Linda Maye Adams's Blog, page 35

Fun Bunny off to see the water!

This was a spontaneous bit of fun I did when I went to the farmer’s market in Old Town, Alexandria. It’s right near the waterfront, so I wandered down.

It was about 7:30 in the morning and the sun was just coming up. I got this shot of the Potomac River.

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I like visiting this area because it’s a mix of both history and the new. This used be a major shipping port in the 1700s. George Washington stopped here on his way from Mount Vernon to Washington, DC.

It was at least several days to travel. Now it takes probably 20-30 minutes, depending on the traffic.

Just up the street is a tavern where people stayed. The tavern made me realize that in many fantasy novels, the writers don’t really have a sense of what the size of one of these places are. It’s pretty small, and you shared rooms with other travelers.

George Washington’s townhouse (a replica) is a few blocks away. There’s also an actual cobblestone street. Very hard to walk on.

I actually like the feel of this area so much I’ve used it as a setting in several stories:

Nothing Town, Ambush CargoTidying Magic, which is coming out in an upcoming pirate anthology. Ghosts, pirates, and tidying. That’s the Writing Nerd!

Circling back to the farmer’s market, I came across this oddity:

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It looks like the city was restoring the base, but seeing the statue suspended like that was very odd, to say the least!

Does the internet make for checklist learning?

If I want to look up any topic on how to write fiction, I can search online and find pages of material.

Most of it will be probably about 500 words.

Some will be insightful.

Some will be downright wrong.

Writing fiction isn’t the only topic I can do this on. It’s everywhere. Food, health, time management…take your pick.

But can we actually learn something from 500 word sprints?

But is it really learning or just repetition?

Maybe not.

What is learning then?

At its core, learning is understanding the topic and being able to make unexpected connections.

Can that realistically be done off a 500 word bulleted list? How do you even process the information when it’s just a list, made for scanning?

There’s no depth to the information.

I’ve made the rounds on writing sites in the past, searching for better explanations of some craft techniques. Instead, I got posts that felt more like the topic was being reduced to a checklist.

This ends up feeling deceptive. It makes it feel like all you need to do is check off ten items and somehow you’ll have a best seller.

Not that you run into a skill area where it takes forever to get through. Or another that keeps you coming back to explore it more.

(Writing Nerd took two years to learn the skill of setting.)

That’s where all this effort at being the shiniest does us a disservice.

Writing Nerd’s deep learning

I’m in the process of working on a big skill area. It’s a fairly large topic that’s usually lumped into one chapter in a craft book.

A blog post? Phht! If a chapter in a craft book isn’t sufficient, a blog post certainly isn’t.

But I found a book on this topic. I started out by reading the whole book, just get a good feel for it.

Then I wandered back into some skill areas that had caught my eye. Reread those several times trying to understand them better. Discussed them at my writing group for different perspectives.

Tried some of those skills on a halfway mark cycling in the story.

Went back and forth between the book and the story because the skills have been a challenge.

And I know there are people would just skip this because it takes too much time.

But sometimes you have to spend the time. This is the kind of learning that sticks and improves the skills.

Checklist learning? Phht..

Rumbling and grumbling about everything being wrong

Today it seems like everyone’s got a laser focus on everything that’s wrong, as if we can’t do anything right.

Not hard to see that playing in the newspapers.

So I always have to put on my Critical Thinking Cat and ask what reasons they might have focusing that direction. Like selling papers. Getting clicks.

For us, as human beings, it’s worse because we start seeing the world as everything being wrong and there is no hope.

The problem is none of it true.

It’s easy to find fault

Sliding into the fiction writing side here since it’s much less of a lighting rod than any topics that occurred to you.

When I first got online, I found all these message boards with other writers. I could learn!

So we all posted portions of our stories for critique. We were all like a bunch of puppies tumbling over each other trying to get the food bowl at the same time.

We didn’t know much of anything about writing, but we could nitpick about the sentences.

You know, like an English teacher grading a paper.

It looked like the way to learn to write, so I took this to books I was reading. I think every writer does this.

All books are terrible

Suddenly I was really depressed about writing. It just seemed like no one was writing the good books like I was reading when I grew up.

It was very discouraging.

One day at work, someone dumped their old collection of Nick Carter books on the break tables.

Ah ha!

I snatched those up, intending to prove my point that books had gone downhill.

News flash!

They’d gotten better.

It was my thinking that was the problem.

I was finding so much fault that I wasn’t see what was good. Critical Thinking Cat had overbalanced into Critical Cat.

