Monday, February 27, 2017

TWIC: Sci-am, prologues, nonsense, support, presentations

Sci Am has a lot of stuff relating to creativity but much of it is behind their paywall. The Science of Creativity has all the links.

Ink Spots and Fractal patterns.

I enjoy Sci Am's '100 years ago' posts. Repeats or summaries of articles written for the magazine that long ago. I think they have a "150 years ago' section as well. The current one describes new (in 1917) submarines.

Can you (I) be more rational?
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Brent Weeks offers tips on how to write prologues.
As a writer, I think a prologue is a wonderful tool for a certain jobs, but it’s a heavy tool that should be handled with care, intention, and skill—or not handled at all. A prologue struts onto the stage of your book and grabs the microphone, saying, “I’m sorry, Taylor, Imma let you start, but first…” More seriously, it does tell a reader that what they’re about to read isn’t exactly part of the story proper. “I’m going to tell you a story, but first you need to know…” What is this, Great Expectations? “I’m going to tell you the story an orphan, but first, you need to know his entire family history….”
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nonsense word generator. They look so real:


atinquitator, weapsts, recruidly, galawfulathers, skulatted, sketess,
humediveroully, polevianian, arbilitties, flassungs
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Maybe I'm describing a lack of creativity, maybe I'm sharing my browsing habits on a forum that I designed for other reasons. Maybe someone wants to write a book with KKK characters and wants to learn a little about them. Anonymous (the hacker group) deliberately friended many Blue Lives Matter supporters to gain entrance to KKK. The tradecraft they use to attempt to maintain secrecy is interesting:
a Klansman asks "AYAK" ("Are you a Klansman") and listens for the response "AKIA" (A Klansman I am)
More at the Wikipedia page on KKK terminology.
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Needed: A support group of creative friends.
Likewise, whatever criticism takes place during our CA [Creatives Anonymous[ meetings is meant to strengthen the work and its creator. The most important element of these meetings would be the anonymity. Not anonymity for the individual, but for the works being shared with the group – being shared in a smaller circler with the knowledge that it won’t be shared with the outside world…not yet, anyway. Instead of building a platform and showing something off to the whole world at the click of a mouse, many of us need to rebuild a safe place where we can display our work to a small group of trusted colleagues, get feedback, and refine…or abandon as needed.
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Yet another subject I am trying to shoehorn into my blog's genre: presentation skills and tips.
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