Recent posts tagged creativity
2023
Me First (And The Gimme Gimmes)
If we are driven primarily to write for our own satisfaction, what does it means to say to keep the reader in mind?
The Implications Of The Images
Sometimes the inspiration I get from an image is indirect.
A Most Unexpectedly Productive Year, And A Change In The Viewing Equipment
I've crossed some kind of personal Rubicon in terms of how I come up with ideas and treat them.
Close One Door So Another Might Open
On the problem of audiences growing weary of stories that never actually end.
Telegram For The Reader
On "sending a message".
The Big "Shunga-Satori" Sign-Off
What I learned while writing my latest (and strangest) novel.
A Steak Sandwich Yesterday Isn't Competition For Meatloaf Today
Take any two projects that seem like they could be the same, and there's a good chance under the skin they're nothing alike.
Bookrocacy (Or How Sometimes You Just Wanna Write And Say The Heck With The Note-Taking)
I hate all the bookkeeping that goes with writing a story, but I know I can't avoid it.
A Truly New Something
"An original message is a unique and transformative perception of the conditions for our existence."
The Holographic Story Theory And Other Delusions
You never get the whole story in your head at once. Except maybe when you think you do.
Putting Tinsel On A Painting
Single images, strikingly chosen, make the best cover designs. More than that is tinsel on a painting.
On Writing As Folk Art
Those who create because they want to, the way they want to, are not children of lesser gods.
Profiles In Failure
On the anatomy of a discarded story.
2022
Mind's Eye Theater, 2022 Edition
Every time I see an artist whose work makes me tell myself, "There's a story there," I know I'm on the right track.
On Doing One's Homework
Especially when you want to write about your world, of which you've not seen very much yourself.
Happy Accidents
Commercial success for creative work is less about the work itself and more about its circumstances.
The Kessel Run Is A Unit Of ... Fun
How consistency, foolish or otherwise, can be the hobgoblin of small minds in SF&F.
Show, Don't Tell (A New Way To Get It Wrong)
"Just depict, don't also imagine" is a poor program for art.
Fronting And Faking
Too many times I've started a project only to shelve it because it was nothing but putting some attitude on display. And a bad attitude at that.
Imagine That
Over the course of my life I've emigrated from one kind of imagination to another -- from just "making things up" to seeing what we have in front of us in a new way.
Mystory, Repeating Itself
On examining what feels like the formula I've devised for most every book I write.
Workaholica: Read 'Em All
How I've unthinkingly made too many fun things into "research" or "creative work".
Pens Down!
"Getting lost in your knowledge management system is a fantastic way to avoid creating things."
End(game) Result
People see your results, not your efforts. By design.
Campbell's Folly
"The 'three-act structure' and the 'hero’s journey', are editing tools, not writing tools."
See other creativity posts for 2022
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