Steven Barnes's Blog, page 57

The “Stories” about beauty and power

(from 2009)

I think that in one sense the “Power” of human beings is in direct relationship to the degree to which they identify with spiritual forces rather than anything operating on the normal human level of existence at all. But in terms of relationships, in 99% of the cases I’ve seen over the course of my life, if men gained more financial stability and/or wealth, women found them more attractive. And as women gain more of an hour-glass figure, THEY become more attractive to men. So when...

The Tyranny of Evil Men

What is the value of seeing our lives as stories?   Well…

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Thirty-five years ago I encountering a Jehovah’s Witness on Hollywood Boulevard. A rough-looking fellow who started his spiel.   I found him curious: I would have expected him to demand my wallet in a dark alley far more than share The Word of God.  I had a half-hour before I was due to start working at GNC, and so engaged with him. It was fun. His arguments were all memorized, and it was easy to poke holes in them.  The slightest u...

Writing The Kundalini Equation

When I was a kid, I loved the world of books.  Engaged with them, the outer world disappeared, and I became part of a thousand alien and magical worlds in which anything could happen.  I was the calm center of a spinning world of wonder.

 

Later, I began writing stories, and as I sat,  scribbling on paper,  after about fifteen minutes the page just…opened up.  I entered another world.  I was still, but was simultaneously part of a world of flowing wonder.

 

I never found this place in sports....

How did YOU learn to love yourself?

Almost everything I talk about comes from one of three complementary perspectives: The Hero’s Journey, the martial arts, and the Soulmate process.   They cover about everything in life.  The following thought relates to nurturing love .

 

We had a host of excellent answers about dealing with a devastating betrayal.  Most of them had to do with anger, fear, connecting with friends, allowing time to heal.  One of my own personal suggestions had to do with actual survival and financial issues co...

“Excuse me, ma’am…may I borrow your baby?”

“#Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves, without any insistence that they satisfy you.” – Wayne Dyer

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I have the makings of a monster. I really do.  I could have been one of the great, manipulative lying sons of bitches God ever let live.  Let me give you an example of how I know it.  And why I believe I’ve dodged that bullet.

 

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When I first met Tananarive at the “African Fantastic Imagination” conference at Clark Atl...

The Inner War

(from 2009)

 

While I’ve started watching the political scene over the last few years, I’ve always been very clear on the fact of my vast and gaping ignorance on many, many particulars. Navigating such treacherous waters on the basis of general principles can seem folly… the only reason I suspect it isn’t is my continuing positive results in the three major arenas of my life, regardless of what people howl at me from the sides. One of the things that seems to make sense is to look at principl...

Walking away from Omelas

One of the most brilliant stories ever written is THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS, by  Ursula Le Guin.  This three-page tale describes a golden city filled with brilliant, beautiful people, and asks why you don’t quite believe it.   More description follows, even more glory and splendor.  And then again, a query: why don’t you believe? And then finally the story takes you to a dungeon beneath the palace, and in the deepest depths, crouching in his own feces, is a deformed child.  Utterly i...

You’re worth the fight

(from 2005)

A question from a reader:

“This is the sort of question you can answer on your blog, if I can figure out how to ask it anyway. I’m trying to figure out how and when a writer makes their writing time a priority. You write for a living. If you stop writing you stop having an income to put food on your family’s table. I am a housewife and the needs of my children and home are endless. There is never a sense that I am off the clock and free to do as I please now. So when I write I alw...

A New Opportunity

 

 

[image error] When I was in Tanzania fifteen years ago, Nicki and I saw Masaai tribesmen herding cattle, standing on one leg speaking into cell phones. And…I grinned.  I knew that humanity was going to be just fine.

For the first 250,000 years of our history, we could lie about our neighbors with impunity. They ate babies. They weren’t human.  They didn’t have the same basic values. They needed to be exterminated or dominated for their own good.

Then just 200 years ago we got the telegraph: instant co...

Characterization

I was asked how to express characterization in writing.   This is a great opportunity to show you exactly how LIFEWRITING works.

The idea is that the tools we use within a story can also be used in the PROCESS of writing a story, and in the process of living your life.  Read closely here: if you understand what I’m saying, you will change your entire life in a moment.

 

 

The “Aubry Knight” novels STREETLETHAL, GORGON CHILD and FIREDANCE all dealt with a supremely skilled martial artist who l...