Topic: Writing

When I took a break from Critical Futures near the end of last year, I had intended to begin with the new year with renewed energy and vigor, but when the new year rolled around, I found myself somewhat lacking in vigor. So I’ve waited, and I kept waiting. And now, its the end of January, and I still haven’t restarted, and I think it’ll be good to talk for a moment about that.

A big part of this is the fact that holiday vacations (such as they are post school) are never quite as long as you ever expect them to be. So I didn’t get that massive fiction writing binge that I was expecting and hoping for. And I also didn’t get that website redesign binge that I was hoping for. Alas. So I’ve needed more time, if not to do things, then to let projects breath. So my one or two week vacation turned into a month or more.

Secondly, my “write more resolution” (such as it is) that I talked about in this post, is a practice that’s a little more than a week old at this point. that’s not a problem, but preparing content for posting when I’m not actively writing on a project very much feels draining. Also, I’m aware that my “supply” of fiction is going to run out, well. Sooner than I’ll be ready to resupply it, particularly since the novel I’m working on now, isn’t really a Critical Futures project. Well, it is, kind of.

So with that in mind, what lies in wait for Critical Futures?

Well…

Recently I’ve started working more on the ending to Station Keeping’s second “season” I’m not keeping a special eye on it, but I’m probably half way done with the second season (which is all new). That’s helped my morale a good deal. Also, I’m beginning to see some real progress on the new novel project (yay for being less stuck), which is a help. While it’s a long way off still, knowing that this is going to end up as a podcast (and that this podcast will be a part of Critical Futures) that’s been inspiring for my feelings of writerliness. Putting my “job” as a writer above my “job” as an editor/publisher was something that I really had to do in order to make it worthwhile.

So the plan? I’m going to post fiction less regularly. The pieces might be slightly longer (but probably not much). I’ll probably alternate Tuesday/Thursday weeks with Monday/Wednesday weeks. When the podcast starts, I’ll probably do a pod-cast episode and a piece of fiction a week. I’m not going to change the design of the site, much, but I think some tweaks are in order, and I need to add/update some of the static pages on the site.

If anyone has suggestions, quirky science fiction that they’d like to submit to Critical Futures, or wants to help out (with designs or the like), I’d love to hear from you.

Onward and Upward!

(Editor’s note: Despite the fact that I don’t particularly like this post, or find that its relavant, or think that its particularly well done, I need another entry to post for testing reasons so here goes nothing. Enjoy it, or not.)

For various reason I’ve been referred to as a geek, and I’d agree with this assessment most of the time: I’m really good with computers, I have lots of mobile technology equipment and experience, and I use technology to assist my productivity as much as possible. The odd thing is that in many senses I’m incredibly retro. The biggest testament to my retro hippness, is the fact that I do a lot of writing with a fountain pen on paper (mostly pre-writing and other short things when I’m out in the real world.) Being a fairly compulsive person, I like to keep things in some semblance of order and a number of various notebooks, and other collections of blank paper help me do this.

I’ve tried unlined sketch books (which would have been great had it not been book bound, thus disagreeing with my left-handedness and portability demands,) low grade wide ruled notebooks, high grade collage rule books, memo pads, tablets, and finally steno pads. My demands are fairly high. Spiral binding is required, I need to be able to fit a medium amount of stuff on a page and I need to be able to throw it into a bag with ease, the paper has to be smooth and absorbent so that it agrees with my pen(s), the notebook shouldn’t be that thick because I like to be able to fill up a notebook every so often so when there are about 5 million billion sheets I never feel like I’m accomplishing anything.

For a long time I’d been muddling through a notebook that wasn’t perfect but it did the job fairly well, and one day as I was walking through Wal-Mart looking for batteries or t-shirts I walked by the notebook isle and saw something that looked perfect: a baby-blue steno pad for 97 cents. I really should have thought of it sooner, but in any case I bought it and took it home. It worked perfectly and a few pages into it I started writing an entry about finally finding the perfect notebook. It was entitled The Perfect Notebook Bliss and in it I planned to celebrate finally finding a notebook that was as near to perfection as I could manage.

Then I went on a canoe trip. While my prized note book didn’t get nearly as wet as some of my other things, one bottom corner got wet and the ink bleed through a little. No big deal. I rescued some of the most badly disturbed pages and kept using it.

