TWIC: PErfect, focus, inspiration, sharing, erotica

Grant Snider discusses perfection. I'm a fan of his posters and have bought some for my sister. I want this one, if anyone is interested in helping me with that desire. Actually, I don't want the image below that I deliberately scrunched - follow the link to see the full image:

Boy. I really like the poster but the crumpled version I made to show looks very negative. Really, it is a cheery poster in full.
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Focus when writing - and probably any other creative pursuit:

"While writing, shut down email and internet access. All of it! ... We need to practice and strengthen our long-deep writing muscles for most effective — and satisfying — story sinking."
Winnipeg author and actor Anita Daher

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The book that inspired Dune!

Anyone who has obsessed over the mythology of Dune will immediately recognize the language Herbert borrowed from Blanch’s work. Chakobsa, a Caucasian hunting language, becomes the language of a galactic diaspora in Herbert’s universe. Kanly, from a word for blood feud among the Islamic tribes of the Caucasus, signifies a vendetta between Dune’s great spacefaring dynasties. Kindjal, the personal weapon of the region’s Islamic warriors, becomes a knife favored by Herbert’s techno-aristocrats. As Blanch writes, “No Caucasian man was properly dressed without his kindjal.”

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On Quora, 100+ people share some of their creative work
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Selling a book bundle on Amazon. TL;DR: combine the 2 or 3 or # of books into one file, make a new cover and upload it to Amazon.
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Describe a cup of water. The lesson Robert Jordan gave Brandon Sanderson.
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Should I write more sexy scenes? Part of a newsletter I get From Skinny Artist:

So she was wondering if she should start writing romance novels instead.
Not just romance novels, but “erotica” novels, which I’m told are kind of like the foul-mouthed step-cousin of the romance genre.
When I asked her why she was thinking about changing to this particular niche, she told me that it was because these novels are typically short and sell extremely well. There’s apparently a huge demand for these type of books, and ebook readers are known to buy them one right after another.
But here’s the thing. Tracy has never read an “erotica” book in her life, and she doesn’t particularly look forward to writing one, but she said that she’s tired of putting all of this time and energy into writing her thriller novels year after year only to watch them gather dust on the virtual shelf.
I mentioned to her that although I'm sure there are a lot of erotica authors out there who are selling a ton of books, she was probably going to make herself miserable if she didn’t have a passion (ahem) for the subject matter.

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TWIC:the ending, british council,inspiration, prisoners of gravity, comedy, journals

Planning for the ending of the novel. Every one of my novels has stalled out approaching the ending. I can find my way through the story but bringing it all together is hugely difficult - for me, at least.

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British Council and creativity.

• Creativity and IELTS (an English as a Second Language test)
• Eight steps to being a creative teacher.
• The author of 8 steps has a free ESL and creativity book at this site: PDF.

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Devil Girl From Mars was the movie that got Octavia Butler interested in writing.
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Add some curses to your books to protect them.
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Velekovsky's answer on Quora to What makes a writer great?

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More from Velikovsky: creativity training and a variety of his links.
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Is it easy to write a book?
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Inspiration? Inspirobot, the random inspiration saying generator.
I like this deepity:

This one is also fun:

Is this one funny or true?

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Prisoners of Gravity was a great show and here it is getting some credit.

...when it comes to sci-fi TV, Prisoners of Gravity has been seldom imitated and never duplicated. But Askwith says the internet is starting to pick up some of the slack.
“I think podcasts really seem to mirror the energy of Prisoners of Gravity, because they can, because they don’t have to go after a mass audience,” he says. “If our legacy has been anything, it’s not that we affected television, it may be that we affected podcasts.”

Via boingboing.

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Stand up comedy

Doing stand up comedy. I do it as an amateur for fun.
What I thought it was before I did it: You walk up, tell jokes for 10 minutes, then collect your free beer or $20.
What it actually is: You write 30 pages of jokes then meet with two other writers, who are also writing jokes (but different from yours). You’re all brutally honest with each other. You cut and trim. Some things don’t work. They point out logical inconsistencies. You end up with two pages.
Back to the drawing board. Repeat this process. Eventually you have 5 pages that will get you through a ten minute set. But, uh oh, one of your topical jokes appears in the media. More than one person can think of the same joke. “I had this joke first,” you think. But that doesn’t matter. You replace.

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Keep a Journal

Many famous creatives, writers, innovators and original thinkers of our generation keep journals— for many, it is a creative necessity, for others, a place for exploration, and for some an art form in and of itself.

But you don’t have to be creative, scientist or an innovator for this practice to be worthwhile.
Journaling helps you prioritize, clarify thinking, and accomplish your most important tasks, over urgent busy work.
Thinking in writing has this magical quality of clarifying your thoughts.
Tim Ferriss calls journaling the deloading phase in life. He explains, “I use it as a tool to clarify my thinking and goals, much as Kevin Kelly (one of my favorite humans) does. The paper is like a photography darkroom for my mind.”

