The Writing Reader
From the monthly archives: April 2012
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What does it mean for a civilization to be a million years old? We have had radio telescopes and spaceships for a few decades; our technical civilization is a few hundred years old … an advanced civilization millions of years old is as much beyond us as we are beyond a bushbaby or a macaque. -Carl Sagan
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem about a civilization that is millions of years old.
Journaling Prompt: Write about what you believe our world will be like in 50 years.
Art Prompt: Ancient civilization
Photo Credit: Pavel Sigarteu on Flickr
Send to KindleSend to KindleWelcome to the Carnival of Creativity for April 29, 2012. All links will open in a new tab or window, so feel free to click through and leave some love in the comments. Once you close that window, you’ll be right back here for more linky goodness.
The Creative Mindset
Phillip Gruneich presents The stuff that IDEAS are made of posted at Short of Stories.
wizard presents The Greatest Reality posted at Wizard Corpse, saying, “Your reality is technically what you perceive the world or more accurately the universe to be. But it is an important fact that that different perceptions of reality lead to different results and different inspirations of how one would live. Some live fully while some don’t. And it is also apparent that the same law of nature applies for you and me so now as a climax of our Reality Check Special, I will share with you one of the most vital (if not the most vital) guideline that will govern your life towards more meaning”
Resources/Tools
Jayme Gates presents Supersize Me: Supervolcanoes posted at Science in My Fiction. A nice general review of the science and mythology of volcanoes with links to additional resources.
Sharing Our Work
Marcy presents Tuk Tuk Hell, or Heaven posted at Too Timid, Too Squeamish.
Jennif3r presents A Prayer for Creative Flow: Healing Creative Blocks (Poetry) posted at Freedom from Ashes, saying, “This is a prayer/poem about Creativity, Spirituality, surrender and allowing our Creativity to flow through the healing of any blocks.”
Emi Bauer presents The Strange Case of Dr. Feingold and Mr. Mike posted at Confessions of an Icompetent Blogger
Eula McLeod presents It’s Gr-r-r-r-r-reat!! posted at View from the Winepress.
Liz presents You Pays Your Money and You Takes Your Chances posted at Liz Andra Shaw.
Writing Quote of the Week
When they give you lined paper, write the other way. – Ray Bradbury
Writing Tips and Prompts
Chrys Fey presents Find Writing Inspiration posted at Writing with Fey.
C.S. Lakin presents Creating “Moments” So You Don’t Bore Your Readers posted at Live, Write, Thrive
Creativity Boosts
JeanNicole Rivers presents Writing Frustration and A Creative Way to Push Through posted at JeanNicole Rivers, saying, “Getting over writing frustration.”
Podcasts
Larry Correia joins the Writing Excuses podcasters to discuss Guns and Fiction. If you’re talking guns in your writing, you’ll want to listen to this.
Visual Arts
Nicole Elena Robertson presents Nicole Elena Robertson: Paper Lantern posted at Nicole Elena Robertson, saying, “A recently produced papercut, responding to the prompt ‘play on words’.”
Creative People Paying it Forward
Pamela Jorrick presents Trashy Art- Washed Ashore posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.
The Business of Creativity
Daniela Baker presents 6 Skills Every Blogger Needs posted at Bloggers Passion, saying, “There are key ingredients in building a successful blog. You will need a set of skills like what’s listed on this article.”
Jon Rhodes presents How To Make Money From Your Hobbies posted at Affiliate Help!, saying, “This article gives hints and tips on how to make money from your hobbies.”
Spam of the Week
Exactly the facts we is in search associated with. Should really interrupt my personal costs quickly.
That’s all for this week. Be sure to submit your article for next week’s Carnival of Creativity by Friday at midnight!
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Create whatever this visual prompt inspires in you!
Photo by Ed Yourdon on Flickr.
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It’s a cold day in February, and Jenny’s sick again. -David Tallerman, Jenny’s Sick (free to read online at Lightspeed magazine)
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem about someone who is very ill.
Journaling Prompt: Write about an experience you had when you were sick.
Art Prompt: Ilness
Photo Credit: Small_Realm on Flickr
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beignet n. chiefly NORTH AMERICAN 1 a fritter. 2 a square of fried dough eaten hot sprinkled with icing sugar. French, from archaic buyne ‘hump, bump’.
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem using the word of the week.
Journaling Prompt: Write about your favorite sweet treat.
Art Prompt: Beignet
Photo Credit: vxla on Flickr
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Experts are saying that it is the stress that kills, but I think it’s a broken heart. -Kristine Katherine Rusch, Dunyon, Asimov’s July 2011
Writing Prompt: Write a poem, story, or scene about a character dying of a broken heart.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a time when your heart was broken.
Art Prompt: Broken heart
Photo Credit: kelsey_lovefusionphoto on Flickr
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Workplace incivility is commonplace and violates conventional workplace norms for mutual respect. It also displays a lack of regard for others. Although our first thoughts are likely to be for the victim of this ‘abuse’, it can also affect our own feelings as observers.Miner and Eischeid examined how observed workplace incivility towards female and male co-workers relates to four negative emotions – anger, demoralization, fear and anxiety – for both female and male observers. A total of 453 restaurant employees responded to an online survey examining the ‘quality of life in the restaurant industry’. Analyses showed that female observers reported significantly higher levels of anger, demoralization, fear and anxiety the more they observed other female employees being treated rudely and discourteously at work, in comparison to male employees.
