I continue to talk to people online and offline about machine learning and the current zeal for AI doing creative work and one of the writers, Chuck Wendig, who I linked to last month (and who, unsurprisingly, does not find AI-authored writing as a wave of the future to be surfed). One of his posts from last week drills down to one of the reasons I find the AI creativity craze so annoying: the fact…
I grew up reading Ray Bradbury stories and loved it when 13 of his short stories were adapted for radio (because, you know, I’m into that sort of thing). So, naturally, I’ve checked out some interviews and lectures where he talks about writing and his thoughts on it. This hour-long lecture comes from when Bradbury was around 80, so it should come as no surprise if your curmudgeon detector goes off. However, other videos can…
This one’s from 4 years ago, but pretty evergreen: persistent writer Margaret Atwood talks with a new generation of writers about her process and some key writing tips… and don’t forget to sit up straight.
It’s National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. Right now, friends and colleagues are busily trying to reach daily word counts that will total 50,000 words or more at the end of the month. I linked to a series of resources (articles, videos) about approaching NaNoWriMo and novel writing last month. My month is packed full of going through casting submissions for the first half and then script-writing on a certain space opera for…
NaNoWriMo is almost upon us, so I’ve been posting articles for what many writers call National Novel Prep Month. (I’m mainly going to hype my writing in an anthology this month… and also work on some scriptwriting). In this installment, Shannon Valenzuela goes into some actions you can take to make the most of your prep.
NaNoWriMo will be upon us next month, and so for a lot of people, October is National Novel Prep Month. (I’m mainly going to hype my writing in an anthology this month… and also work on some scriptwriting). But let’s say you haven’t written a novel before and were anxious about it and were wondering about what will work and what won’t work and what will work for you… Well, since I featured one Vlog…
Considering I shared some interviews of Rod Serling on writing earlier, what are the odds that I’d share an interview with Neil Gaiman after last week’s post? Pretty darn good. So here’s a good 100-minute interview with Tim Ferris from 2019 where Neil Gaiman goes into all sorts of things from his formative years to fountain pens to his writing process (and I have to say, I do like the change in format enforcing the…
After watching the Rod Serling video compilation back in July, I’ve gone down a modest Rod Serling rabbit hole looking for other videos and talks and interviews he’s given. As you might imagine, YouTube does provide. This nearly hour-long entry is essentially a long question-answer session from UCLA circa 1971. As with many of the other videos I’ve come across, many of his answers and references are very topical to 1971, so be warned that…
I was recently writing a short story that I purposely wanted to have a “Twilight Zone” feel for both the structure my overall understanding of how the story would unfold. I mean, I linked to it above, but the phrase “Twilight Zone” and its implications has permeated culture so thoroughly that, even without an impressive three follow-up series, I think it would still occupy a place in people’s minds. So, after finishing the story, I…
A couple posts I read this past weekend inspired me to update my “Writing” section, but before I get to that, here are the posts in questions. Ken Levine on the difference between amateur writers and pros. Ken Levine is, as one might expect of a veteran writer of shows like M*A*S*H and Cheers, pithy and to the point. I’ve heard both the anecdotes before, though I don’t think I knew the sources. Mark Evanier…