Blogs

  • Musings on Fritz Leiber

    [CENTER][IMG]https://i.postimg.cc/mZSvK4BL/Lieber-Montage.png[/IMG][/CENTER] Here's a rather massive paragraph from the beginning of the book [B]Witches of the Mind[/B] by [B][I]Bruce Byfield[/I][/B], a critical assessment of the overall literary achievements of [B][I]Fritz Leiber[/I][/B]: [INDENT]"In [B]Fritz Leiber and Eyes[/B], the best effort to define an approach so far, [B][I]Justin Leiber[/I][/B] [COLOR=#0059b3](Fritz's son)[/COLOR] takes this diversity [COLOR=#0059b3](of his influences)[/COLOR] for granted. "Fritz simply likes to write a lot of different kinds of things," he...[/INDENT]
  • Writing From Life Experience

    Often when people hear you should write from your own life experience, they think of it on a very surface level—like if you played a lot of football you should write about football. In one sense this is what it means, or rather it's one aspect of it, but there's a much deeper, broader, and more universal aspect that this understanding misses. [I]This[/I] is the aspect I want to write about—not the external things you've done (play some sport, live in a particular region or neighborhood, work on a ranch, or wrangle poisonous snakes for instance), but your [I]inner[/I] experiences.Those are...
  • A way to explain the Dunning Kruger effect

    Put simply, [B]the Dunning Kruger effect[/B] says: [INDENT][SIZE=6][COLOR=#ff8000][B]Beginners are unable to see that their work isn't as good as the work of more skilled artists[/B]. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/INDENT] First to dispell a very common misunderstanding—it doesn't mean they're stupid. It just means they haven't learned certain things yet. I first ran up against this in drawing, and I think using some visual aids can help get the principle across clearly. One of the ways I've heard it put best is by drawing instructor [B][I]Robert Beverly Hale[/I][/B] in one of his excellent figure...
  • Getting all Emotional

    Almost a year ago I made this post: [LIST] [*][U][URL='https://www.writingforums.org/blogs/a-few-really-good-articles-on-deep-close-pov.66490/'][B]A few really good articles on Deep/Close POV[/B][/URL][/U] [/LIST] A recent post on the [I]First Three Sentences[/I] thread made me look back into it, and I read through some of the articles again. My opinion of deep POV changed several times as I learned about it, but eventually I realized it's one of those things that can be good or bad depending on how it's handled (isn't that everything related to writing?). From the second link I discovered...
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  • Military Youth Camp Days

    When I was a teenager I attended a week long military youth camp. There I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I sucked at guiding an airplane bomb run. (I bombed the wrong city. In theory, not practice.) I got to shoot a .22 long. A cartridge got stuck in the loading mechanism, I thought something was wrong so I raised my hand and the instructor came. He just used force to guide the cartridge into where it was supposed to be. I thought the damn thing would explode in my face if I used force. I hit all targets pretty well that day. (Now my eyesight is poor and the result would have...
  1. Word Of The Day

    Today's word of the day is ZEN.

    I refound my Zen today. I didn't even know I lost it. I was mowing the lawn, giving it a scalp cut, 1st cut of the spring. This is where you cut it at the mower's lowest setting, trim off all the dead so it can grow back green for the spring. I was transfixed atop the riding mower doing a repetitive task, the drone of the engine, gentle breeze in my hair. I'm back in the groove again. A calm & peace came over me, & I was reminded of when I worked as...
  2. Temporary Blindness -True Tales

    SoberDate 8041

    A couple nights ago a series of thunderstorms rolled thru our area at nighttime. Around 11pm I got up for a late night snack from the fridge (a cheese stick) when the power went out. I ate my cheese and went back to bed.

