Well I messed that last post up good style :sad:
How do I sort it out ?

My method has been to write the first lines, which usually just pop into my head, and then pull on that thread and see where it goes. Not much help as advice I guess.

I fixed it. It was just a missing square bracket.

Thanks Baden for everything.

No worries, Amity. And if you do come up with an article, run it by us. :up:

If ever an article runs by me, I will be sure to share. For sure :up:

Reviving the short story competition seems a good idea to me as long as admins are allowed to participate. :up: — Baden

So where can I find all the short stories and this competition ?

Well, we haven't revived it yet but I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for keeping me posted about any revival.
I had thought I might discover some decomposing compositions deep in an archival vault :mask:

If I found people that like books like me, that'd be awesome. Nothing against Harry Potter but I want more.

Blogging, with my lack of grammar and hard to follow logic, I think I'd embarrass myself more. Nothing is fixed though. I believe I need more life experience.

It's great to have a community of people. A lot of self-publishers too.



I think that's a good idea, to ask questions online. Have an archive of all your thoughts.

Rome wasn't built in a day. Need to do just 10 minutes a day...Right now I am reading The Laws of Human Nature. I guess it is a self-help book, but it's decent.

Is anyone familiar with the Trivium and Quadrivium and the learning process?

"Reading the Laws of Nature." I just finished that book.last month. I think I would have to buy it to get the best results from it. I didn't take many notes or get much from it. Its a solid book though.

I haven't picked up the Trivium or Quadrivium yet. So I've got nothing to say on those.

I just finished reading "Cosmosapiens." Its thesis is built on the Anthropic principle.I found it in the history section of my local library. Wonders never seize.

I'd see creative writing and academic writing as being different genres — Baden

Yes, so would I, but I would observe that both are creative. Too many people think creativity comes only with art, so Harry Potter requires creativity to write, but a technical manual on a piece of firmware does not. I disagree. :smile:

There's a danger of getting too caught up in semantics here, I guess. I suppose there's a certain amount of creativity involved in academic writing etc., but there are also a bunch of rules and conventions and practices (e.g. re sourcing) that mitigate, sometimes very specifically, against creativity whereas traditional creative writing has much less of that and is much more driven by the imagination. So, we're probably not really so much in disagreement as using terms in different ways (as another example, technical writing and academic writing, I'd see as distinct too).

Yes, the different sorts/styles of writing are different, and they comprise different combinations of things, as you say. But I spent 30 years writing firmware, so I know it to be highly creative. I also know that most people do not see the creativity in designing firmware. The same disbelief extends to technical writing. These people are mistaken. All creative projects are different, but creativity is all over the place, often where we least expect it. I think we should value it more, and recognise it for what it is, wherever it occurs.

Even science hides a kernel of artistic creativity at its core. :smile: [Where else could Quantum Theory have come from? It can't be deduced from the science that preceded it. It was created by a bunch of clever (and creative) scientists.]

Yes, well said. Creativity is not the sole domain of "imaginative literature". All writing is an act of creation, and in that sense, "creative".

I've always thought there's a great deal of overlap between thought experiments in philisophy and short stories. Every take on the trolley problem, for example, is a character waiting to happen. The biggest difference is that short stories are allowed, maybe even encouraged to spin out of control.

I find one of the most important skills in both thought experiements and story writing is not to automatically dismiss that which seems silly. If something seems silly, seize it, double down on it, until it's normalised. It's only one approach, or maybe even only one part of many potential approaches, but it can work. I mean nearly everything seems silly. Imagine woodpeckers don't exist, and someone approaches you with the concept:

I have this idea for a bird. It eats things that live in trees, but it's not patient enough to wait for them to come out, see, so it bangs its beak against the bark again and again and again, and very fast, too, and... What? No, it's not prone to concussions. So, anyway, that's how it makes holes in trees, and... Wait, where are you going?