Fiction, inspiration, phdcomics.com, Thoughts, writing on September 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »
A Touch of Magic
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, inspiration, nature, writing, yay on September 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »
“A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way.”
― Caroline Gordon
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Get the Right Things Right
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, progress, Thoughts, writing on September 4, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The other day I hemmed a pair of jeans for Mr Man. The method isn’t difficult but can be a little tricky to get right. All those thick seams and difficult fabric.
I don’t sew much, so I had to go through the usual process of pretending like I know what I’m doing. A lot like life, really. Thankfully, muscle memory has been in charge of threading sewing machine needles since I was about twelve.
Once I finished, I realized something interesting. The results were good. Better than the last time I did it, actually. And the interesting part was that it wasn’t perfect, nowhere close, but I seem to have figured out what mattered.
For hemmed jeans, it’s thread color.
For writing, I will argue, it’s the emotion that connects reader and written.
It’s possible that I sometimes try too hard, in an effort to get everything right. (Hahahahaha, that seems even sillier when I write it down. Yeah, that’s not happening, like, ever;)
But what if I don’t need to get the whole thing right? What if I just need to get the right things right?
Step one, figure out what those things are. Step two, take the next step.
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Today in Creative Women
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, music, sff, Thoughts, women, Writers, writing on September 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Today in creative women, we have two items you might find interesting. First, a podcast on one of our great science fiction writers:
Octavia Butler: Visionary Fiction
Octavia Butler’s alternate realities and ‘speculative fiction’ reveal striking, and often devastating parallels to the world we live in today. She was a deep observer of the human condition, perplexed and inspired by our propensity towards self-destruction. Butler was also fascinated by the cyclical nature of history, and often looked to the past when writing about the future. Along with her warning is her message of hope – a hope conjured by centuries of survival and persistence. For every society that perishes in her books comes a story of rebuilding, of repair.
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I was also interested to see this piece on largely forgotten female composers, complete with interactive map. I’m not a classical music buff, but I didn’t even know Amadeus had a sister, much less one who was also a child music prodigy. Now I do, and I’m better for it.
‘They deserve a place in history’: music teacher makes map of female composers
Two siblings, both considered child prodigies, dazzled audiences across Europe together in the 18th century, leaving a trail of positive reviews in their wake. But while Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart went on to be celebrated as one of the world’s greatest composers, the accomplishments of his sister – Maria Anna – were quickly forgotten after she was forced to halt her career when she came of age.
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Here’s to not stopping.
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Work, It Could Be Worse
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, Diabolical Plots, Fiction, Fireside Magazine, free fiction, genre fiction, sff, writing on August 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »
How about a bit of free fiction today? I’m still on day job vacation but had to take a meeting. Thankfully, my work day was nothing like this piece by David Shultz over at Diabolical Plots:
“Boom & Bust” by David F. Shultz
Kondo barked his orders. “Rocco, cover the east window. Valiant, you’re on ammo detail. Pepsi, keep an eye on market changes. Luna, get me a full asset list.”
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Bonus fiction:
Sounds like those workers could have used a union. Maybe Alexa can fix them up;)
Alexa, Play Solidarity Forever by Audrey R. Hollis
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Projects In Progress
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, design, inspiration, quotes, Thoughts, writing on August 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »
“Just because things hadn’t gone the way I had planned didn’t necessarily mean they had gone wrong.”
― Ann Patchett
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The Devil’s Crutch
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, drabble, Drabble Dabble Do, family, Fiction, ghost stories, inspiration, the past, writing on August 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »
My father is going through old boxes of photographs and other memorabilia and sent me a story, one of my first, called “The Devil’s Crutch.” I couldn’t write or (as you’ll see) grasp the intricacies of grammar, geography, or complete sentences, but I dictated it to my mother.
First we have the story from when I was, what, maybe three years old? I‘ve changed since then (I can even hold a pen all by myself!), but I tried to understand at least a little of what might have been going through my head that day. Then for fun, I turned it into a drabble.
(My father seemed particularly taken by the word “smitchey.” I no longer know what it means but I kept it.)
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The Devil’s Crutch
Once upon a time there was a old, old house up in the south pole. There in the house there is a little room in the playroom and in the room there was a lot of dust. In the room there was a lot of dolls. The dolls didn’t have dust on them because a little smitchey girl had been playing with them. The house was haunted. And this couple moved in the haunted house and every night a ghost came out at twelve o’clock and every night when the ghost came out the couple woke up and saw the ghost and the ghost disappeared whenever the couple saw the ghost. The ghost disappeared. One night the father and the mother was sleeping on the sofa and the devil’s came instead of the ghost. And the owner of the crutch came to the house with the crutch and the owner of the crutch was the devil.
The End
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Once there was a haunted old house way up in the South Pole. It had a playroom of dusty dolls, a grandfather clock and a crutch like bleached bone.
A family with a smitchey little girl arrived. Every midnight the towering clock cried out. Even when the mother stopped the pendulum, and the father hid the key.
The girl saw a little ghost waving from inside the clock.
She slept huddled under the playroom table. The dolls said it was safer that way.
One night the clock stayed silent and the ghost hid.
And the owner came for his crutch.
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How to Win in Twelve Parsecs or Less
Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, movies, sff, storytelling, writing on August 17, 2021| 1 Comment »
Does everything have to be perfect in order for a story to work? Nope.
Here’s the script and breakdown for Star Wars:
Star Wars: A New Hope Script — Screenplay Analysis and PDF Download
par·sec| ˈpärsek | (abbreviation pc) noun
a unit of distance used in astronomy, equal to about 3.26 light years (3.086 × 1013 kilometers). One parsec corresponds to the distance at which the mean radius of the earth’s orbit subtends an angle of one second of arc.
A parsec is a measurement of distance, not time. Twelve of those do not a winning Kessel Run make, but, as millions of fans (and yes, dollars) attest, no one cares. The story works.
These are the things I think about when I’m stuck on a plot point, or deep in historical or technical weeds.
Just keep going.
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What to Write About
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, clarion, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, OWW, sff, Writers, writing, writing advice on August 15, 2021| 1 Comment »
Here’s a brief piece by Kate Wilhelm of Clarion Workshop fame, on writing and what to avoid. A little harsh? Possibly. But it still looks like good advice.
One year Damon and I arrived to teach the last two weeks of the six-week Clarion Writers Workshop with a list of stories we forbade the students to pursue. We explained each item on the list and said don’t do it again.
— OWW SF, F, & H Tips and Advice: Kate Wilhelm
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On Action
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, inspiration, life, quotes, social psychology, Thoughts, writing on August 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »
“When we feel powerful, it leads us to act. When we feel powerless, we don’t act.”
— Amy Cuddy
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