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]
  • 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...
  • LocalScriptMan videos

    I already posted several of his videos on the topic of [U][URL='https://www.writingforums.org/blogs/character-web.66484/'][B]Character Web[/B][/URL][/U], 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. [CENTER][MEDIA=youtube]6sF0FBAR6yI[/MEDIA] [B][SIZE=5][COLOR=#b30000]What if Character Sheets weren't awful?[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [/CENTER] He says he used to talk about [I]theme[/I] (he sure did, it was all over his character web videos), but now he's moving away from that. It seems like he's working...
  • Clarity, Power, and Discovery in Writing

    [CENTER][MEDIA=youtube]IsQUT9xRYSg[/MEDIA] [/CENTER] 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 freewriting). I often start a writing session with some fun gibberish, silly rhymes, and anything that...
  • Horror Story Devices via Fritz Leiber

    First some links to several online articles about how to write horror: [LIST] [*][U][URL='https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/nwwf.aspx']Notes on Writing Weird Fiction[/URL][/U] by H. P. Lovecraft [*][U][URL='https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx']Supernatural Horror in Literature[/URL][/U] by H. P. Lovecraft [*][U][URL='https://medium.com/swlh/learning-to-write-horror-from-edgar-allan-poe-a20f2854c97e']Learning to Write Horror From Edgar Allan Poe[/URL][/U]...[/LIST]
  1. Musings on Fritz Leiber

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    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...
  2. Horror Story Devices via Fritz Leiber

  3. 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...
  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. 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...
  6. 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...
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  7. 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...
  8. 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...
  9. Beginnings...

    I've begun to write again... Let's see what happens.
  10. 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...
  11. What can be learned from Buffy?

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    When I first joined this message board, I had just finished watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the series, from beginning to end. I think it was the best show ever made, bar none. Despite some heavy contenders like Breaking Bad, or Jessica Jones—none of them have anything like the perfect mix of creativity, humor, and fun Buffy offers, along with intense drama, sometimes to the...
  12. 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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  13. Looking into the Creation of the MCU


    Don't be put off by the name of the channel (It Was a Sh*t Show)—this guy actually does a deep dive into the making of various movies, and he's extremely fair in his reporting. I think the name is mostly clickbait, though when you look deep enough, the making of most movies really is a shit show, even the ones that come out excellent. It's basically a miracle when Hollywood is able to make a good movie. He gives plenty of praise...
  14. Canning and food preserving

    I want to quickly put down some info, partly just to help me remember it and sort out some ideas. But it also might help people who are interested in getting started on this.

    [​IMG]...
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