The seven bad storytelling habits we learned from from superhero comics. (Grokked from Tor.com)
How to get permission to use song lyrics in your book. Noted here for future reference. In the current WIP I use lyrics from RY Harburg and Freddie Mercury and a lot of people in-between.
The seven deadly writing sins. The article links to other articles near the end where they list the sins.
Kameron Hurley expounds on the survivorship bias.
Working out the psychology of our characters.
"Fairy tales are, as Ellen says, maps through the woods, trails of stones to mark the path, marks carved into trees to let us know that other women and men have been this way before."
"Your insistence that your’e being bullied by Nazis trivializes the actual bullying, death threats, and sexual threats people get in this industry simply for asking to be treated like human beings." Kameron Hurley on the SFWA brouhaha. What she said.
The problem when your caught out being an idiot and decide the best option is to continue to dig your hole faster is someone will probably call you on it. The ongoing brouhaha over the Resnick/Malzberg Dialogues. Apparently they believe the criticism of their sexism is coming from anonymous quarters. Well, Jim Hines names names which weren't all that hard to find because they weren't hiding. When digging a hole you have two options, dig deeper and faster or stop digging. Since Resnick and Malzberg have decided to keep digging, they might want to use a shovel. And while I haven't really been looking at the whole scope of the argument, I believe it's quickly coming down to the phrase, "Stop feeding the trolls." Apparently they want to dig to China. They're deep enough already.
How writing affects your brain, an infographic. (Grokked from Karl Schroeder)
While researching to write the Other, don't ask questions like this. That's from the NPR segment "Code Switch." What's sad is I've been with friends when they've been asked questions like that. Also was with one of the very few black people in town when President Obama won his first term and a white person congratulated them on "their win." (Grokked from Jay Lake)
You know how the Keystone Pipeline supporters warned that if we didn't build the pipeline, Canada would just sell their oil to China? Well, apparently they were planning to do that all along anyway. Why? Because oil is sold on the world market. But here's the twist, British Columbia rejected the proposed pipeline plans citing a lack of disaster planning. So, to sum up, Alberta was always planning to sell their oil anywhere they could, and they can't even convince their Canadian neighbors that their pipeline plans are a good idea.
"'What good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?' CEO Rex Tillerson said at the oil giant’s (EXXON) annual meeting Wednesday." And we have a winner, folks. Really, this person is a very highly paid CEO (as in, he probably makes more in a month than you'll see in an entire lifetime). This is the high quality people we're told that corporations need to pay those high salaries to attract and retain. And while I'm making the moral case here (seriously, what kind of asshat says something like that), there's also the complete lack of logic in that statement. I wonder if his epitaph will read, "Sorry we fucked up the planet so you can't live there anymore, but, hey, wasn't that a great road trip?" Or, if the planet isn't "saved", humanity will suffer (and likely die out). Seriously, what fucktard board of directors keeps an idiot like this in the CEO position? I wouldn't trust him to push a broom around competently. And the answer is, a board of directors just as stupid and only focused on the money going into their accounts. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Sure, you've probably heard about the "makers culture" (the advent of cheaper 3D printers, not the conservative libertarian world view), but what about the "bakers culture." NASA helps fund a food printer.
Erik on the facile marketing of this summer's big SF movies. It's like marketing execs are playing key word bingo without understand the context. You know, like they always do. In some cases I see the ad execs or designers laughing up their sleeves (like using Mozart's Final Requiem for a Microsoft commercial), but I think they've looked at Mad Men and decided to start drinking at the office again.
"The researchers have found that the offspring may be benefiting from epigenetic inheritance, in which the parent's (gastric bypass) surgery influences how the DNA they inherit is interpreted by their cells." The world is stranger than we think. It also tends to be more integrated than we think. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Fred Clark with more on Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN). This time from a Biblical point of view, since Rep. Fincher decided to use the Bible to justify his being a jackwagon by simultaneously cutting SNAP (food for kids) while increasing farm subsidies which he profited from to the tune of $3.48 million since 1999. Tell me again how the conservatives are the party of "morality", 'cause that joke just never gets old.
"But I wonder whether even Republicans really believe that story — or at least are confident enough in their diagnosis to justify policies that more or less literally take food from the mouths of hungry children. As I said, there are times when cynicism just doesn’t cut it; this is a time to get really, really angry." Paul Krugman on why cutting SNAP and other programs is just bad morality, bad policy, and bad for our country. Want to end so much SNAP and other program spending? Here's one thing, support raising the minimum wage. And gee, the same party that's pushing cutting SNAP is also the same party that wants to get rid of the minimum wage. If you haven't put two and two together, they want to "end the taker culture" and replace it with one of wage slaves. And in case you also don't get it, unless you're in the top 10%, you'll be the wage slave. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
"In other words, grocery shops, butcher shops, pharmacies, you name it, they have placed large photographs in the windows that if you were driving past and glanced out the window, it would look as if this was a thriving business. It’s an attempt really by the local authority to make the place look as positive as possible for the visiting G8 leaders and their entourages…" Well, if you don't have a a good economy and you're hosting the G8, you fake it to look like you do have one. That way the leadership doesn't need to be bothered with the truth of the matter and the consequences of their policies. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Now that Michelle Bachmann is out (and yea, I'm sure it has nothing to do with the several investigations that are ongoing or her barely squeaking out the last election, yea, nothing like that) apparently Ted Cruz is in. The conservative Tea Party, the whackaloon gift that keeps giving. I'm sure "opportunity conservatism" (or as the rest of us call it, "parasitic economic opportunism") will be big. In Japan or something. And let us not forget that Ted Cruz thought he could be president (hint, he's Canadian). Aren't there any non-whackaloon leaders of the conservatives or Tea Party out there? It's a rhetorical question, no need to answer.
"'I’m so used to liberals telling conservatives that they’re anti-science. But liberals who defend this (40% of households with children have women who are the primary bread winners) and say it is not a bad thing are very anti-science. When you look at biology — when you look at the natural world — the roles of a male and a female in society and in other animals, the male typically is the dominant role. The female, it’s not antithesis, or it’s not competing, it’s a complimentary role.'" The gift that keeps on giving. That's Erik Erickson, editor-in-chief of RedState. Someone nominate this asshole for the "Hasn't Been Awake Since the 70s" Award.
"He comes off like a liberal's caricature of what conservative men think." Eight responses to Erik Erickson's brain fart of a comment and ideology. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Jay Lake shares the blogroll he uses to generate links. In which my own contribution is listed. I'm honored.
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