Mixing Science with Your Art, Planetary Style

"The Artist's Universe" - IAAA

Being both a lover of science and art, I find few things as enjoyable as an art exhibit that includes scientifically inspired pieces.  Planetary landscapes are so evocative - it isn't surprising that a number of planetary scientists are also artists, recording their visions of other worlds not just through their research, but through art.  

"Yelland and Ino"

The exhibit is sponsored by the International Association of Astronomical Artists, and was organized by scientist and space artist Dan Durda.  The IAAA website states "Space art serves the most basic function of fine art, that of inspiration. It directs our focus toward the space frontier, where human destiny inevitably lies."  More than twenty artists contributed thirty four pieces of art to the exhibit in a variety of media including pastels, watercolors, oils, and digital creations.  Some of the art has a traditional 'space art' feeling, while other art moves in a different direction, using unusual materials and perspectives.   

"Jovian Atmosphere"

The piece "Yelland and Ino" by Monica Aiello caught my attention immediately, being so accurate at depicting a planetary surface and so aesthetically pleasing at the same time.  A close examination reveals that this is not a painting at all, but a creation of fiber and acrylic.  The cracks in the surface are created by yarns and threads in straight and arcuate forms.  The whole is covered with a clear acrylic that mimics the icy surface of the satellite.

"Titan's Southern Summer"

I enjoyed Marilynn Flynn's "Titan's Southern Summer" for a number of reasons, one being the depiction of a canyon so like the desert southwest that I adore.  But this is a frozen world of methane and ethane, with a tilted Saturn high in the murky sky. 

One of the few pieces depicting alien life is Dan Durda's "Jovian Atmosphere."  These jellyfish-like creatures remind me of the classic idea of 'floaters' and 'sinkers' in a giant planet's atmosphere.  Many of these pieces have land and sky-scapes inspired by views of our home planet, then translated to appropriate contexts in the rest of the solar system, or universe at large.

The exhibit in question, called "The Artist's Universe" is on display at the annual AAS Division for Planetary Sciences meeting, held this year in Denver, Colorado.  So while the scientists peruse poster presentations of the latest scientific results, they can also stop by the exhibit, and take a moment to remember why we all do this science stuff in the first place. 

Because it is amazing, cool, and amazing.  And very cool.

Image Credits:  Marilynn Flynn, Dan Durda, and Monica Aiello - Space Artists.  IAAA.

Musing About The Talisman Universe

A recent round of the board game Talisman has me obsessing over the game ... again. This is one of those games that seems to polarize people - either you love it or hate it. I conducted a very small and quite unscientific survey to determine what it is about Talisman that is so very appealing, or for many, quite the opposite.

First of all, if you haven't played the game it is worth the time to check it out. No really. A geeky friend (like me) might be hiding a copy. Looking at the box top for the most recent (fourth) edition, you can tell you are going to be in for a good time. You can see a variety of characters attacking a dragon (or perhaps being attacked by a dragon) that is guarding a crown. Naturally, this is completely atypical of how the game play actually feels, and there is no dragon guarding the crown. Still, you can see the fighter being all fightery, the magic users casting spells, the thief ignoring all of this and trying to get the crown on the sly, and the assassin sneaking up to stab the thief in the back. And the sorceress, I think, is there with huge bubbling pot of some potion in one arm and her staff in the other. It can't be easy having to go into combat with a caldron as a a key part of one's melee strategy.

The first version was printed oh, so very long ago, and ended up having a plethora of add on modules, cards, characters, and more.  The setting for the game is a sort of high fantasy realm where encounters on the board can increase or decrease your statistics, such as strength, craft, and number of lives.  Needless to say, when you are out of lives, well, you are out.  (Unless you go ahead and start a new character and jump back in.)  The art from the original game was quirky, whimsical, occasionally silly, and the source of about a million inside jokes in my family.  Of particular note was the art for the "toad" card.  Much more ignominious than getting killed to death in this game is being turned into a toad ("toaded" as we say) by a witch.  The toad card had a rather outraged and startled expression that was certainly apt.

The thief is in for a serious surprise, here.

