Which way is the bus traveling?

A fun exercise!

Which way is the bus traveling?

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:

For best viewing, click on the arrow, let the  viewer  load, scroll over "More" and click on "Full Screen," then use the arrow on the bottom to advance the slides.

Make Sure Your Characters Have the Right Problems to Solve

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?

Hold that query letter, save the universe!

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!

Becoming the Child

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.

Robotic Edition of Huckleberry Finn

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!

A Deadening Sensation

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. 

• "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."

(The above is from the Huffington Post.)

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...

What the iPad taught me about dealing with criticism

Censoring Mark Twain

Regarding the censoring of Huckleberry Finn, Bill Maher has the final word!

Censoring Mark Twain

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

Haiku as Query Letter

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!

2011 Rereading Challenge

Can a Book Save Your Life?

From the folks at Electric Literature!

Can a Book Save Your Life?

If you had to choose one song (continued)...

In an earlier post, I asked: if you had to choose one song upon which to base a novel, which song would you choose? My choice at that time was Black Horse and a Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall.

Call me fickle, but I've been watching the Wallander TV series which is introduced with a haunting song featuring a beautiful Aussie voice. The song is Nostalgia by Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo.



Here are the lyrics:

Tram wires cross Melbourne skies
Cut my red heart in two
My knuckles bleed down Johnston street
On a door that shouldn’t be in front of me

Twelve thousand miles away from your smile
I’m twelve thousand miles away from me
Standing on the corner of Brunswick
Got the rain coming down and mascara on my cheek

Oh whisper me words in the shape of a bay
Shelter my love from the wind and the rain

Crow fly be my alibi
And return this fable on your wing
Take it far away to where gypsies play
Beneath metal stars by the bridge

Oh write me a beacon so I know the way
Guide my love through night and through day

Only the sunset knows my blind desire for the fleeting
Only the moon understands the beauty of love
When held by a hand like the aura of nostalgia

If you had to choose one song (continued)...