So I decided on my next book, I was going to read and enjoy it. Turned out it was a runaway best sellers that writers loathe.

“Why is this a best seller?” they cried. “Looks at all the flaws!”

The grammar wasn’t perfect. Why was that comma there? It didn’t belong there! The sentences….they’re horrible. What was he thinking?

(No citation. I just made this up)

Which led them down a darker path.

The readers were stupid for not seeing how flawed it was.

The anger because they weren’t seeing the “obvious” flaws.

Finding Fault Leads to Arrogance

Writing Nerd wandering in because the post went in a surprising direction. I didn’t know this until I wrote it.

Arrogance–and pride really–pops up when we get so cocooned into seeing the individual twigs on the tree that we can’t even see there is a tree, much less a lush, green forest.

The internet hasn’t helped because it makes it impossible to control the flow of all this information.

Instead, everything gets repeated until the point it looks like fact–and isn’t.

Things are seldom black and white.

Additional Reading



The Seven Deadly Sins – Turns out there’s a good reason these existed!How to Calm Your Critical Mind – This brings up one of the reasons mindfulness has taken hold.The First Rule of Programming: It’s Always Your Fault – Yeah, it’s on computer programming, but it hits some of the points I made.

Too much blaming and not gaining

I cringe every time I see an article about eliminating straws.

It’s symptomatic of our society pushing the blame on the person who has no control over the situation.

Not just straws, but other things like diet and exercise.

I think it’s partially because of the rush of information. All anyone can do is check the box.

But it hides the reality.

What is the reality?

I’m going to pick on plastic because it’s easy to pick on.

Everyone focuses on eliminating plastic straws because it’s a small simple thing they can do. It feels important.

Well…

Critical Thinking Cat is giving that the evil eye.

I subscribe two newspapers. Every day they arrive, each wrapped in a plastic bag.

I buy ergonomic friendly dishwasher detergent pods. They come in a cardboard box, and each pod is wrapped in plastic.

I buy organic chia seeds. Plastic bag.

I buy organic raw almond butter. Plastic jar.

But we get lectured on not recycling enough. Really?!!

Critical thinking is much needed

This is where we all need our inner Critical Thinking Cat.

[image error]Critical Thinking Cat. Photo from ClipArt.com

Too much information is flowing past us. We all need to question it and keep questioning it.

Critical thinking is asking:

What’s the other side of this?What are they selling me?What are they getting out of it? (which is sometimes, continuing to do what they want.)

There are always people who want to take advantage of that. Always.

Keep your Critical Thinking Cat well fed.

24 hour everything–can I get off?

This year is the first time I decided not to get the NanoWrite Story Bundle. It took me a while to figure out why. Turned out the reason showed up in a comment on the blog:

I’ve got to where I don’t take any more writing workshops or courses (same with marketing, etc.) because they all have the same information slightly rehashed and dressed up in different styles – but it’s all the same stuff! I’m even passing up free courses/workshops for this reason.

Pearl R. Meaker ‘s comment from a post last week.

Yup. There were lots of books on the craft of writing. It didn’t look like anything new.

Death of Information Flow

Writing Muse thinks it started with the 24 hour news cycle.

I remember when the first 24 hour news station came online. I remember because I was headed for war, during the first Persian Gulf War.

The 24 hour news was a novelty so everyone had it on. I heard several times a day some version of “Soldiers are going to die!”

Yeah, that made me feel really good.

Now it’s dress up the information, put a different spin on it.

Give it a marketing phrase. Pretend like it’s new.

Shhh. No one will notice.

Critical Thinking Cat

Since cats are really good at critical thinking….I think that’s their normal state.

[image error]Critical Thinking Cat. Image from ClipArt.com

What’s in it for the person selling? Helping people out? Or getting another name on the mailing list?

Critical Thinking Cat is rolling his eyes. Knocks stuff off because he’s annoyed.

Whap! Tell me something that’s actually new. Dressing up the same writing tips (or time management tips or eating tips) doesn’t add any value.

Whap! Stop urgently repeating. If I’m not paying attention to it the first time, I probably won’t the second or third times, or tenth times.

Whap! Be authentic. I think that’s a tough thing for a lot of people. They have to get the dollars rolling in and spin makes that happen faster–but also doesn’t last.

Spin gets the shiny but doesn’t keep people around.

Additional Reading



What is Fear of Missing Out? Items 3 and 5 are worth a look.Mark Manson calls FOMO “objectification our ourselves.”Since I mentioned Desert Storm, check out my war memoir, Soldier, Storyteller: A Woman Soldier Goes to War. If you ever wanted to know what war was like, this book talks about it.