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What to write about

Nearly a month of this year has passed and I have not added to my work in progress. I have been thinking about the other three works-in-progress that I have also let sit. Rather than work on any one, I have been considering trying to put twenty minutes a day into each - which would be more than the zero minutes I have put into any one of them.

Maybe I should return to my Click-bait series. It has been fun. Or I could share the stories I make up for my son before he goes to bed. Two days ago, he gave me the prompts 1) beondaeggi (silkworm larvae), 2)Cooking and 3) Lance Armstrong. My story was of how Armstrong tried to rebuild his empire with a cooking show, cooked and ate silkworm larvae, and then looked so disgusted that people tuned in just to see his look of regret and nausea. Not bad.

Whatever, I've gotta get off Quora. I am having too much fun and spending too much time there. In fact, this discussion was prompted by a question on Quora. My answer is below.

How should I write creatively as a teenager?

I want to enter a creative writing contest in my school district. Teens often try to write deep stories, and come off as edgy and overconfident. I won’t delude myself into thinking that I can write a life-changing story, but what can I write that’s good enough to win? I want to be realistic

Discussing, “I want to enter a creative writing contest in my school district. Teens often try to write deep stories, and come off as edgy and overconfident. “

Ira Glass discussed your problem: A quote by Ira Glass

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.

I personally want to be an edgy, confident writer like Matt Taibbi or the late Edward Abbey. Nothing I have written has been close.
But Glass goes on to say,

Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.

I have nothing better to add. But I can offer some suggestions on what to write about.

Answering, “ I won’t delude myself into thinking that I can write a life-changing story, but what can I write that’s good enough to win? I want to be realistic.”

I think I had a similar situation, or a situation that I am going force into a metaphor so it seems a little similar, some time ago.

Friends were blogging and I decided to give it a try (blogging was a new idea once). I went to Blogger and made a blog and…

A dozen false starts taught me that I wanted to write about nature and tourism in my region (I was an ESL instructor in a rural part of South Korea). I tried to write about politics but didn’t care enough to have deep insight. I was interested in my profession but didn’t have enough background there to publish consistent material. I didn’t want a diary of my day-to-day life…. Finally, I wrote about cycling and hiking and was proud of my product.

By the way, I was never more than a second rate blogger -even in the tiny field of Blogs About Korea In English.

Similar things happened when I looked into podcasting, vlogging and wood carving. You can’t just sit down with a block of wood and a knife and expect inspiration to strike. Even if it does, you still need to design and plan before your knife ever touches the wood.

Wanting to write is a big deal and something you should encourage. Wanting to write but with no ideas of what to write about is a huge challenge. I don’t know when the deadline for this contest is but I suspect it is too soon for you to find out what you like and then make a good product. You might be able to, but I suggest finding some prompt to start your creative juices flowing. Start writing a few things and see what happens.

These prompts are to help you defeat ‘terror of the blank page’. This terror the understanding that you could write absolutely anything you want. Anything! And so nothing comes to mind.

I use a variety of prompts. Here is a partial list.:

As another respondent suggested, try fan-fiction. Write about a minor character at Hogwarts or etc. Imagine you are the secretary that Christian Gray walks past everyday on his way to practice bondage with whats-her-name from the 50 shades books. This secretary could harbour a secret crush or jealousy or merely be stealing from Gray every time he turns his back on her. I wrote about the continued adventures of a favorite character, Kim, from Kipling’s book of the same name.

Click-bait titles. What do you think about when you read, “Everything they don’t want you to know about Trump”? I imagine him having a Batman-esque lifestyle and desperately wanting out of the limelight so he can beat up space aliens.

Three words chosen at random. Random Word Generator - Creative online tool to generating randomized words for brainstorming. This gave me the words ‘parasitic’, ‘positive’, and ‘excitement’. I am not sure what to make of them… (1 minute later): I am now thinking of a horror story with parasites that make you feel good and a person fighting her own thrills as she seeks to rid herself of them before they kill her. I just gave myself a shudder!

The thing is, even if these ideas never create a contest-winning story, they will improve your writing until other ideas can. And while you work on them, perhaps you will have a winning idea.

TWIC: catching up, starlings, reviews, habits, 3rd person, words to use more,

I am behind in my Nanowrimo count. It is Friday the 25th here and I am 210 words behind. Today, I should do the standard 1,667 words plus 210. This isn't so bad. I was a full day behind going into Thursday and typed 2,700 words on that day to nearly catch up. Still, in the years previous, I was a day or two ahead at this point.
Now it is the morning of the Nov 29. I am 1000 words ahead and at this late point I don't expect to lose that lead.
Now it is the morning of Nov 30. I have 900 words to go. Expect a Nano recap in the next few days.

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I don't know what  this has to do with creativity but it is a magical event that leaves me in awe:

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Also not entirely within the domain of creativity, Google's AI translation tool is figuring things out on its own.

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Amazon is now cracking down on 'incentivized reviews'.

