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.

Comic book cartography and more

Comic book cartography.

Does this help with world-building?  It sure is fun.
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Susan Messing on Improv
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Uberflip, which appears to be a marketing company, offers 9 (proven) ways to unleash your creative genius.  The ways are shown on a slide show and one of them is to 'dim the lights'. Why?

Another 'way' is to use various apps.  They suggest:
Coda -crowdsourced app for creative writing: Review and app.
Oflow creativity techniques. Review
75 tools for creative thinking. Website.
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I thought I'd written about my friend Gordon Bazsali here before.  In 2013, he wrote a new song everyday and recorded the first take.  His far more ambitious undertaking was similar to my work in InNoWriMo - working on raw creativity but with little filtering.  I spoke to him on Thursday about our respective projects and we agreed on some details.  He had imagined spending a year making new musical ideas that he would mine for the following several years.  Instead, he hasn't looked back at it or referenced it much at all. Well, he told me that, then he told me that he chose sixteen songs, cleaned them up and put them up for sale, so he did find at least some of his work commercially valuable.

In turn, I told him that I had written 52,000 words but hadn't finished the story - that would probably require another 5-10,000 words, nor had I looked back at or revised any of it.  I still plan to, though.

From there, our conversation looked at whether I could be called a writer or another coworker's wife an artist.  I have written and the spouse has produced art but not recently.  The comparison to being a killer came up.  Kill one person and for life people call you a killer.

Anyway, some links for Gord.  A 2012 album, Google+ (on which he and I may be the only two people remaining), a Prezi and Youtube page.

I have old-man eyes, Should you knock, and more

i was alerted to this Tweet by Twitter - ah, the Tweet is by someone, but Twitter itself sent me an email about it.  I hope you can read it;  My Twitter-foo is lacking and I couldn't figure out how to enlarge the picture.  I finally used Chrome's zoom in feature and printed the screen twice, then matched the pieces together to get what I consider a readable image.

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Not to go all twitter-rage, but this is just sad, really. A limiting, fearful-of-the-imagination world view. http://t.co/ieHIWaO3aF
— Guy Gavriel Kay (@guygavrielkay) June 5, 2014

Kay is talking about Dawkins' disapproval of fairy tales (probably the same link at Kay provided).

Reading fairy stories to children is harmful because it instils a false belief in the supernatural from a young age, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has warned.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, Dawkins, a prominent atheist, said that it was ‘pernicious’ to teach children about facts that were ‘statistically improbable’ such as a frog turning into a prince.
He also claimed to have never believed in Santa Claus, knowing that the figure who turned up at his house at Christmas was his parent’s friend ‘Sam.’
Dawkins, who is professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University, is promoting his new memoir ‘An Appetite for Wonder’.

I am something of a Dawkins fan and not such a Kay fan but I agree with the latter in this case.  I love fantasy and fairy tale stories even while understanding they have little literal basis in reality.

Dawkins is also quoted:  "He added: "I grew up. I put away childish things.""

The quote doesn't do much for the story but it reminds me of a comic about parents who put away childish things -including their children.  This isn't it, but I can't find the one I want.
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Never work for free.

As a creative person (and everyone else, really), there are two… and only two… reasons why you should work for free:

1. It’s part of your online business plan. You’re providing free content in the hopes that your readers will visit your online store. (Webcomic method) Or that their clicks will be enough that the advertisers will give you a lot of cash. (YouTube/ Adsense method) So while you are providing free content, you are not working for free.

...You never, never, never, EVER do it for the exposure. Doing it “for the exposure” is the preferred method of flimflam artists and IP thieves for getting your work. I’d say denying these creeps should be the first priority but that’s just the cherry on the sundae. Also, the only exposure you get is as a chump who will work for free.

Lots of habitable planets and rules for writing science fiction

The people at planetplanet looked at how to maximize habitable area in our solar system's Goldilocks zone.  I first noted it on my creation/evolution blog but feel the image deserves to be repeated here.  The result is beautiful and just cries out for a story to be written as a wonderful example of worlds building.

With technology similar to what we now have, or even had available a few decades ago, these worlds could all be visited.  Could one planet colonize others?  Would the arrangement be recognized as artificial?  With 36 Earthlike worlds, would the author choose to have them all 'seeded' with life? Or perhaps they are a testbed to see how likely it is that life will arise unaided?  Would there be night as we know it?  All these glowing planets and moons would provide a lot of light.  How would tides work? Europa, a moon of Jupiter, might be heated by 'tidal flexing' - would some of these planets be too unstable for complex life?  What would you see looking up?

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Standout Books looks like an interesting place for writers, even for wannabe.  Margaret Atwood recently tweeted about their use of her novel The Handmaid's Tale as a way to explain 3 golden rules for science fiction writing.

The 3 golden rules of writing a science fiction book http://t.co/m5sE5z6ayw using the example of The Handmaid’s Tale by @MargaretAtwood
— standoutbooks (@standoutbooks) June 3, 2014

The article starts by pointing out that science fiction is not 'fantasy with robots'.  It needs to have actual science.
The first rule is "Know your thesis":

So what’s the point of your world? What are you talking about? Try and take the ‘science’ of sci-fi as an approach rather than a topic. Use your world as a case study, almost an experiment, which will prove your point to the reader.
Of course stories are more than one thing, but keeping your thesis central has many benefits when writing sci-fi. Knowing the point of your fictional world will stop inconsistencies. In 1984George Orwell provides detail after detail of the fascist state Oceania. Views on entertainment, dress, behavior and literature are scattered throughout, giving the reader the impression of a totally consistent world.

