Sunday, February 27, 2011
Flash Fiction Badge
Kudos to the Merit Badger for providing truly useful merit badges for our websites.It is especially notable, even noble, is that she has provided a slew of badges for reading and writing! In fact, here's a Merit Badge she created for Flash Fiction:
Well, the Demon is known for his, well, perverse sense of humor. This is his version of the Flash Fiction badge!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Make Sure Your Characters Have the Right Problems to Solve
Tension and resolution: they are mission critical to a great story. Thus, it is important that our characters have truly worthwhile challenges or problems to resolve. The choice of the "right problem" can be tricky for a writer, devilishly so.
As a bit of a reminder, as well as a fun exercise in problem solving, I humbly offer the following:
As a bit of a reminder, as well as a fun exercise in problem solving, I humbly offer the following:
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Hold that query letter, save the universe!
I was reminiscing about a favorite short story of mine, The Nine Billion Names of God, by Arthur C. Clarke. For those of you not familiar with it, here is a synopsis(Source: Wikipedia):
This short story tells of a Tibetan lamasery whose monks seek to list all of the names of God, since they believe the Universe was created in order to note all the names of God and once this naming is completed, God will bring the Universe to an end. Three centuries ago, the monks created an alphabet in which, they calculated, they could encode all the possible names of God, numbering about nine billion and each having no more than nine characters, in their alphabet. Writing the names out by hand, as they had been doing, even after eliminating various nonsense combinations, would take another fifteen thousand years; the monks wish to use modern technology in order to finish this task more quickly.
They rent a computer capable of printing all the possible permutations, and they hire two Westerners to install and program the machine. The computer operators are skeptical but play along with the monks.
The operators engage the computer. After three months, as the job nears completion, they fear that the monks will blame the computer, and by extension its operators, when nothing happens. The Westerners delay the operation of the computer so that it will complete its final print run just after their scheduled departure. After their successful departure on ponies, they pause on the mountain path on their way back to the airfield, where a plane is waiting to take them back to civilization. Under a clear starlit night sky they estimate that it must be just about the time that the monks are pasting the final printed names into their holy books. They notice that "overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."
That got me to wondering/fantasizing: what if the purpose of our existence was simply to produce nine billion query letters? And once the nine billionth query letter is written, will the stars will go out with nary a fuss?
So maybe the next query letter, the one you happen to be writing, will be the nine billionth query letter. Feeling lucky, punk?
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Becoming the Child
Today, I find myself in a foul, bitter and pessimistic mood. Seeking words of encouragement, I turned to Awakening Osiris. This is an excerpt from the chapter, Becoming the Child:
What I hate is ignorance, smallness of imagination, the eye that sees no farther than its lashes. All things are possible...When we speak in anger, anger will be our truth. When we speak in love and live by love, truth in love will be our comfort. Who you are is limited only by who you think you are....
'nuff said!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Robotic Edition of Huckleberry Finn
With tongues planted firmly in cheek, comedians Gabriel and Etta have set out to replace every use of the "N-word" in Mark Twain's classic novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with the word "Robot." A satire of the American educational system, the finished book will explore the problematic nature of simplifying complex historical truths. It will also serve as a nice preview to the eventual robot takeover.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
A Deadening Sensation
A friend of mine is taking a course at Georgetown University that takes an analytical, structural look at literature. She was explaining how the professor analyzed and broke down the sentence structure used by Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises. As I listened, I had curiously conflicting reactions: at the intellectual level it was interesting...but at the gut level, the place from which my writing and imagination pours forth, it felt deadening.
Why this reaction?
The answer lies in an observation by Robert Pirsig from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process. That is fairly well understood, at least in the arts. Mark Twain's experience comes to mind, in which, after he had mastered the analytic knowledge needed to pilot the Mississippi River, he discovered the river had lost its beauty. Something is always killed.”
Something is always killed...that explains the deadening sensation.
'nuff said!
Friday, January 28, 2011
What the iPad taught me about dealing with criticism
Writers, aspiring and successful, have to deal with criticism...often lots of it. I've considered shopping for an electric cattle prod, or even a quality used flame thrower, to ward off such unwarranted (in my mind, at least) aspersions and fault-finding. Well, I read the following piece about the nitpicking, know-it-all, nay saying nimrods who knocked the iPad when it was first launched.
For the record, Apple has sold nearly 15 million iPads. So much for the critics! Still, I wonder if I can get a Cattle Prod app for my iPad...
- "Maybe underwhelming isn't the right word," wrote Engadget editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky. "Unimaginative might be more accurate..."
- Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Hiltzik called the iPad "less than revolutionary" and "underwhelming."
- Adam Frucci at Gizmodo wrote a scathing early review, titled "8 Things That Suck About the iPad."
- Monica Guzman, with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, took issue with the device's name... "the 'iPad' name seems at worst odd, and at best -- just a little bit funny."
For the record, Apple has sold nearly 15 million iPads. So much for the critics! Still, I wonder if I can get a Cattle Prod app for my iPad...
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Haiku as Query Letter
On two previous occasions, I imagined various authors using Haiku by Basho for their query letters (first post, second post). This time we'll try the Haiku of Chiyo-ni.
to tangle or untangle
the willow---
it's up to the wind
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
morning glory -
the truth is
the flower hates people
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
green leaves or fallen leaves
become one---
in the flowering snow
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
purple cloud
isn't it the same color
as the iris?
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
From the mind
of a single, long vine
one hundred opening lives
Sideways by Rex Pickett
to tangle or untangle
the willow---
it's up to the wind
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
morning glory -
the truth is
the flower hates people
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
green leaves or fallen leaves
become one---
in the flowering snow
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
purple cloud
isn't it the same color
as the iris?
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
From the mind
of a single, long vine
one hundred opening lives
Sideways by Rex Pickett
Sunday, January 9, 2011
2011 Rereading Challenge
Curiously enough, one cannot read a book:
one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader,
an active and creative reader is a rereader...
Vladimir Nabokov
Reading challenges seem to be popular: bloggers post a list of the new books they wish to read during the coming year. In the spirit of Nabokov, I've set a different challenge: a list of books I wish to reread in 2011.
In no particular order, they are:
- Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
- Blindness by Jose Saramago
- Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clark
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Night by Elie Wisel
- The Essential Fantastic Four, vol. 2 by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
- An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks
- Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer
- Something, anything by Ray Bradbury!
'nuff said!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
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