Incentivized reviews are those where the vendor offers free or discounted products to reviewers, in exchange for recipients writing their “honest opinion” of the item in an Amazon review. However, data has shown that these reviewers tend to write more positive reviews overall, with products earning an average of 4.74 stars out of five, compared with an average rating of 4.36 for non-incentivized reviews.
Over time, these reviews proliferated on Amazon, and damaged consumers’ trust in the review system as a whole. And that can impact consumers’ purchase decisions.

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Habits of  productive people.
An interesting pair up: Productive people don't overtalk their projects but they are passionate about their projects.

There points that were of interest to me: The know how to finish a draft, They work on more than one thing at once, and They leave off at a point where it will be easy to start again.
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Writing in various forms of third person:

"There's been a murder..." Learn how to write with a third person narrator using this gruesome infographic https://t.co/1yobrIkIaQ pic.twitter.com/PKDrVsWjJ8

— Reedsy (@ReedsyHQ) November 25, 2016

The link goes here, where there is a good discussion of the subject. I don't embed tweets often so I am not sure if there is an image above. Whether there is or not, the image is too small for my eyes.
Here is a piece of the image at full size (or click for full size):

I can only read the titles. Ah, nearly halfway down a long scroll is the full size set of image that i can read.
(This has been stream-of-consciousness blogging by S. Aplenty).
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A Facebook post on the subject led to this search. The image I saw on Facebook came from here.
Here are cropped images from the Facebook post and from another that looked interesting in my search.

Again, both images have been cropped. I want to be a good internet citizen and I hope that I show enough for visitors to decide if they want to click through to see the rest. Also copyright...mumble, mumble...
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TWIC: embarrassment, Advice from Wendig, webcomics maker

Oops. I schedule This Week In Creativity blog posts to appear on Monday or Tuesday and then just add material until it publishes.  Several days can go by while I add content. I am writing these sentences on Sept 23. In the last one, one of the first links was to a description of Bill Waterson's contributions to comics. And, one of the last ones was too. Yes, I added it to the list twice. Sorry. And now I have removed one of the links from the list and changed the title.
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Chuck Wendig is a popular and successful writer who also writes advice books for wannabes like me. Somewhere (the links from Boingboing aren't clear to me), he has 25 pieces of advice.

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An Australian library has released a webcomic maker. It looks fun.

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Kate Kendall's writing newsletter discusses the value of actual experience over Google searches. She rode-along with a police officer and his canine for a night.

Seek out research opportunities wherever you can. Don't be satisfied with just reading and googling and interviewing. Although all those are needed, researching experiences is most valuable. It's also fun and one of the privileges of being a writer.

What's some of what I learned on my night out? What the adrenaline that races through Officer Hobbs feels like. It permeates the air and is absorbed through your pores. You breath it in, smell it, hear it, sense it. Your heart beats it through your veins all shift. This four legged officer is ready at all times. He's completely devoted to his partner and always on the look out for him. Their partnership and dedication was inspiring. And both officers have intriguing personalities.

Semi-related, I presume her newsletter is a way to teach in touch with readers and to create new readers. In choosing to discuss her article, I decided to be thorough and looks at her works.
Huh. Like me, she has works on the way but nothing available to buy today.
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I hope this is true. I fear it is a platitude to make people like me feel better.

Image greatly shrunk and found on Tayloredexpressions' Instagram page
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Creativity and genius are often discussed together. On that tenuous thread, Sci Am has an article about innate talent vs training. They authors are uncertain. We know that some people have 'perfect pitch'. That is, with no reference note, they can hear a note and name it. I think that means saying, "A#" or the like. This is a rare skill. But it can be learned and some researchers used this point to show that innate talent might not exist. Further reading of their work, however, shows that it took two to eight years for people to learn this skill. That suggests that it is quite a talent indeed.
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The Muses

In Our Time on BBC radio recently looked at The Muses. It was online on May 19 and BBC sometimes deletes or locks away their content after some time has passed. The link above probably has a time limit.

I realized that although I had heard of Erato, I didn't know much about these mythical fonts of creativity. Some research - not all that much was needed after Melvin and his Crew discussed the subject, led to details and images.

From Tales Beyond Belief:

Calliope is normally the patroness of writers, although there are several that carry a book or scroll symbol.

Urania is the patroness of astronomy, although today, this field is considered to have expanded to include all of science.  Ah considered by those who care about such stuff. At some point in this post, I'm going to have to discuss what value I think the muses have.

Wikipedia discusses the Muses.

I enjoy this description given at Greekmyths-greekmythology. The language is just enough off to make me think this is second language writing and to emphasize the dreamlike or non rational quality of the subject matter. They" were similar to everything." Uh, okay.

