Monday's Food For Thought

Okay, so this is kind of a pseudo-science, but if we as humans have learned anything about science and nature, it's that we shouldn't be so quick to laugh at ideas that sound outrageous at the time.

There are claims floating around that ordinary water has memory. I don't know how that's possible or what that means exactly, but just imagine for a moment if scientists started researching into it.

WHAT IF they unlocked it? What if they found a way to not only access the memory inside water, but began storing it there, too?

How would this affect ordinary life? How do you think the governments would use it? What do you think we could learn about the origins of life? How would this change space travel? Time capsules? Cross-cultural communication? Would there be archives of every point in history? What if one point in history was missing? Why might that be the case?

It's not something to revolve an entire story around, necessarily, but it's something to think about if you're writing a distant future or sci fi novel.

Just a little something for your Monday mind to munch on.

Monday's Food for Thought

Anyone who knows my writing knows I love exploring the ideas behind crystals and meteorites, so of course this topic was going to crop up sooner or later.

Until very recently, the idea of a naturally-occurring quasicrystal was thought to be impossible.

However, one was discovered in Russia in the 1970s, thought to be from a meteorite, and now scientists are tentatively guessing it to be 4.5 billion years old - about the age of our solar system. As for how this particular crystal formed, scientists don't know. From the website linked above:

The metallic aluminum present in the rock usually requires a very different set of processes to form, and it has not been found in any other meteorites. In other words, while the isotope ratios indicate an extraterrestrial origin for the rock, its composition marks it as a new type of meteorite, one with uncertain origins.

So.

WHAT IF something else - something intelligent - created this crystal? Who did it? What did they use it for? How did it end up on Earth? Might humans be able to use the crystal the same way the "being" who created it did? How might that change human technology?

(And is anyone else thinking ginzuishou?)

Just a little something for your Monday mind to munch on.

Uncensor Yourself

So I'd chosen my middle grade story. I'd had a basic idea of what I wanted to do with it. I had Scrivener to help me. I'd altered it to censor for younger children -

Wait, what?

Yes, a lot of you are probably rolling your eyes right now (if you were paying close enough attention). It was hard slog writing something that was altered for the audience. ALTERED FOR THE AUDIENCE. Face-freaking-palm. I would barely manage a thousand words a day, and I dreaded going back to the story.

Then, as I'm reading the rave reviews on CINDER, about the whole world being in danger, about Lunar queens and plagues and bioelectricity and all this stuff that pushes the story to the limit (there's nothing localised about CINDER), I realised my mistake. You want to go big? You want to get published? You're going to have to push your story. Uncensor yourself. Make it EPIC.

And you know what? Once I scrapped the old version, I opened up Word (I hear gasps from the audience here) and started writing the story how *I* wanted to write it. Religious aspects that would freak out parents? Whatever. Scary scenes? Kids can handle it (god, have you guys seen/read Horrible Histories? Jeez!).

And you know what? I did almost 4.5k words yesterday. This is the story I was trying to tell.

Writers, don't hold yourself back. You'll never get attention with a safe story. And it's as hard as hell to write a story that you only half love.

CINDER is Officially Out!

Today in Australia, CINDER by Marissa Meyer has officially been released. The crummy little town that I live in is super lazy when it comes to holidays, so chances are that the warehouses have the stock but haven't distributed it to the bookstores. Still, I WILL PERSIST!

(icon made by the fabulous Jojo)

Monday's Food For Thought

A few years ago, scientists built the Large Hadron Collider, which is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider.

People who knew about physics weren't worried, but a lot of crazy internet rumours ignited a fair amount of panic about the Collider. The main concern (that I could pick out) was that the colliding particles would open worm holes all over the world.

Well. What a spark for a writer's mind!

WHAT IF it actually happened? What if worm holes opened up all over the world? Where would they lead? Would they be big enough for humans to go through, or would things come to Earth? Would the worm holes all end up at the same place, or would they lead to different places? Would it be a way to transport yourself around the planet, or would they go to different worlds entirely? And would these places be alternate worlds or other places in the universe?

