Somehow Misplaced

Quotable – Cathy Hopkins

One of the best ways to become a better short story writer is by practising. In this post, we discuss why you should do short story writing exercises.

In a previous post, we spoke about writing the book, Write the Crap Out of It, a book about the craft of short story writing. Then we discussed writing a book blurb for a short story collection.

In this post, we tell you why you should complete all of the short story writing exercises in the book.

Her head turned wildly, keeping an eye on the road behind her. The man was still following her, only seconds away from catching up. Her lungs were burning and she was having a hard time catching her breath.

She could feel him now, as he was almost in an arm's reach. She pumped her arms, begging her legs to move faster but it wasn't enough. His arm stretched and yanked her back to him.

Quotable – Iain Banks

Writers Write is a resource for writers. In this post, we look at science-fiction author, Octavia E. Butler’s Writing Advice.

Octavia E. Butler was an American science fiction writer. She was born 22 June 1947, and died 24 February 2006.

Butler was one of the first women and one of the first African-Americans to succeed in the sci-fi genre. Her novels were about future societies and superhuman powers. ‘They are noteworthy for their unique synthesis of science fiction, mysticism, mythology, and African American spiritualism.’ (via)

She was a multiple-recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Her novels include the Patternist and Parable series. Her first novel, Patternmaster (1976), was the beginning of her five-volume Patternist series about a group of telepaths ruled by Doro, a 4,000-year-old immortal African. Other titles include Kindred and Lilith’s Brood.

In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship, nicknamed the Genius Grant. In 2000 she received a PEN Award for lifetime achievement.

This advice is taken from her short piece, “Furor Scribendi”.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FAe5oZpDMgs

It would be a shame if the protesters noted that plainclothes cops can be identified a number of ways, such as wearing steel-toed boots; an armband or wristband of a particular color; driving white, black, or dark blue cars with concealed lights; or having the outline of cuffs visible in the back pocket or the bumps of an armor vest’s shoulder straps under their shirt.

It would be a shame if the protesters began making their signs out of inch-thick plywood to stop rubber bullets, forming a tight shield wall to prevent police from singling out and mobbing individual protesters. It would be a shame if the people behind the shield wall held up umbrellas so that tear gas canisters fired over the heads of the front line will be bounced away. It would be a shame if protesters began constructing improvised armor vests out of duct tape, hardback books, and ceramic tiles.

It would be a shame if protesters started wearing safety glasses, hard hats, respirators, and gardening gloves, all of which can be found at the same hardware stores as the plywood. It would be a shame if they started using traffic cones (the kind without the hole in the top) upside-down buckets, or other improvised lids to contain tear gas by placing them over the canisters.

It would be a shame if protesters learned that police scanners are legal to own in the US, allowing them to learn where police are moving and what routes they intend to take. It would be a shame if they discovered that these scanners can be used to send as well as receive, allowing them to flood the scanner frequencies with noise.