According to the Greek Myths, God Zeus bewildered the young woman Mnemosyne and slept with her for nine consecutive nights. The result of their encounter was the Nine Muses, who were similar to everything.
Μnemosyne gave the babies to Nymph Eufime and God Apollo. When they grew up they showed their tendency to the arts, taught by God Apollo himself.
They were not interested in anything of the regular human everyday life and they wanted to dedicate their lives to the Arts. Apollo brought them to the big and beautiful Mount Elikonas, where the older Temple of Zeus used to be. Ever since, the Muses supported and encouraged creation, enhancing imagination and inspiration of the artists.
Muses and Arts
According to the Greek Mythology, two Muses invented theory and practice in learning, three Muses invented the musical vibrations in Lyre, four Muses invented the four known dialects in the language – Attica, Ionian, Aeolian and Dorian – and five muses the five human senses. Seven muses invented the seven chords of the lyre, the seven celestial zones, the seven planets and the seven vocals of the Greek Alphabet.

Ancient History Encyclopedia has an article about the Muses by Mark Cartwright who I think is one of the speakers in the In Our Time podcast.
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Alright.  Why do I care?  I am a man trained in science and a dedicated skeptic so I am not planning any sacrifices or offerings.  I think I am fascinated by the Muses in precisely the same way I am fascinated by creativity.  They, or it, are magical, even today.  Poorly understood and maddening.

Even now, we mostly understand why people have creative insight only when they are in laboratory conditions.  For example, the 1931 swinging ropes experiment. A researcher would bring subjects into a room with two hanging ropes, then ask the subjects to hold them both or tie them together.  But the ropes were too far apart to simply hold one and walk to the other.  If subjects appeared stuck or if a set amount of time had passed, the researcher would bump into a rope *accidentally* and the subject would quickly figure out the solution - swing one rope, then walk to the other rope, approach the swinging rope and wait for it to swing into reach.  But when subjects were questioned on what led them to inspiration,  they didn't know, or they told stories that were themselves quite creative.  The timing however showed the real causation.

Is creativity only understandable in situations where researchers have staged a problem? Could asking the Muses for help offer any benefit?  Urania, please help me study and understand!

I want to be obsessed

A lot of psychology is biology and I know a fair bit in that field.  One course I took, Animal behavior, was  a strong introduction to the subject.  In this post, I will write about what I think of as obsession. I think I follow the basic definition Google offered at the top of its search window:

an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind.
plural noun: obsessions
"he was in the grip of an obsession he was powerless to resist"
synonyms: fixation, ruling/consuming passion, passion, mania, idée fixe, compulsion, preoccupation, infatuation, addiction, fetish, craze, hobbyhorse;

but I want it clear I make no claim to the psychological definition of the word and that I find the casual use of 'OCD' to be annoying.

I recently wrote to a friend about our obsessions.  He put himself on a strict diet for two weeks to see what would happen and one result was he dreamed and lusted for the wondrous food he would eat after the two weeks had passed.  In 2015, I gave myself the goal of running 183 times in the year. I, uh, like talking about the thing I was obsessed with; that can't be a surprise, but it really isn't a subject relevant to this blog.  I'm still going to write about it, but I posted it in the 'read more' or 'under the fold' area.  If you want, you can find it there.

The point of the longish story below is that I set goals and stuck to them pretty well, even though I didn't really enjoy them. Or I enjoyed them but also found them exhausting and irritating.  My friend, struggled through his labour and doubtless enjoyed seeing his weight drop and feeling physically better even though it presented a physical struggle.

I have a blog post from Asana open. It is called Working from home? Here’s how to stay on task.  I really should read it. I'm good at finding such articles, and I read many of them.  Reading is good.
It would be much freakin' better if I convinced myself to follow such articles!

In the eighties and early nineties, I watched Prisoner of Gravity, as TVO show about science fiction and fantasy books and movies. In season four and five, there were episodes with advice for writers.  One point I remember from those episodes was the advice, 'If you can find something else to do, then do that instead'.  You needed to be obsessive and driven to write for it to work.

I have a job.  I'm an ESL teacher and I work to make the subject interesting to my students, many of whom are there chiefly because they have to be.  I have large periods of time off and I always plan to revamp my teaching and try new ways.  And I do, I still think I am a good teacher, but not nearly as much as I could.

I started this blog to document my research into creativity and to understand how to do and how to teach it.  I definitely know enough that I should be a creative person now. And when I have a problem, I use creative methods to find a solution. But I am not producing much, if any, more than I did when I began at Creativiti Project.

So, here are more than fifteen hundred words about writing that aren't directed at the story I have been trying to write for the past few months. It seems that I need to trick myself to write.

I am creative.  I need to be obsessive.

I love Grant Snider's comics and this one seems a relevant.  I have shrunk it here, follow the link for the full size version or ways to buy it. I added the red circle:

I either need no other work or I need other work I want to avoid.  Actually, I would probably avoid both.

For Busan area Nanowrimo people

Hello Writers!

Back up your novel! And think about doing the same for all your important data!

Writing!

I was once an athlete, a competitive swimmer, and the third quarter of any event was always the toughest. I, and most swimmers, would dive in at the start and struggle to hold back a little in the first quarter. By halfway, we would feel tired and the fun aspect would fade. Once we were in the final quarter, the end was in sight; our competitors -who were often good friends - were beside us and we would go fast.