It became hard to have all the expansion modules open at once without say, three tables and a sizable part of the floor available.  It was so big that you might spend an entire game poking through the Talisman universe and never encounter another player.  The expansions included a tower to the ultimate dragon battle, a catacombs, a full blow up of the one City tile into a new whole board, and a sort of outland futuristic board with strange worlds, aliens, radiation, and bizarre new artifacts.  I'm sure I am forgetting something, because there was so very much.
 
In more recent times, the game was rebooted without all the expansions (as I said, it is now up to a fourth edition) and this one seems to have the charm of the original without quite so much of the crazy.  Although I really liked the crazy.  It is hard to explain how crazy the game could get, actually.  Each of those old expansions added an entire new piece of board space.  Little words to wander around in.  I'd forget there was an objective to the game and get lost in exploring and seeing what cool stuff I could find.  Getting distracted was a good way to lose, but I always had fun. It was a wonderful romp through all kinds of speculative goodness - fantasy, horror, and even a bit of sci-fi thrown in for the canonical good measure.

This new version is more palatable to those of my friends and family who do not have an affinity for the game, in general.  But by more palatable I mean they will play under extreme duress, instead of not at all.  Alright, I can see that any game that regularly goes over two hours can be a drain.  When you have more than three people playing Talisman, you can probably guarantee a three hour play time or longer, unless someone has a whip and a timer.  But there are many involved strategy games that have long play times that are not as divisive as Talisman.  So I'm tabling the play time as "problematic, but not a show stopper."

So what is?  My survey suggests that the unguided nature of the game - without specific benchmarks on the way to the final objective - is the real issue.  The game moves forward in a very free form fashion.  You can move in either direction on the board, wandering wherever you want, encountering the spaces of the board themselves or drawing cards.  Over and over and over.  The point is to get yourself tough enough with increased stats and/or great stuff and/or followers and definitely a mule early on or you can't carry all that stuff so you can fight your way to the center, grab the Crown of Command, and basically command all the other players to die off.

The sorceress is about to splash
some stew or something on
this dragon.  Note toad.

In addition, there is a random element to the game that means you might lose your nice high stats, or some of your followers, or - flying spaghetti monster forbid - you could lose your mule which is carrying all your stuff.  This means you can spend the entire game getting nice and buff, only to have it all taken away at the last, most heartbreaking moment.  I sort of like this aspect, since I like the fact that anyone can win the game.  You don't know however many turns in advance that you have no chance at all.  There is always a chance.

The final aspect of the game that seems to rankle the unbelievers is the rules.  There are not actually too many rules, but the complexity of the game means that they are always being checked and rechecked.  Then when you realize there is no official ruling for the situation you are in, you either have to make up a new house rule, or take a break from the game to go surf the intarwebs for possible solutions, or at least other people's house rules.  Yes, you guessed it, I kind of like this.  I enjoy when strange situations come up and we have to deal by a sort of community vote on what "makes sense" or what goes with the spirit of the rules, or what seems fair, or whatever will keep the game going.

So there is my Talisman game breakdown.  It's a game I love and long to play, while others whom I know want to play pretty much anything else.  At all.  Please.

What's your take?  Have a talisman experience to share?

Image Credit:  Me and my Talisman game.

On Failing in Games and Going Back for More

I read a provocative gaming article over at The New Inquiry called Born to Lose by author Christian Brown.  It is about the inherent ability of gaming to give the player the true experience of failure in a very lifelike fashion. (Actually, it's about a lot more than that, go give a read, I'll wait here.)  Brown notes that this feature of games is distinct from movies or books - "We can let the protagonist lose and force them to try again. The cycle of dying and starting the level over forces players to empathize with the character who toils in spite of certain failure."  Brown goes on to say that in some games "... the difference between “winning” and “losing” is obliterated ... we are forced to confront the personal experiences of the characters involved." 

As an avid gamer, I found this article to be really interesting.  This is unquestionably a feature that draws me to this kind of gaming - it requires determination and resiliency to continue when you've already died a million times, and when you are not even sure you are doing the right thing.  No matter how hard you try, there is no guarantee things will turn out well. 