Imagine hearing about people vanishing all over the world without a trace. Then imagine going out for your morning coffee one day and stepping through a worm hole. Where would you end up? Would you handle it, or be a nervous mess? Who else would you meet there? Would it be easy to go back the way you came?

In the bigger picture, would scientists a) fix the glitch, b) utilise it for their own gain, c) want to fix the glitch but can't, or d) something else entirely?

Just a little something for your Monday mind to munch on...

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a safe and exciting 2012, with many dreams realised!

But first, it's time to sleep away the remnants of last night's fun.

Monday's Food for Thought

So this 2012 apocalypse talk isn't just about the whole Mayan countdown thing. There's scientific projection that we (as a planet) are going to be passing through solar flares next year. What will this do? Well, some speculate that it will interfere with our radio waves and electricity. It's happened before, but perhaps this time the fear is that it will occur on a grand scale.

So of course, that got me thinking. WHAT IF the solar flares wiped out all of Earth's electrical... everything? Technology. Computers. Radios. Internet. There are plenty of dystopian books written about things like this... but really. What if it actually happened?

You wouldn't have any idea that the rest of the country was experiencing such difficulties, let alone the rest of the planet. World politicians wouldn't be able to contact each other to find out what was going on. No one would be able to drive very far before petrol ran out.

How would you react to something on such a grand scale? Would you be afraid? Would you mount a horse and gallop across the country to bring news to other people? How do you think the government would react? Would there ever be order?

And if we were never able to recover technology, do you think the world/humanity/individuals would be better off, or die out? Do you like the idea of this new world, like a modern middle ages?

Just a little something for your Monday mind to munch on...

ETA: A very interesting view on dystopian world-building taking trade, distribution of wealth, and feasibility into account can be found here.

Restarting After a Break

My aim for my summer WiP was to write one thousand words a day, not much less, not much more, either. (It helps keep the flow if you stop before you write yourself dry. That way you always know what you're going to write tomorrow, and the ideas can fester while you're doing other things, like work and all that jazz.)

However something horrific happened on Tuesday, and because of that I didn't get back into Scrivener until today.

Coming back to a first draft after a break can be HARD. It feels like every sentence, every turn of phrase, is a struggle, and you're constantly checking the word count to see if you can stop yet. It happened to me just a few hours ago.

The best thing to do in this instance is to Keep Moving Forward. With capitals. It DOES NOT MATTER how bad the writing is. If you have to type out the worst, most boring dialogue/description/action known to humankind, then do so. It can be fixed later.

I'll preach it again.

It can be fixed later.

The important thing is to keep at it. And you know what? Eventually the words will flow, and they'll come just as easy as Shiny New First Draft words are supposed to. It happened to me. It can happen to you.

Guys, slog through it. Visualise the end product. You can get there, I promise. All you have to do is...

Summer Writing (Yes, it's summer here in Australia)

After days of agonising and stressing over something to write these holidays (too many plot ideas combined with no real passion for anything), I've finally come up with a new project. Scrivener has been downloaded, a few notes have been tacked onto the corkboard, and some thousand words of story have been written.

This time, I'm working on a middle grade boy's fantasy. Here's hoping agents are still asking for it by the time I get around to querying!

A New Project

As the school year draws to a close and students and teachers alike can taste summer holidays in the hot desert air, my brain is juggling several potential new novel ideas.

I didn't participate in NaNo (congrats to those who did!), because my NaNo month seems to be in January, when I can laze about at home with the air conditioner chugging away.

But WHAT TO WRITE? A shiny new idea is what my mind and fingers need. I have a list of plenty of premises, except nothing's calling to me in that way I'm sure you all know well. It has to have a head-turning concept and hook, as I've realised over the past few months. I've entered too many contests and seen too many amazing ideas to be kidding myself about that now.

I'm also going to download a trial version of Scrivener to see what all the fuss is about. Whatever my new project is, it'll be part of my pioneer effort on a confangled new software.

So. What is everyone else working on during December/January? Anyone thinking of starting a new project?