Too obvious a metaphor? Over-stretched? At least I didn't use the phrase "Dig down and give it 110%". Oh. sorry.

This is a strange competition. Even more than when I raced the two hundred freestyle, this race is against ourselves. Your race is against yourself. I had to complete two hundred meters. You have to complete what feels good for you. That's it.

I hope most of us are on pace or close to it for 50,000 words. I am but when I look at some other word-counts, I feel inadequate. Some people have managed 50,000 already! But my story is mine. Those fast writing people deserve credit and admiration but so does anyone who, uh, digs down and gives it the best effort they can.

I must admit that though I have completed the 50,000 words twice before, I have not gone beyond that. To my embarrassment, I have stopped typing on November 30, at perhaps 55,000 words, and walked away from my story. Next week I'll write about what I need to do in December and beyond.

For this week, let me keep the focus on finishing the month and thinking about what I, and hopefully you, are learning about writing. I am learning that despite the many terribly constructed sentences, I am also writing a few beautiful ones. I am a capable writer. I have learned I am not ready to be a full-time author but I am an author and this is something I can and should continue with. More trivially, I have re-learned the grammar of writing dialog and how to write fight scenes.

I don't know if I am the Motivational Leader type of ML. I'll end that part of the letter here.

Next, the final events for Busan Nanowrimo:
On Sunday, November 22, I will be at BEXCO from 1:30 to 4:30. There is a design exhibition going on and the Busan Art Museum is across the street if you need inspiration. See photos for details. For family reasons I cannot stay longer than that. I will try to arrive early enough to visit the museum or the expo - fee unknown - before I write.

For the weekend of November 28, 29, I am set on the teahouse in Seomyeon. This blog post has the details. No one has made suggestions for a day or time, so I will go with Sunday the 29th, from 1:00 pm until 5:00. If someone is there and not quite finished, I will stay longer, cheering gently from across the table. good luck writing through that! From the blog post:

                     "Just come up from the Someyeon Subway station Exit 11. As you come up from the underground do not U-turn,

                        do not cross any streets : Just walk 2 doors straight around the curvy corner and you'll see..."

                       "Straight ahead the green red and black sign and there, on the ground floor Hyung-Cha !

                        There's lots of seats and a great place to meet! Best Wishes and Stay Steeped! --M.W.T."

Seoul has a Thank God It's Over event planned for December 5. I will not be traveling to it. So I think we need a local event. We started in Gwangalli, perhaps we should finish there as well. I'm thinking a coffee shop and maybe dinner in the area as we see fit. Provisionally, Dec 5 at 4:00pm at the same Starbucks we started at, the one at the west end of the beach, near Geumnyeonsan stn.

Brian

creativitiproject.blogspot.com

Bravery

It seems this video on Facebook can be linked to, but I don't see how to embed it here.  The woodcarver, Mudana, does his rough work with a hatchet, holding the chunk of wood near his feet.

The bravery in the title however does not refer to the proximity of the sharp, fast-moving ax-head and his feet, but in the confidence in his work.

As a novice carver, I take only the tiniest chunks and scrapings from my work, terrified not that I will lose an appendage, but that I will make a irreversible error and remove a piece I need.  Training has given Mudana confidence.

But, as a writer, I can be brave and type stuff I'm not sure works.  Typed errors are far less likely to remove a finger and are far easier to repair.

Time to be brave and pound out some words, and 50,000 more in November.

TWIC: hone your creativity, British Library photo offerings,

Manage your day to day routines to hone your creativity.

...there is something to be said for the value of a well-engineered daily routine to anchor the creative process. Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind (public library), edited by Behance’s 99U editor-in-chief Jocelyn Glei and featuring contributions from a twenty of today’s most celebrated thinkers and doers, delves into the secrets of this holy grail of creativity.

I have trouble typing and editing a quote within a quote so here is an image of it:

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From the British Library come a million public domain images.  I like this set of sad girls, without ever having made a meme image, I think these would do nicely.
A cropped and shrunk image of the sad girls:

My first attempt:

Yeah, I should read up and learn more before offering more meme photos.

Aspirations of becoming a classic

Not every Grant Snider drawing fits my interests, but many sure do.  He has a new drawing up, on my birthday, no less, that I love. Here is half and this half has been greatly shrunk so if you want to see it full size - and you should- follow the link!

Am I creative?

I recently gave a talk on creativity and how to encourage it in the classroom.  I'm not all that satisfied with the talk I gave; I think I tried to ....no, no point in weasel words.   I know I tried to fit in too much information and content into 45 minutes.  My biggest fault was first explaining how some research shows brainstorming doesn't increase the creation of new ideas, then spending time explaining how to brainstorm.

Ah, I've had a beer and didn't have lunch.  I hope I'm making sense.

The talk was satisfactory and one person in the audience had a lot of fun with my activities and really made me feel good about them.  Good work, dude whose name I never got.