Everyone should read Orwell but I couldn't take a steady diet of his work.  I worry that sticking to a thesis would make your work oppressively allegorical or political.  Orwell's work is Important, but not all works can or should strive for that.  Michael Williamson was recently featured on a podcast celebrating the tenth anniversary of his book Freehold.  I enjoyed the story but only in spite of the Libertarian message.

On the other hand, Larry Niven's thesis in Ringworld -also mentioned in my evolution blog post - is "imagine some really big engineering" and has no obvious political message.  Perhaps part of the lesson is to 'remember your point and don't get too badly sidetracked'.

Again, Standout Books looks like a great resource for writers.  Have a look.

Extra details and a book review contest

I worked at a wildlife centre last year and Hallowe'en was a fairly big event for us.  First, Hallowe'en is always fun and second, that's around the last time of year that digging in the marsh can reliably be fun for kids.
Our Marsh Monster event had patrons being led through the marsh to various locations where volunteers and staff would tell part of a story.  In 2013, participants went to a mad scientist who told them about a strange illness affecting the inhabitants.  I was at the third station and before I had even learned what I would be or do, I announced that I would be a ninja.  The organizers humoured me and my frog part became a ninja-frog part.

I really think the extra dimension gave the frog character.  In addition to speaking gruffly, then smoothly then coughing and telling the visitors that I had had a human in my throat, I swung a wooden sword and displayed some of the moves I had learned in a Korean martial arts class.

The mad scientist also adopted the quirk of eating carrots while he spoke.  He was a little sick of them at the end, having eaten a full bag in the evening but his character was more memorable.

All this to explain why the image below is so wonderful. (from)

Other images at that link are similarly weird.

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Kottke and Boingboing both offer this tutorial on visual comedy.

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Write an essay/ review of some translated Korean literature and be eligible to win a prize! See here and on Facebook.

* Eligibility: Open to all foreigners residing in and outside of Korea

* How to Enter
1) Read the book :-)
2) Post your review in English on the book's Amazon page (Limited to 500 words)
3) Fill the application form on the LTI Korea's facebook page

* Prizes
1) Grand Prize (1 person): $500 Amazon.com Gift Card or equivalent
2) First Prize (3 persons): $100 Amazon.com Gift Card or equivalent(Each)
3) Second Prize (5 persons): $50 Amazon.com Gift Card or equivalent(Each)

I use the Canadian Amazon site.  The price is $2.17 as of the time of this post.

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.

Citations and links for Korea Around the World

UPDATE: For my ESL students, I have another blog.  At the English Cafe in my university, I prepare English content, including posters.  The poster series that went up today is titled "Korea around the world".  I thought that I had posted this content on the ESL blog instead of here.  One of the posters includes a QR Code that leads to this post so i cannot delete it until after the posters come down on Jun 5.  Oops.  Sorry if anyone was confused about this content.



Original:
The posters on display at the English Cafe from May 26 to June 5 contain images from these locations:
Korea around the world
1) Cars, Phones
https://www.hyundaiusa.com/
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/illinois-kia-dealer-highlights-value-of-redesigned-kia-forte-for-holiday-season-233443701.html
https://www.google.ca/search?newwindow=1&rlz=1C2CHFX_enCA525CA542&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=samsung+phones&oq=samsung+phones&gs_l=img.3..0l10.28229.30294.0.31048.14.9.0.5.5.0.146.1053.2j7.9.0....0...1c.1.43.img..2.12.802.P-42T8WumdA
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Samsung-Galaxy-Note-3-vs-LG-G2_id3465
2) Food
Choco Boy 초코송이
http://en.orionworld.ru/chocoboy_info.html

http://shilla-amsterdam.nl/contents/ko/p442_Choco_mushroom_snacks.html
http://nojoeschmo.com/2011/08/12/foodie-friday-the-kimchi-taco-truck/
“Kimchi, a part of Korean culture, isn’t too big in the United States. By mixing it with tacos, we’re bringing it to mainstream New York. I love introducing people to something they don’t know about.”

Who: Christian Manzo, 27
What: Part-time worker at the Kimchi Taco Truck, which serves up Korean barbecue-inspired tacos stuffed with marinated beef, braised pork, and chicken. The truck’s owners fused their Korean heritage with their Philadelphia roots, resulting in a Kim-Cheesesteak Sandwich. All kimchi is made in-house.
http://www.foodspotting.com/places/198721-kimchi-taco-truck-new-york

3) Athletes: Bak Chan-ho, Kim Yeo-na, Pak Se-ri, Bak Tae-hwan
http://www.4ckentucky.com/%E0%B8%9B%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%81-%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%8B-%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B5-pak-se-ri/britain-womens-open/
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1108/famous.false.starts/content.6.html
4) Korea Towns
http://www.citytripplanner.com/en/things-to-do_Toronto/Koreatown-1

http://sweetandtastytv.com/2013/05/23/k-town-la-food-entertainment-part-1/

5) Korean Karate
http://www.itochampionships.com/blackwood.html