Only hours ago, I went for a longish walk and had a good time (sarcasm) while it rained and thundered on me for about an hour. I hoped that the combination of my bag, my speed, the distance and my ability to maneuver my way between the rain drops without an umbrella would protect me and my belongings from becoming drenched. It didn’t work and most of my stuff got a little wet. Thankfully it all dried out fairly quickly, but the thing about fountain pen ink is that it will run with abandon if it gets a little bit wet.

I’ve given up on that steno pad, it’s cursed, and the bottoms of the white sheets have dark bluish color and the lines have washed away. Thankfully I know now what the perfect notebook isÖalmost. For my next foray into the realm of blank paper, I’m looking for something that is spiral bound across the top, has medium to high quality paper, is fairly small both in height and length as well as depth, and if I can find one that is meant as a drawing or sketch pad (thus no lines), I may have finally found the perfect notebook. Bliss.

(**Editor’s Note:**Another short piece I wrote for school about my writing ability and the character of my writing strenghts and weeknesses. Here because we need content. Hopefully this will be over soon.)

I am a fiction writer who dabbles in nonfiction essays and articles; or maybe I am an article and essay writer who dabbles in fiction. In either case, it’s fairly clear that I am not a poet or a dramatist. It could be a lack of skill, experience, or talent. More likely, this pitfall in my ability is due to divine will rather than anything under my control. Some peopleóincluding meóare not capable of to write poetry or drama.

To say that I can’t write poetry isn’t to say that I’m physically or mentally incapable of writing in verse; however, I haven’t been able to amass any evidence that I am capable of writing poetry, and not for any lack of effort. Numerous times I’ve tried, and tried to write poetry, I’ve worked with a great deal of dedication without producing one poem that fills my definition of good poetry: a group of words that sends a message that is somehow larger than the words on the sheet of paper. I am somehow incapable of doing this.

Unlike poetry, my chances of ever writing drama are not quite as dire. With a great deal of time, effort, planning, and blood letting, it is conceivable that I could write and/or produce scripts that would at least equal the quality of my prose. Despite a familiarity with the form, I have yet to find success writing scripts with a satisfactory similarity to the picture in my mind’s eye. This isn’t to say that a work needs to end up exactly like the creator foresaw, but the work needs to maintain a certain continuity with the authors evolving vision.

Just because I haven’t been able to write a good script, and because I doubt I’ll ever be able to write a poem, I don’t hold any ill regard for either of these forms. In fact, good drama and poetry has a greater influence on my prose than the novels and short stories that I absorb. Quality poetry has the ability to express a message in the purest most beautiful form. Almost every good script, produced or not, can boil a plot into the most visual and descriptive form with minimum use of adjectives and adverbs. The lessons learned in story telling from drama, and the lessons about language learned through poetry transfers nicely into other forms, such as the fiction and non-fiction prose I write. I can only hope that some of this genius is rubbing off on me.

Note: This was originally written as a free-form test entry for Quarto (Domesticat: The CMS); I liked it so much you’re now reading it here on TealArt

Also: Amy asked for test entries, so I started typing and 300 some words and a bit of editing later created this entry. Now that I’ve read over it, I think that I’m going to post it over on TealArt too.

There are two kinds of good books: books that say interesting things and books that say things in an interesting way.

I read tons of fairly bad science fiction books because I’m interested in the characters or what the author has to say. A lot of really great authors just say interesting things. I love reading interesting things that provoke thought, in many ways that is what TealArt is about. These kinds of books have influenced my development as a writer such as it isóand have a definite impact on the kind of person I am.

On the other hand, there are books on various subjectsómost of which I could care less aboutóthat say things interestingly. Barbra Kingsolver and Anne Lamott spring instantly to mind as authors who can take a subject that I don’t have much interest or care for, and tell a story about it in a way that is simply amazing. Language is an amazing art form that I don’t think receives the kind of attention it disserves. I’m not talking about story telling, or persuasion. I don’t mean to say that the ability of an author to make a point using language is all that amazing. Most people, given enough time, editing, and training can write good enjoyable books, stories, and other enjoyable compilations of words; but it takes some strange kind of genius to put language together in ways that have the power to affect people in profound and extraordinary ways.

In the right hands, language is capable of being witty, honest, reverent, insightful, irreverent, revealing, and comforting all in a paragraph or less; and that is only the tip of the iceberg. My hope is that I can be all of those things over the course of a single or even a career.