Early in the talk, I stated that after ten years of studying and blogging about creativity, I didn't think I was creative.  I told the audience I would explain that at the end of my talk.

But the end of talk was rushed and I didn't explain it.

What I planned to discuss was my creative output; the total amount of creative work I have produced.  And I planned to say I hadn't made all that much.

In thinking it over, I believe I undersold myself.  Or, um, I would have undersold myself to the audience if I had explained the point.  Instead I left them curious and unsatisfied.

I have written two 'books' with Nanowrimo and have been working on a third.  None are close to being published.  I have ideas for three short stories.  The main points are fleshed out but have not been written.  I have two or three plans and even drawings for wood carvings but haven't touched my gouges and chisels in months.  I have plenty of ideas but I have a low production rate.

Is this true?

In the past two years, I have prepared 40 Google Slideshow presentations for the science camp I teach at, and at least a similar number of slideshows for my university students.  I lectured my son's classmates on my work at the Wye Marsh in Ontario,Canada and on water safety.  I have prepared and led many activities at Dongseo University's English Cafe...

Student needed to put these pictures in order and tell a  story.

I have created a lot of content but for work rather than for my own unfettered desire.  And yet, it has not been exclusively work.  I enjoy teaching and have managed to insert fun and games and joy into my classes.

I've created a lot of content.  I am creative.  I don't want to turn into Stuart Smalley for this post, but I do want to admit to myself that though my creative output has been less-publicized, it is still real and useful.

Summer plans - or their lack

I'm not sure what I'm doing this summer.  I normally work at an ESL camp for a few weeks and that option exists but I haven't seen  any local ones yet.

I love swimming and need to get some serious ocean time in. Beaches are okay but I need some rock to snorkel over and explore.  And I need to teach my son more swimming and some snorkeling as well.

In related news, my fitness goals and plans are just about perfect.  In late May, I reached an average of one run every two days.  That is, 75 (in fact, 78) runs in 150 days. I need to keep pushing to build a cushion for the rainy season and winter's cold.  Just last week, I added ten pushups and 15 situps a day with the plan of adding 5 to each every Sunday.  It's a modest start, but clearly will grow to significance then cripple my shoulders.

As for writing. I like Beth Moore's plans and need to adapt them to my own circumstances.

Follow the link to see the whole image.
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Ommwriter is promoted in this blog post, as are several other sites, apps and add-ons.  I am using Scrivener for my current project but my two Nanowrimo successes are partially due to Ommwriter's great product.

Another day, another poster, and Twitter Fiction Festival

At Google + and via Kevin Hodgson on Twitter, comes this poster of 40 ways to stay creative.

See the rest at the Google+ link.
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Also Via Kevin is this blogpost on seven surprising things about creativity.

6. Creativity isn't finite. I remember using the term "creative juices" and imagining that creativity was this finite set of "stuff" inside of me that I had to save up so that my creativity didn't dry up. Now I realize that it's not like that at all. It's more like a muscle that either grows or atrophies. 7. Creativity isn't always fun. I had this picture of creative work as something that is always enjoyable. Go look up creativity on Google images and you'll see pictures of kids with finger paint and color objects popping out of your head. What they don't include are those agonizing moments when you want to give up and you are convinced your story sucks or your painting is ruined or that dish you are trying to make will turn out awful. We say "embrace failure" but in the moment those mistakes suck. They are gut-wrenching. Creative work encompasses a range of emotions and "fun" is just one of them.---

If you have an idea and are ready now, you might be able to take part in the Twitter Fiction Festival.

The festival takes place May 11-15 and:
March 2nd is the start of the open call for submissions. Check back to submit your ideas for a chance to be a featured participant.

According to Boingboing on the subject:

Entries can involve everything from parody accounts and poetry to Vines and crowdsourced fiction, just so long as they're tweeted. Check out last year's top entries for inspiration, and then get inventive. "We love fiction that uses Twitter functionality in the most creative way possible," reads the festival's website. "That means perhaps something more than just tweeting out a narrative line-by-line."

I browsed through last year's entries and found a narrative just tweeted out line-by-line but also an interesting story of people trapped in an airport during a snowstorm.  The author. Chris Arnold, apparently set up a variety of accounts and retweeted their reports to keep it a coherent story.

emailed my book today and conserving energy

First, it was a textbook of sorts for a biology class I'll be teaching this summer.  The book came to sixteen pages including a lot of blanks for students to fill in.  Not a novel or extended work by any stretch.

About those blanks to fill in.  I don't exclusively mean blanks for the addition of one word here and there although such blanks are also there.  No, I left half pages, thirds of pages and even full blanks at the end for notes and diagrams.  This is following Jason Renshaw's example - he left more and more blanks in his texts that coworkers teased him that his next book would be the equivalent of Cages 4'22".

Anyway, it is done.