Demoralization was the strongest negative emotion experienced by observing women.Similarly, male observers were significantly more angry, fearful and anxious the more they observed other men being treated uncivilly at work, compared to females. Interestingly, demoralization was not a negative emotion experienced by male observers in these situations.The authors conclude: “Our results paint a complex picture about the experience of specific negative emotions in response to observed incivility toward same gender co-workers. In some cases, women are more affected (demoralized) and in others, men are more affected (angry, fearful and anxious). In both cases, witnessing incivility towards same gender co-workers can have significant affective consequences for observers.” -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write a scene about an abusive incident in the workplace. Include the internal monologue of both male and female observers.
Journaling Prompt: How do you react when you see someone being treated rudely at work?
Art Prompt: Abuse at work
Photo Credit: Ryan Vaarsi on Flickr
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He liked to start sentences with, okay, so. It was a habit he had picked up from the engineers. He thought it made him sound smarter, thought it made him sound like them, those code geeks, standing by the coffee machine, talking faster than he could think, every word a term of art, every sentence packed with logic, or small insights or a joke. He liked to stand near them, pretending to stir sugar into his coffee, listening in on them as if they were speaking a different language. A language of knowing something, a language of being an expert at something. A language of being something more than an hourly unit. -Charles Yu, Standard Loneliness Package (free to read online at Lightspeed Magazine)
Writing Prompt: Spend some time listening to someone’s speech pattern. Write a poem, scene, or story using their speech pattern.
Journaling Prompt: How do you feel about the way that you speak? If you could change, how would you want to speak different?
Art Prompt: Speaking
Photo Credit: Sam Cockman on Flickr
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“Because social anxiety associated with the prospect of facing an embarrassing situation is such a common and powerful emotion in everyday life, we might think that we know ourselves well enough to predict our own behavior in such situations,” said Leaf Van Boven, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder. “But the ample experience most of us should have gained with predicting our own future behavior isn’t sufficient to overcome the empathy gap — our inability to anticipate the impact of emotional states we aren’t currently experiencing.”
The illusion of courage has practical consequences. “People frequently face potential embarrassing situations in everyday life, and the illusion of courage is likely to cause us to expose ourselves to risks that, when the moment of truth arrives, we wish we hadn’t taken,” said George Loewenstein, the Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Economics and Psychology within CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “Knowing that, we might choose to be more cautious, or we might use the illusion of courage to help us take risks we think are worth it, knowing full well that we are likely to regret the decision when the moment of truth arrives.” -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write a poem or character’s internal monologue about a situation that requires the illusion of courage.
Journaling Prompt: How do you react when you face a potentially embarrassing situation?
Art Prompt: Illusion of Courage
Photo Credit: TWINTHOMAS on Flickr
Send to KindleSend to KindleWelcome to the Carnival of Creativity for April 22, 2012. All links will open in a new tab or window, so feel free to click through and leave some love in the comments. Once you close that window, you’ll be right back here for more linky goodness.
The Creative Mindset
iman presents How to stay creative in a non-creative environment posted at LabellaIman, saying, “A few tips on staying creative in a non creative environment”
Resources/Tools
Chrys Fey presents Formatting Your Manuscript posted at Write with Fey.
Sharing Our Work
Tracy Fulks presents working out : eating bacon posted at tracyfulks, saying, “I know I’m not the only one…”
Eula McLeod presents That’s Entertainment posted at View from the Winepress. Guaranteed to make you laugh!
Sherril presentes Water Run posted at Today’s Visions.
Marcy presents 47 Years of Great Rock: You Say It’s Your Birthday at Too Timid, Too Squeamish. Don’t miss this one – put on your headphones and enjoy!
Liz Shaw presents Peter Watts, Feedbooks, and FictFact posted at Liz Andra Shaw.
Writing Quote of the Week
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them…if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. -Elmore Leonard
Writing Tips and Prompts
C.S. Lakin presents The Defining of a Scene posted at Live, Write, Thrive.
Creativity Boosts
Melanie Grant presents How to Journal: Create a Personal Profile posted at Mel’s Mouthful on Mothering, saying, “Creatively designing your journal creates a wonderful environment for you to express yourself”
Podcasts
The Writing Excuses podcast is continued from last week as the guys continue giving Mary feedback on her novel outline.
Visual Arts
Sarah presents Etsy Spring Amsterdam posted at Natsumi.
Daniela Baker presents 7 Landscape Film Photography Tips posted at Guide to Film Photography, saying, “For those who want to build a career in landscape photography, here are 7 tips that will give you stunning landscape photographs every time.”
The Business of Creativity
Chase Dumont presents How to Make an eBook (That Makes You Buckets of Money) posted at Chase Dumont, Rainmaker.
Spam of the Week
For many this might seem relevant ample that they may really work the knowledge. Even so, in spite of their quality, I doubt I get a new group as a whole. No less than learn about your responsibility and phoned the particular bell.|Several argue this point regarding look at yet there are not many that have taken a great doing work action plan along with the mindset capable of unfolding their subsequent proceed. I might state that prior to criticizing take the time and see in which the dude is arriving coming from.
That’s all for this week. Be sure to submit your article for next week’s Carnival of Creativity by Friday at midnight!
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I believe that the most important thing about writing is to HAVE FUN! You can worry about things like commas, point of view, tenses, etc., later. Right now, just start writing!
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