For example (Spoiler Alert - Dragon Age II) there is a scene late in Dragon Age II where one of your party members (Anders) appears from nowhere, rants a bit about his personal crusade, and then blows up a very important building with a lot of people in it.  That action forces you to choose between two sides, instead of finding a way to forge a peace.  The first time I played the game I actually screamed in pain and outrage.  Both because the guy blew up a church, and because the character had taken my options from me.  Feeling indignant and betrayed, I played the game several times trying to get the "good" ending where I was able to make peace between the sides.

If you know the game you know that ending does not exist.  Anders always appears and always blows up the Chantry.  I was stunned when I realized this really was the conclusion - that the game was written so that so many of your choices become moot.  In spite of this, I kept on playing the game.  I played it even knowing the ending, just for the experience of really exploring all the moral ground and ideas the game offered.  Had the ending been more black and white, I doubt I would have spent the time.

I feel similarly, although less strongly about Mass Effect (Spoiler Alert - Mass Effect 3).  This is a game in which you become quite invested.  First of all, as the author of the above mentioned article notes, you can become quite empathetic to a character that has died and come back a million times, through three entire games.  Some battles take a dozen tries, especially when the game is on harder difficulty settings.  Then there is the ambiguous ending to the whole series.  Three choices are offered - none of them good.  The canonical "best" choice is one where you force a change on every person in the entire galaxy without their consent.  Yet, I was not as impacted as I was by Dragon Age II.  I simply didn't feel the characters had enough life of their own, and the final choice was too divorced from every other choice made in the game.

Other games I've played have toyed with this concept.  Say like the Fable Series (Spoiler Alert - Fable 2 and 3.)  Fable 2 has three endings, one patently evil, but two that are good and bad in different ways.  The first has you saving everyone, but losing your family and truly beloved dog that has been with you the whole game.  The second has you saving the family and dog, but losing everyone else.  Fable 3 puts you in a position where - unless you play very well - your nicey-nice decisions can leave you without the resources to defeat the final onslaught of bad guys.

These were nice twists, and I enjoyed the tension.  But to really get it "right" - like how I feel about Dragon Age II - a game has to have a suite of characters with deep motivations and personalities, it needs to be very internally consistent, and it needs to make you feel as though you just might be able to win.  You have to have this sense that if only you'd made that one certain choice, it all would have come out differently.  This hearkens back to the article that got me thinking about all this, where the author says, " ... let us experience trying to unravel the betrayals and corruption ourselves and letting us fail and fail again. Letting loss and failure sluice over the viewer until they know there is nothing else that could be done."

For some reason, this works at creating a truly compelling gaming experience.  Well, at least it does for me.  Gives me a hankering to play Dragon Age II again.  Surely I can save the world this time, right?

J.A. Grier

Image Credit - photoxpress.com

Matching Your Story to the Perfect Market

Finding a good home for your story can be a challenge.  Doing a good job when looking for the right home can mean saving a lot of time and grief for everyone involved.  In the end, a good match means happiness for writers, readers, and editors. 

1.  Know the Genre of your Piece
This seems easy at first, but genres can merge and blend.  Additionally, the publishing world is always coming up with new genres and sub-genres.  Do you know the basic definitions for your genres?  What makes a story a sci-fi story?  What are the types of fantasy?  How much romance makes for a Romance?  What is Slipstream?  After you've identified the genre(s) and sub-genre(s) of your piece, consider the style or tone in which it was written.  Perhaps it is humorous, surreal, dark, technical or some combination.  It may be helpful to write out the words that fit your story to have on hand as you are considering markets.  As an example, a recent story I finished has the "classification" Horror, Monster, Apocalyptic, Romance, Dark Humor. 

2.  Find the Markets 
You are probably already reading many of the publications in which you'd like your work to appear.  Finding new markets is petty straightforward, since most in our genres are listed with either ralan.com (free) or duotrope.com (charges a yearly fee).  I've also found markets by checking out the tables at various conferences, looking at the publication history of stories in anthologies, and looking at author bios for where they have previously been published.

3.  Know the Markets
You probably know the publications you read pretty well.  You know the tones, genres, styles, and subjects they like to publish.  Do the same for other markets that interest you.  The best way to familiarize yourself with a publication is to buy a copy and read it.  Online journals make this part of the research very straightforward, since the material is right there for the reading.  You also protect yourself this way - you might reconsider submitting to a publication where the stories have a lot of typos and grammar mistakes.