Fun Bunny says “own the fun”

I don’t always go out and have fun like I should.

Sometimes it’s too easy to get caught up in everything happening and just leave fun to the wayside.

I have a day job and write fiction on the side. Which means evening and weekends are usually my writing time.

Sometimes I can say writing is fun. Where else would you have adventures like:

Traveling into spaceSolving a mysteryBeing a superhero

Yet, getting out and away is just as important. So I’m going to share some of my fun.

Visiting a farm

I grew up in Los Angeles, so no farms there. Just a concrete city, lots of sun, lots of movie stars.

So when I found out a local place called Frying Pan Park had a working farm, I had to go.

I really wanted to see cows. Don’t know. Just because.

Gratuitous animal photos

Of course, the first animal I found was a cat. Got some serious petting. The cat was also carrying a litter.

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Next up are the baby goats. And they were hungry!

The goats came from another farm. Those mama goats gave birth to three babies, but they only have equipment enough for two. So the farmer sent them over to the park so they could survive. Both of these are a week old.

[image error]BAAAAHHHHH!

Another baby goat. This one was older. He walked right up to the fence and checked me out.

[image error]Got food?

Ah ha! Found baby cows. There were two hanging out in the stable.

[image error]Ooh, can’t quite get that itch

Da cow! Da cow!

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Scratching the itch

These days, it feels hard to be spontaneous. We’ve become a world where planning everything is encouraged.

How did we go from children wandering outside to play with dolls (or action figures) to planning every minute of the day?

Why does everything have to have sa specific purpose?

Sometimes there’s value in just doing.

More Reading



Deep PlayWhy it’s good for grown-ups to play

Overbalancing at the speed of a turtle

We have a pond at work with about 50 turtles. I like walking around the pond when the sun’s warm and watching them.

Turtles actually have three speeds, not just the slow and steady of Aesop’s fable, The Hare and the Tortoise. (Golden Retriever Muse said it was fun revisiting this story.)

Speed 1: Sitting on a rock, soaking up the sun. They usually have one of their feet kicked up in the air.

Speed 2: The slow we all know. This is the turtle on land, each step slow and deliberate.

Speed 3: Watch a turtle chase a fish in the water. It’s zip, zip, zip!

Learning at Turtle Speed on Steroids

Most of the learning we get today is taking that third speed and adding more speed. Even the Hare wouldn’t be able to keep up.

Our world wants to move fast, fast, fast!

Learn one thing. Hurry! Move onto to the next.

More is better.

Except that it really isn’t.

We aren’t always taking the time to process what we learn.

Collecting Information is Not Learning

Part of learning information is evaluating it.

How can I use it? What do I think of it?

Even questioning it.

Golden Retriever Muse finds a lot of information is presented as shiny. At the grocery store, she eyed a magazine on how dogs communicate. Or the magazine on how to simplify that was busy with tips.

Yet, all feel rather superficial.

Even writing sites are superficial

Writing Nerd has sometimes been frustrated by the lack of information on how to write–amid the clutter of information on how to write.

Writing fiction isn’t the only place. Everywhere seems cluttered.

Most of it is superficial. Someone else holds our hand and tells us what to do.

It’s like taking a multiple choice test.

But we don’t actually take in the information because we’re like the Golden Retriever Muse–off to the next shiny thing.

The Key is Balance of Speed

That’s where the other turtle speeds come in. Sometimes you have to slow down to learn.

And sometimes it’s best to sit in the sun and do nothing while you absorb what you learning.

It’s all about balance.

More Reading



Re-Learn How to Learn in the Information Age10 Ways to Honor Mistakes in the Learning ProcessFast Growth is Overrated

Like Writing Nerd’s posts? Check out my speculative fiction!

Logic Squirrel agrees…disagrees…agrees

This came over my Facebook feed (paraphrased):

We can’t talk about politics or religion because we haven’t learned how to talk about them.

Logic Squirrel ponders if we ever actually learned how, or just learned how to be civil about it.

The internet has stripped away civility.  Now everything is interpreted in black and white.

Everything is actually shades of gray.

That have shades of gray.

And it’s not just politics and religion that we have trouble discussing.

It’s everything.

Not a One-Size Fits All

I’m a fiction writer (which you can tell by the books on the site).  I don’t use an outline to figure out my story.

How I write is a shade of gray with a whole lot of shades of gray.