    Around midnight, my wife awoke to use the bathroom and the 1st thing she noticed was it was pitch black, no light from the clock, no nightlight from the bathroom, no light outside from the streetlight. Nothing, just total inky blackness. Now mind you,...
  3. Horror Story Devices via Fritz Leiber

  4. Clarity, Power, and Discovery in Writing


    This is actually stuff I've known and been doing (and promoting in here) for a long time. I usually talk about it in relation to journaling and what I call 'writing about a story before you write the story.' In each case they're ways of exploring, structuring, and developing your thoughts about a subject. You can also do that in freewriting if you keep it to a subject and don't just slap down pure gibberish (which is an extreme form of...
  5. Musings on Fritz Leiber

    [​IMG]

    Here's a rather massive paragraph from the beginning of the book Witches of the Mind by Bruce Byfield, a critical assessment of the overall literary achievements of Fritz Leiber:

    "In Fritz Leiber and Eyes, the best effort to define an approach so far, Justin Leiber (Fritz's son) takes this diversity (of his...
  6. LocalScriptMan videos

    I already posted several of his videos on the topic of Character Web, but he frequently puts out great videos I want to collect where I can quickly find them. So here's a place to do that, no particular topic.


    What if Character Sheets weren't awful?
    He says he used to talk about theme (he sure did, it...
  7. A way to explain the Dunning Kruger effect

    Put simply, the Dunning Kruger effect says:

    Beginners are unable to see that their work isn't as good as the work of more skilled artists.
    First to dispell a very common misunderstanding—it doesn't mean they're stupid. It just means they haven't learned certain things yet.

    I first ran up against this in drawing, and I think using some visual aids can help get the principle across clearly. One of the ways I've heard it...
  8. Writing From Life Experience

    Often when people hear you should write from your own life experience, they think of it on a very surface level—like if you played a lot of football you should write about football. In one sense this is what it means, or rather it's one aspect of it, but there's a much deeper, broader, and more universal aspect that this understanding misses. This is the aspect I want to write about—not the external things you've done (play some sport, live in a particular region or neighborhood, work...
  9. Beginnings...

    I've begun to write again... Let's see what happens.
  10. The Wagon

    When I was around 12 years old we lived at the far edge of a large city, where the houses on land lately-wrested from farms being pushed aside by housing developments. Across the street from our house was a cornfield still being farmed, and beyond those some rolling hills used for grazing cattle. Those cattle were owned by a nearby convent, where the nuns had made a living by leasing the land out. I'm not Catholic and never knew much about the place, but it had been there for years and...
  11. Getting all Emotional

    Almost a year ago I made this post:
    A recent post on the First Three Sentences thread made me look back into it, and I read through some of the articles again. My opinion of deep POV changed several times as I learned about it, but eventually I realized it's one of those things that can be good or bad...
    Tags:
  12. Military Youth Camp Days

    When I was a teenager I attended a week long military youth camp. There I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I sucked at guiding an airplane bomb run. (I bombed the wrong city. In theory, not practice.) I got to shoot a .22 long. A cartridge got stuck in the loading mechanism, I thought something was wrong so I raised my hand and the instructor came. He just used force to guide the cartridge into where it was supposed to be. I thought the damn thing would explode in my face if I used...
  13. Been a while

    It's been a while, since I posted here. My boss has been a slave driver of late, which is an odd statement since I am my own boss. My trilogy is on the back burner for now. Book 1 has a word count that is acceptable, Book2 is still a bit shy of acceptable, and Book 3 needs a lot of work to be done. But I ran out of gas with the project, and my work schedule, so let it sit for a bit and let myself recharge for that project.

    I have started a new project that is coming along nicely. I tossed...
  14. 101 alternative uses for a lightsaber - #4

    Deadheading geraniums, petunias and rhododendrons. .
  15. If a flamingo gets in your yard

    If a flamingo gets in your yard

    If a flamingo gets in your yard, don’t shoo it away. There’s no need to fear. Cautiously approach, and take some time to really notice it. Pink is a comforting colour, after all. There’s an elegance in their long necks and long legs. Appreciate how it is formed. If there are two flamingos, even better. When the two of them get together, beak to beak, and breast and breast, they make a heart, and we all know what that means.

    If a flamingo gets in your...
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