Thoughts

Sort By: Views

Sort By...

Filters
Categories

Select Category

[+]    Site Information

[+]    Writing

[+]    Writing Elements

[+]    General

[+]    Ungrouped

  1. Musings on Fritz Leiber

    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 influences) for granted. "Fritz simply likes to write a lot of different kinds of things," he explains. "And if half of them are ahead of their time or behind their time or so far out in...
    By Xoic · Mar 5, 2024 · 2.5K · 134
    Categories:

  2. Everyday War

    Every day or so I have to fight against my own hatred. I was attacked and beaten at night in a park years ago, really, years, and years ago. I should be over it. Yet my hatred still remains. And I have violent thoughts of vengeance. I never reported the attack to the police, which was a major mistake. Not just for my own sake, but for the sake of others. So now here I am, deep in my own dark thoughts, where I do everything imaginable to the perpetrators. Such is vengeance. It is not...
    By Madman · Jul 31, 2022 · 2K · 2
    Categories:

  3. My Relationship with Nature

    Discovering Mary Oliver has brought some changes. I've always liked the Transcendentalist poets, but find their poetry sometimes difficult, and I feel very removed from them, since they lived in an earlier era, and were all long-dead when I first walked the earth. But Mary Oliver is a modern Transcendentalist, and also a powerful link to the earlier ones. She helps me understand their writing, their ideas, and their lives, and better connects me to them in ways I wouldn't be otherwise. She...
    By Xoic · Aug 15, 2023 · 1.1K · 30
    Categories:

  4. Man is like the grass that flourishes and is gone.

    I'm not much of a Biblical person, not because of animosity toward the Bible or the faith, but because of unfamiliarity. As a kid I only rarely attended Sunday school, and when I did I invariably got lost in any reference to a particular book of the Bible. Later I learned to understand and appreciate Christianity, but never really the Bible per se, especially the Old Testament. Anyway, the above words popped into my mind the other day, as I was rooting through long-sealed cardboard boxes...
    By GrahamLewis · May 15, 2022 · 1.1K · 4
    Categories:

  5. Visual Thinking

    I discovered Dr. Temple Grandin, who is an extremely visual thinker. She brings up some fascinating things in this video: I still haven't followed up on my earlier post about visual thinking, and I always intended to. This is getting me fired up about it again. I don't have the powerfully vivid imagery she seems to have, but I do get some visuals, and I can work with them in my mind, change them at will etc. I definitely do some of my thinking this way, probably especially when I'm drawing...
    By Xoic · Dec 31, 2022 · 971 · 12
    Categories:

  6. The Truth

    The difficulty with fiction is that it must be written as if it were true. This means the story must be believable when put up against what we already know. We create an imagined reality that must present as real. Some parts are easier to make real than others. Plot, check. Setting, check. For me, the hardest thing to make real are the characters. People are so darn complicated! Reality lies in consistency. I can’t have an ambitious Aries suddenly become a serene Taurus suddenly become an...
    By Louanne Learning · Oct 16, 2022 · 896 · 8
    Categories:

  7. The real meaning of magic

    I was plunged into this by a random statement made by Ian Crossland on the Tim Pool podcast. Ian is not the brightest bulb on the tree, and often says things that seem ridiculous to me, but this one took me up short and launched a new line of inquiry for me. He said something to the effect that Words were originally magic spells, that's why they're spelled Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and even somebody who says a lot of ridiculous things also spits a lot of truth. I know...
    By Xoic · Jan 13, 2023 · 790 · 10
    Categories:

  8. Can writing be a meditation?

    This idea has been on my mind for a while, just as idle speculation, but now I want to run a bit of an experiment. I know drawing and painting function as active mediations for me, at least at times. It happens when you fall into the flow state, when time seems to stand still or you forget all about it, forget to eat a meal or two becuase you're so absorbed in the creative work, and when you do bring the session to an end you realize a lot more time has gone by than you thought, and you...
    By Xoic · Oct 1, 2023 · 762 · 22
    Categories:

  9. River Rocks

    I have a secret addiction. I cannot pass by a jumble of river rocks -- those small stones gathered together and sold for landscaping purposes -- without glancing down at them and, at the risk of seeming odd to any passerby, picking up one or two that momentarily pique my interest. And I've found some intriguing ones: a small agate (not of commercial value), some fossiliferous limestone (seashells and the like that have accumulated and become incorporated into stone), a piece of...
    By GrahamLewis · May 11, 2022 · 740 · 3
    Categories:

  10. Determinism vs. Free Will

    At first glance, determinism makes a lot of scientific sense. Everything has a cause and an effect, right? All our choices are constrained by internal (biological) and external forces over which we have no control. Right? Max Plank made a strong argument when he wrote: How can the independence of human volition be harmonized with the fact that we are integral parts of a universe which is subject to the rigid order of nature’s laws? Geesh. How can you argue with that? We are balls in the...
    By Louanne Learning · Oct 7, 2022 · 722 · 3
    Categories:

  11. Consonance and Dissonance

    Consonance and dissonance are opposites. Dissonance is tension and clash. Dissonance is the person in the grocery store yelling at their kid. It’s not finding the words. It’s lying to yourself. It’s a bitter argument. It’s rudeness. It’s rage. It’s rationalizations. It’s believing impossible things. It’s not practicing what you preach. It’s road kill. It’s dying too young. Consonance is flow and rightness. Consonance is holding a newborn. It’s children having fun while playing. It’s giving...
    By Louanne Learning · Sep 11, 2022 · 692
    Categories:

  12. It's All Good

    My kid sister died about a month ago. I'm still processing it. I tried to capture it below, but I'm so close to it that I can't tell if it's worth reading, or it's TMI. I didn't want to post it in the workshop, because it's not meant as a project but as an effort to understand. I recently touched death, touched it when I held the icy-cold, blackened, hand of my dying kid sister and learned from her the art of dying right. Susan (not her real name) was diagnosed with cancer about four...
    By GrahamLewis · Oct 18, 2022 · 690 · 1
    Categories:

  13. Questions and Statements

    We are born asking questions. My mother likes to tell the story of newborn me being placed in her arms for the very first time. The memory is engraved in her heart and in her mind, such a strong impression it made. The little bundle I was looked her right in the eye, asking, “Well, you’ve got me now. What are you going to do with me?” And ever since, I have been asking, “What does this mean?” Where do questions come from? A need to know and understand. Curiosity, surely. Riddle me this,...
    By Louanne Learning · Jan 4, 2023 · 684 · 6
    Categories:

  14. Immortal Words

    We’ve discussed immortality in the Science thread, but it occurred to me today that we never touched upon the kind of immortality we as writers hope for—to live on in our words. It’s a nice thought, that what we create from our depths, from our blood, sweat and tears, will never die. We put who we are into our writing and the writing survives. In 23 BC the Roman poet Horace began the final poem in his Odes with these lines: I have finished a monument more lasting than bronze, more lofty...
    By Louanne Learning · Sep 5, 2022 · 677 · 1
    Categories:

  15. Random Thoughts on Want and Need

    Human motivation is created by wants and needs. Want and need both signal a deficit, but want is beyond need. Need is core, bones and meat. Want is extra, frills and lace. Frustrated wants bring on disappointment. Frustrated needs can harm body, mind and soul. You can live without what you want, but not without what you need. Wants and needs can feel the same in your body, a yearning that stretches to the limbs. What we want does not always equal what we need, although either can be...
    By Louanne Learning · Oct 12, 2022 · 664 · 3
    Categories:
Page 1 of 6
Loading...
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Accept Learn More...
    Dismiss Notice