I am not done with teaching right now, though.  I have a summer class going until July 14, have a few days off then I'm to the camp where I'll use the above book.  I'm enjoying teaching a single class, even if the class is larger than I like. The class is first year, second semester English and my students are taking it for a variety of reasons.  Some had military service interrupt their classes, others might have failed it earlier and others are lightening their course load for the fall semester.  As for me, I am unable to travel far because of my wife and son's schedules so a few hours a day give me some structure.

And, I am testing out a few things for the next semester.  Socrative App is an interesting free app that lets me ask students questions they individually answer.  I'm mostly using it for anonymous evaluation - was I teaching for the last forty minutes or just talking?  Should I review or repeat material?

I am also having students perform an audio relay every other unit.  In the hallway, an MP3 player and battery-powered speakers repeat a few sentences.  In teams, students go out and listen to it, then run inside to record what they heard.  This links in with the speaking and listening exam I am also working on.
Before I go on about the test, I have to tell you about the prizes.  Before the game starts, I tell students that I lived in Yangyang Gun, South Korea and that region is famous for Song-i mushrooms that sell for 300,000won per kilogram (about $300/ kg) and that the prize is song-i.  All that is true.  However, the prize is not song-i mushrooms but choco-song-i, a candy pack that my son likes and cost under a dollar.

As for the exam, it consisted of two parts.  First, students listened to a description of a person while looking at a group of ten people, all with a letter beside them.  They choose the person and write down the letter.  Then they hear a dictation that uses sentences from the textbook - two sentences - and write it down.  In the second, less novel part, they answer questions I ask them.  What I like about the arrangement is that I can ask one student questions while another is also involved in the test, doubling my efficiency.  This is a big deal on a busy day where I might need to interview 50 students and stay alert for their oh-so-repetitive answers.

Nanowrimo has some kind of event in July that I have received emails for but haven't read.  I will not participate in Nano this summer but am trying to make July a big month for personal creativity.  I just finished writing a (tiny) book, will also write two short stories and add 10,000 words to The Distancing Engine - my 2013 Nanowrimo entry - and work on two carving projects.  Also, I will make my classes as memorable as possible.
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Writing a book doesn't take much energy.  Well, the act of raising and dropping fingers on the keyboard doesn't.

It turns out not to make a big difference which kind of writer you are. If you write straight through without editing, you'd expend about a kilojoule. With a lot of rewrites, you might expend several kilojoules—but you'd need to rewrite every word 10 times to match the energy stored in a single AA battery.

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Content v technology

When it comes to storytelling, where are design and technology taking us? “Whatever is next in storytelling, design, and technology, it will always be about rendering emotional transportation—capturing attention and converting it into intention,” says Hollywood producer Peter Guber, CEO of Mandalay Entertainment. “Every story has a call to action.”

Make Something Everyday.

Below is the start of a poster that I probably need  on my wall to remind me to get to work.  Follow this link to see the rest.

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Kids and creative writing.

Creative writing is part of being a kid. Writing and reading goofy stories of lost kingdoms and Mars colonies helps the imagination grow strong. But a recent study uncovers an interesting, perhaps even dismaying trend: this generation of kids seems to prefer narrative realism when they write.
In a study published earlier this year in Creativity Research Journal, researchers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the University of Washington asked the question, “How have the style, content and form of adolescents’ art-making and creative writing changed over the last 20 years?”
To answer that, researcher Emily Weinstein and her co-authors, including Katie Davis, co-author of The App Generation, examined two distinct eras of teenage self-expression for the traditional hallmarks of creativity (such as originality, complexity and sophistication). After analyzing 354 visual artworks and 50 fiction stories, from two separate time periods, 1990-1995 and 2006-2011, there’s good and bad news.
The good news? Adolescent visual proficiency has improved. The bad news: teen creativity and technical skill in writing has declined. Instead of imagining Martian neighborhoods, the App Generation has been describing their own summer plans.

I am a science fiction and fantasy fan and have been forever.  Despite that, in real life, I am fairly pragmatic.  I don't think my love for fantasy reading has caused an over-developed desire for the fantastical in my quotidian life.  Still, creative writing doesn't require centaurs and elves or spaceships and the like.  One can create realistic but still imaginary dialogues with others or imagine likely events in the future.

I do like the books mentioned as appropriate to kickstart a teen's creative writing.  One of the books recommended is Mary Shelley's The Last Man.  I have just downloaded it and will read it soon.
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Scientific American is one of my Feedly feeds and I am often interested in what they describe.  However, they tend to offer only short introductions with the expectation that you will buy the latest issue to learn more.  I used to do that, but living in South Korea has restricted my access.  If you want, here is a link to several articles on creativity - it is of limited value to me.

Clarion, attacking your story and SCIENCE!

The real science of creativity

The latest findings from the real neuroscience of creativity suggest that the right brain/left brain distinction is not the right one when it comes to understanding how creativity is implemented in the brain.* Creativity does not involve a single brain region or single side of the brain.Instead, the entire creative process– from preparation to incubation to illumination to verification– consists of many interacting cognitive processes and emotions. Depending on the stage of the creative process, and what you’re actually attempting to create, different brain regions are recruited to handle the task.