The only thing that really should count is the finished book.

But writers want to divide up into the outliners versus the people who don’t outline (there are terms for the non-outliners.  Logic Squirrel thinks all of them are silly).

“If you don’t write exactly my way,” a writer will say, “you’re doing it wrong.”

Writing Nerd has been told this a lot from both sides of the aisle.

Logic Squirrel scratches head.  Nope, not fleas.  He’s puzzled.  It shouldn’t matter.

Yet, it does.

So why do we go to our separate corners?

Human beings have a need to put things in buckets.  Sometimes it’s pretty useful.

But it also stops us from asking questions when we should.

Not just in writing but anything really.

And it takes away from being a human being.  Part of being a human being is being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.  You might not agree with them but you understand at least why.

Writing Nerd wanders in

Logic Squirrel just spotted an acorn.  Zoom!

I think it’s also just easy to put something into a category and have blinders on that other people can have other experiences that make their viewpoint different.

The worst part about those blinders?

We stop learning.

Maybe it’s time to find the shades of gray and start asking questions.

More Reading

Learn Religion’s “What is Black and White Thinking?” – Very interesting article that picks up on philosophy
Huffington Post on Breaking Out of Black and White Thinking 

Fearless rabbit trails and owning your inner nerd

The other day I thought about this:

We haven’t done anything big and adventurous in a long time.

Ponder this: During the Skunkworks days of Lockheed, pioneers built the Blackbird in just a few years.

Now we have jet technology that takes decades and runs into cost overruns.

What about Hollywood?

I remember when Star Wars came out. People stood in long lines at the theater to see it. How many times you saw it was a big bragging point.

Today?

I can’t even name a movie I think people will remember and still talk about in ten years.

TV series are cancelled and people don’t even remember them. Star Trek was created in 1966 and is still memorable over 50 years later.

What happened?!

Writing Nerd Speculates

I’ve watched as this destruction of taking chances started in television. Then it showed up in the movie industry. Now it’s in the publishing industry.

Dollars versus creativity overbalanced.

Understandably, companies and people wanted to make money.

Heck, I want to make money with my books.

But people focused too much on making money. In fact, I think now it’s only on making money.

We saw the publishing industry gut their mid-list writers because the books didn’t turn into best sellers. Never mind that in the next few years, their reliance on best selling writers is going to hit critical mass.

Hollywood’s already hit critical mass. They do not take any chances. Everything’s a remake because a remake is a “sure thing.” It was successful before.

So we get retreads.

Can it be fixed?

This is one of the reasons I’ve changed what I’m posting. As a fiction writer, I don’t stand out when everyone else is all talking about writing. I fell into the trap of being like everyone else.

It means trying out something that’s not only outside the line, but the line is nowhere in sight.

It means taking a chance that something might fail–and probably will.

But it’s what we learn from the failure that propels us to success. And sometimes the success isn’t immediate, but long term.

Embrace your inner nerd today.

More Reading

If you like what I write here, visit my book pages:

Speculative fiction: I have a series set in space–with ghosts.Mystery fiction: Right some short stories, but I have a novel called Golden Lies coming

Once upon a rabbit trail

The story is going along and going along.  Then the muse sees something shiny because it always likes shiny and it’s off!  It’s following a rabbit trail.

Unknown territory.

The grass is tall and whispers when the wind stirs.  The air smells of a tingle of…something.

Up ahead.

Is a good thing?  Is it a bad thing?  Is a dead end?  Let’s find out!

Is the rabbit trail a waste of time?

Somehow we’ve become a world where everything should be planned.  Whether it’s a story or your day down to the very minute.

Spontaneity is important for the muse.

The unknown stretches us.

Makes us see new things.  That feeds the muse, and the story.

But there’s always a problem…

Sometimes it’s a false trail.  Happens.

Sometimes it’s important to try and fail to find the right path.

If we always follow the well-trod path, it’s not creative.  It’s just what everyone else is doing.  That’s not really creative either.

The Writer Nerd gets involved

But that little voice is gonna come in and say that venturing off the known path is wasting time, and wasting words.

It’s fear.

It might not look like fear.  It might not act like fear.

And fear keeps everyone from trying.  What if I step off the well-trod path and the rabbit trail is full of weeds?

What if it makes me waste my time?

What I find a better path, a better story?  Better than what I thought?

That can be terrifying!  But the muse needs a little fear and a little fun to thrive.

More Reading

Rabbit Trails on well, rabbit trails
Virtues for Life on Sparking Creativity
Fear of Failure