Sunday 28 July 2013

WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM

So, if you have visited this blog over the past few years, you'll know that this particular topic is of interest to me and you'll know something of my take on it.

Well, here's a TED talk about the very thing and it impresses on the listener the value of allowing the connecting of ideas instead of the protecting of them. I am not saying that 'innovators' should not be able to make money out of their intellectual efforts. I am not saying there should be no such thing as copyright. But I am saying - and have always said - that once an idea is put out there it should be allowed to connect with the people it comes into contact with because it is from such fertile connections that new ideas are made.

This is something that just happens anyway, but the lone innovator very often credits him/herself with the pure genious creation of an idea instead of realising the thing that is more likely: that the innovated new idea is the product of connections made with the ideas of others.

If you are a person who has ideas (creative or technical) and you don't want them to connect with the thinking of others, then don't put them out there; if you do put them out there, then expect them to connect with others and for others to use the ideas to make even newer 'things'.

Anyway, I don't yet know how to embed a TED talk into a blog page (I know it can be done but am not technically gifted in that area - I will try to find out). Because I don't know, here is the link. Go take a listen.

Steven Johnson - Where Good Ideas Come From

There's a book by the same man on this subject.

HAVE YOU EVER...?

Have you ever entered a competition and when the results went up you checked the podium places and the highly commendeds and then skimmed the shortlist and longlist without any real heart? Yes, I've done that sometimes. And today I just happened to be looking over a well-past and very prestigious competition result, re-reading it actually, and lo!... there's me on the longlist and I never knew. Ok, so that's as far as I got this time... but it being such a good comp, I am sort of lifted that I did better than I thought I had.

And I am finding my way into good anthologies, and still scoring competition hits in good places and quieter places, too, and finding some of my pieces accepted into nice online magazines and print magazines, as well.

Am throwing out lots of stories at the moment, a real creative splurge. And perhaps because I am not working on a new novel at the moment, the stories seem to be coming quite easy... maybe even a little too easy? I shall have to send them out there and see how they do.

Yes, so it feels like everything is 'ticking over'... but is that enough? Do I want to shake things up a bit? Should I be working harder to get my work out there and read? Not getting any younger... these are the thoughts in my head.

Thanks for reading.


Wednesday 24 July 2013

PUSHING OUT THE BOAT AGAIN

'Pushing Out The Boat' is a wonderful magazine, produced with care given to a writer's words and wonderful art pieces inside and the whole bound up in a glossy package that any writer would be pleased to see their work in. I had a piece in Issue 11 and was thrilled when I got my hands on a copy. I had read Issue 10 and thought it a bit special. Earlier this year a call went out for pieces to go in Issue 12 and they were inundated with high quaity work. I sent them something and they have taken it...

Today, I received the edited proof for a final read. In the proof it looks like it will apear on the page in the magazine; it is amazing when you can say of your own story that it looks beautiful on the page. Issue 12 launches on September 1st. I can't wait to get my hands on it.



Monday 1 July 2013

WHOOP-WHOOPEE 2

Today I finished tweeking the finished manuscript for my novel - the one I whoop-whoopeed about in April. Today I put the final touches to it and I thought it read well and some of the writing seemed to glitter and gleam and so I straight away got in touch with the agent who had said he was interested in seeing it and he said that he was still interested and even looking forward to it and he used the word 'exciting' and so before I could draw breath I sent it off to him.

Of course, I have been here before and so I will not this time send my hopes soaring like a cut-loose kite, but will just quietly hope that this one has enough to take to the air, even for a moment or two before it is pulled back down to the ground, and if it crashes then I shall rush over to see if it is still in one piece or if it will need tape and a new wooden support and more string before trying to fly it again. 

Yes, so we shall see.