Nanowrimo 2011

Kirjankirjoituskuukausi on taas alkanut.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Writers No One Reads

http://writersnoonereads.tumblr.com/

Uncreative writing

For the past several years, I've taught a class at the University of Pennsylvania called "Uncreative Writing." In it, students are penalized for showing any shred of originality and creativity. Instead they are rewarded for plagiarism, identity theft, repurposing papers, patchwriting, sampling, plundering, and stealing. Not surprisingly, they thrive.

If all language can be transformed into poetry by merely reframing—an exciting possibility—then she who reframes words in the most charged and convincing way will be judged the best.

Even if, as Christian Bök claims, poetry in the future will be written by machines for other machines to read, there will be, for the foreseeable future, someone behind the curtain inventing those drones, so that even if literature is reducible to mere code—an intriguing idea—the smartest minds behind the machines will be considered our greatest authors.
http://chronicle.com/article/Uncreative-Writing/128908/

Iain M Banks: Science fiction is no place for dabblers

substitute the phrase "science fiction" for the word "detective", delete the 1930s murder-mystery novel clichés and insert some 30s science fiction clichés and I get the impression this scenario has indeed played out, and not just once but several times, and the agent/editor has – bizarrely – entirely shared the enthusiasm of their author, so that, a year or two later, yet another science fiction novel which isn't really a science fiction novel – but, like, sort of is at the same time? – hits the shelves, usually to decent and only slightly sniffy reviews (sometimes, to be fair, to quite excitable reviews) while, off-stage, barely heard, howls of laughter and derision issue from the science fiction community.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/13/iain-banks-science-fiction-genre

Uudet versiot kirjoista

Lulu.comin painatushinnat ovat alentuneet, joten oli sopiva aika tehdät uudet versiot vanhoista kirjoista. Sama sisältö, mutta tiukempi design ja halvempi hinta.

• Pyöreitä esineitä etsimässä 160 sivua, 7,95€
• Viihdettä Vierailijoille 312 sivua, 11,98€
• Kuoleman kuningas 222 sivua, 9,95€
• Elottomat kuvat 148 sivua, 6,95€

Alennukset muissakin teoksissa. Ja kaikki voi tietysti edelleen ladata myös ilmaiseksi.

That’s the torture of walking into a bookshop these days: it’s not that you think the books will all be terrible; it’s that you know they’ll all have a certain degree of competent workmanship, that most will have about three genuinely beautiful or interesting sentences and no really bad ones, that many will have at least one convincing, well-observed character, and that nearly all will be bound up in a story that you can’t bring yourself to care about. All that great writing, trapped in mediocre books! Who, indeed, has time to read them?
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n18/elif-batuman/get-a-real-degree

7 Easy Steps to a More Pretentious Poem

http://www.poewar.com/7-easy-steps-to-a-more-pretentious-poem/

Fifteen Ways to Write a Novel

http://maxbarry.com/2010/11/29/news.html

Making ideas harder to read may make them easier to retain

http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-ideas-harder-easier-retain.html

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language from Matthew Rogers on Vimeo.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Writer

to keep your integrity you must abandon all hope of financial security.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid:532408

Mitä olen kirjoittanut viime aikoina

Kirjaprojektissa on nyt reilut 200k sanaa (900 sivua). Edistyminen on ollut väliaikaisesti tauolla, koska inspiroiduin sen sijaan kirjoittamaan kesällä leffakäsiksen White Death (124 sivua), jossa Simo Häyhä muuttuu Kollaan metsissä vaeltavaksi Talvisodan Batmaniksi, sekä kokoamaan Pyöreitä esineitä etsimässä -sarjassa esiintyvän kuvitteellisen bändin laulukirjan Looks OK Out (80 sivua).

NaNoWriMo jälleen ensi kuussa. Jospa tuon tuhatsivuisen järkäleen saisi viimein puristettua kasaan.

"If you get bored with nothing to do, you are not a writer." : Guillermo del Toro's words to live by

"If you get bored with nothing to do, you are not a writer": Guillermo del Toro's words to live by

Interactive Fiction

Inform-fiction.org
TADS.org
Tips from interactive fiction authors (part 1)

Anti-Fantasy vs. Anti-Mystery

Examining Watanagashi-hen alone, when the culprit admits to the conclusion Rena comes up with in her deduction, that particular deduction is "complete". That means the deduction that marks "XX as the culprit" was "accurate at that moment in time". And then in Meakashi-hen, we are suddenly given a lot of new information that weren't present in Watanagashi-hen. So appropriately, the fact that "the true culprit is someone else" can be easily understood.
http://community.livejournal.com/witchhunters/5724.html

The Comic Book Script Archive

http://www.comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/

Broken Lines

BROKEN LINES is an independently produced illustrated/graphic novel in progress. It is a weird mixture of prose, sequential comic art, and like, charts 'n' footnotes 'n' sidebars, too.
http://www.broken-lines.com/

The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Animal%20Crossing/index.html

The Alot is Better Than You at Everything

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

I Write Like...

Tekstianalyysin tulos ei ollut erityisen yllättävä. http://iwl.me/

I write like
P. G. Wodehouse

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!