4.  Follow the Guidelines
Read the guidelines for each publication carefully.  The submission guidelines probably have details about what the journal is looking to publish.  There may be special issues, themes, or anthologies open for submission, individually or at the same time.

5.  Know the Editors
Check the "about" page of any journal, and find the editors.  Do some research on them.  See where they have published, for example.  This can be challenging, since not all publications make it clear who will be handling your submission.  Still, if the Editor-in-Chief is known to dislike vampire stories, it is probably a waste of time to submit them to the mag, even if the mag does not specifically prohibit vampire stories.  Keep an eye out for editor's notes or interviews.  For example, Duotrope has posted some interviews with editors that give a bit more insight into what they are seeking. 

6.  Other Issues
Along with concerns about genre and content are issues related to compensation and rights.  Some markets pay more than others.  Some markets buy more rights than others.  Be sure you know what obligations you incur whenever you submit piece of writing.  Such concerns may have you choose one market over another, as a better home for your work.

And there is it.  Hopefully these suggestions will help us both identify good homes for our stories.  Of course, the submission process itself is the food for an entirely different blog post.

Image Credit:  Magazines, photoxpress.com

Reviews - To Tell the Truth, Or Not

So one thing I am certainly slacking on is reviews of the publications I read.  I had told myself at the beginning of the year that I wanted to post more reviews.  I enjoy reviewing poetry and stories, I want to give a boost to the publications I read, and I like learning more about authors in the field.

BUT, and here is the but - what happens when something you read is perhaps not terribly impressive, or even (gasp) maybe something you don't actually like at all? 

I've often held back from reviewing material because I can't give it an honest two thumbs up.  Being a very modestly published writer and poet myself, I am sensitive to the fact that not everything I've written is composed of gorgeous and stunning prose with fascinating characters and a plot no one's ever conceived before.  I understand that it can be rough getting any exposure at all for one's writing, and then getting a ho-hum or even negative review would be disheartening.  Still, I would vastly prefer being reviewed in a constructive fashion that would allow me to improve, rather than to receive no notice at all.

But what has ended up happening is this sort of double standard - if I know someone is a well established, best-seller-type author, I write reviews that offer a 'What I Liked' and 'What I Didn't Like' sort of thing.  For authors that (seem to me to be) newer or are looking for exposure - I don't tend to write anything because I don't want to be dishonest or discouraging.  (After all, there are few pieces that are so universally fabulous that a review will be utterly positive.)

Wait.  Did you catch that?  So I am not writing about the people and publications that need it the most.  This conundrum needs a solution.  I'd like to spend more time on lesser known authors and smaller publications than anything else, but that's not what I'm doing.  Mostly out of fear.  I don't want to discourage or upset another writer, and I don't want to damage the reputation of a publication.  And I don't really know where I'm being a bit overly sensitive, and where I'm being really just the right amount of sensitive.

So what to do?  Well, research, naturally, being the geek that I am.  I just read a pile of posts on how to do online reviews of fiction, poetry, etc.  Many point out that one shouldn't be 'cruel' and that all criticism should be 'positive' - which is obvious enough.  But no one addresses the issue of how to write up honest reviews of newer writers and smaller pubs that actually help to boost those people, rather than bring them down.   (Maybe this means I should figure how how, and then write that post, hmmm?)

Oh, and by honest review I mean the bad with the good.  I could just write reviews about 'What I Liked' and leave the rest out.  But then someone might read an issue based on my review, not like the issue, and think my reviews are pretty useless.  Which they would be.

So what is your opinion, and your experience, with writing and receiving honest reviews?  Would you prefer an honest review of your work to no review at all?  How do you like to see critical comments framed?  Do you have a set of guidelines you follow when doing reviews, a creed, a statement of intent or some such?

Send some thoughts my way.  This is your chance to chime in - since I'll probably plow ahead with reviews to the best of my ability, and your stuff might be in there, ya know ...

Image Credit - photoxpress.com

Vonnie Winslow Crist and When Opportunity Knocks

Vonnie Winslow Crist

I've been neglecting the blog in a most woeful fashion.  Didn't even get that last poetry post up.  But to make up for it, I've some tidbits of wisdom from speculative fiction writer and poet Vonnie Winslow Crist. 