It's too bad that they show this beautiful image of left and right hemisphere just to tell you it is wrong:

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Attack your story so your readers won't.  Includes this bit inspiration:

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The Clarion writer's workshop starts soon (June 22).  Ah, a Clarion workshop starts soon; there seems to be three branches - two in the US and one in Australia.  Clarion is famous a great place for beginning science fiction and fantasy writers to learn their craft.  A writeathon to fund-raise.  A Wikipedia link which has links for the various branches.

Writers on a Train

My grandfather was a conductor and I've often wanted to be excited by train travel.  The closest I came was in India where I had great trips - the rail pass with its entry into the air conditioned cars was wonderful.

Otherwise, it is a utilitarian form of transport that is nowadays squeezing as much profit from comfort as  the infamous Ryan Air.  Well, I have only travelled by train recently in South Korea where no trip is long enough to require much in the way of amenities.

These writers had a better experience and one I now want to try (here and here). From the former link:

In a 2009 piece for The Millions, Emily St. John Mandel describes working on a novel during her morning commute on the New York City subway. “It felt like extra time,” she writes. “I began scrawling fragments of the third novel on folded-up wads of scrap paper, using a book as my desk.” Mandel polled around and found other writers used the subway as a workspace, too. Julie Klam: “Part of the reason I like it is because it has a very distinct end. It’s not like having six hours at home. I tend to have great bursts of inspiration that last about six stops.” Mark Snyder: “I think the act of working, surrounded by other people living their lives, can be quite a compelling act for yourself. It makes me feel less alone.”

Other people's creativiti

As a child, Judy Blume reviewed books that didn't exist. Apparently, she liked them all - she never gave a bad review.

The artwork of Glitch is available.

By giving up our ownership and any rights associated with all these designs, images, characters, drawings, animations, systems, and code, we hope more people will be more easily able to create new works with them. (The initial release was targeted towards developers; the hope is that they will repurpose the assets in ways that will lower the technical barriers so they can be enjoyed, appreciated, or re-used by more people.)
It doesn't matter to us if those new works are commercial or artistic or educational. It doesn't matter if the Glitch art is just the basis for inspiring something else or if it is reproduced exactly. It doesn't matter if we like the results or not. Anyone can use any of it for whatever purpose they want without any restrictions.

Meet the de-imaginator!  "Enemies of imagination, these shadowy figures are locked in an eternal struggle to stop the trafficking of mysterious contraband. Beware of their grabby little hands!"

And a giant!

I never reached this achievement while playing the game, but I'm sure my friends would all agree I embody this achievement.  Although my power is more to terrify others with my sneezing power.

I'm still carving and expect to see images soon.  I have to be done the carving and sanding by next Tuesday.

NaNoWriMo, hot donkeys and Lego-ized Blues Brothers

A friend was displaying this quote on Facebook and I took the trouble to find out more:

"She had an unnecessarily loud voice, a bit of a bray, like some enchanted, hot donkey."

It is apparently from Gone Girl and this website used it in describing how to write emotions and feelings.
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In the mall Chase Scene from the Blues Brothers. This link include the chase scene, a side-by-side comparison of the original and the Lego version and a 12 minute 'Making of-" video that looks like it will be useful for my son and I in our more-minor attempts at stop motion.
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My son has written a story:

*Cheetahs vs Leopards

It was a hot day in kenya. A cheetah named Albert spotted a impala.  He called Jacob, his assistant. Then the leopard named Carson spotted the impala. Now He called his assistant. Then they both chased the impala. They were just too noisy for the impala. King Albert blamed king Carson. King Carson blamed king Albert.

They got so tired of arguing that they fought for that delicious impala. Bryson, Carson's assistant clawed Phil the cheetah. Phil was really hurt. He had to stop the job. Everybody was sad. Carson called Tyson. Albert called Colin. They told Tyson and Colin, “Come help.”Colin arrived in a FLASH. Then colin did a 360 kick . He kicked Madelaine the leopard right in the stomach. Madelaine and Phil both needed to go to the hospital.

Albert just grabbed Bryson and threw Bryson in to Carson. Now Bryson threw Bob the cheetah in to Jacob but, Jacob escaped the throw. Bob landed on the ground really fast. It was a night a very quiet night.They were all sleeping except Albert. He was walking around his house trying to think about something. Next morning He told Carson we could share the impala. Carson thought that was a good idea. And they shared the impala.

See the next adventure that Albert does!

the end!

After I finished my InNoWriMo sory, my son wanted to attempt something smaller but still significant.  He chose the huge goal of three thousand words in a month. He made a hundred and five yesterday and finished his first story an hour ago.  He is still set on making 3000 words and is now at 220 in two days but has decided to make a book of several distinct adventures rather than one long story.  The lead character originally had his own name but I have changed it to 'Albert'.

He would love comments and has asked me to post his story so he can get responses.  A wonderfully naive boy, he believes his father is popular online.