Vonnie was the guest speaker at my local writers club meeting this last Thursday, and entertained us all for an hour with anecdotes from her career and practical insight into writing and publishing.  Her works include:  Essential Fables and River of Stars, both poetry collections from Lite Circle Books, fantasy novel The Enchanted Skean - Book 1 of the Chronicles of Lifthrasir from Mockingbird Lane Press, as well as The Greener Forest and Owl Light, collections of short stories and more from Cold Moon Press.  She has also edited much, volunteered much, and produced many columns and articles.  Her talk was titled "Be Ready When Opportunity Knocks and How to Find Those Hidden Opportunities."

Her first piece of advice is to always be writing.  She underscores the fact that you can't respond to any publishing opportunity unless you have appropriate work ready to go.  Keeping a backlog of poems, stories, and manuscripts means you have something in your pocket when you see a notice, hear a rumor, or find a great contest - and the deadline is coming up fast - like tomorrow.  Don't stop writing as you wait to see if your entry wins or if your submission is accepted.  Write something new while you wait.

Along with 'always be writing' is keep improving.  Vonnie points out that every piece of writing we do, no matter how brief, helps us improve our craft.  She emphasizes the importance of finding a critique group, and making sure it is one where all the members have the same level of writing expertise.  Read articles, magazines and books about the craft.  For fiction writers she recommends The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman.  You might want to take workshops, courses, or even go back to school (as she did) and earn an advanced degree in writing!

Vonnie suggests we be creative about finding publication "homes" for our work.  She reads the bios of other writers to see where they've been published, and checks out directory style websites appropriate for our genre (I happen to use ralan.com and duotrope.com)  Don't neglect local outlets such as newsletters and bulletins, and keep an eye open for anthologies in your genre.  You can't underestimate the library, either.  Use your community (below) as a source of information on unique places to publish.

She emphasizes the importance of staying connected with the community.  This includes other writers, editors, and publishers.  Staying connected can mean:  attending writers' conferences, joining societies, attending conventions, volunteering to edit pieces or write articles, helping out with local meetings, etc.  Some of these opportunities will cost money and others will be free labor at first, but all can have payoffs down the line.

Vonnie points out that one opportunity can lead to another, so leverage opportunities.  For example, she won a poetry chapbook contest, and used that as the means to get a publisher interested in a full sized book of poetry.

Finally, she says, "When you see an opening, jump!  You can't fear rejection - say 'Yes' then work hard."

Actually, she said a great deal more, but you'll have to be lucky enough to catch her in person for the whole talk, and to enjoy her entertaining style.

Image Credit:  Vonnie Winslow Crist from her website.

NaPoWriMo Week Three - Time is on Your Side

The trail seems long when you are in the middle.
"On A Quest" by Ehecod

Week Three of NaPoWriMo is always the hardest week of the month.  Two thoughts come to mind - first, that the middle of the trip always seems the longest part, and second, that time limits can seem so restrictive.  But time is on our side in this month-long quest.  That's because with a limit in mind, we know that there will come a time of rest.  We know that our journey will eventually end, and then we can put down the pen (for a short time) and bask in the glory of our accomplishment.

For inspiration and more insight into our themes of journeys and time limits, we have this compelling piece of art: "On A Quest" by Ehecod on deviantArt.com.  It depicts a scene that certainly appeals to me right now - a small person, a long path, and in the distance there is perhaps the end of the trail, way up high.  It isn't just the content of the image that appeals, it is knowing that it was done quickly.  This image might be termed a "speed painting" as it was done in about an hour.  It is amazing what can be conveyed in such a short time - the sense of distance, space, longing, weariness, determination, beauty, and so much more.  Putting a time limit on our work can be highly motivating, challenging us to see exactly what we can do if we focus, concentrate, and really apply ourselves.  The time limit means we know that the end is always in sight, and so we feel more free to really go all out with our effort.   

This is the week to use time limits as a powerful tool.  If you've fallen behind, time limits can be the key to catching up, and getting back on the trail.  Here are the prompts and exercises for week three, starting with this evocative art. 

Monday, April 15 - Monday is, of course Art Day.  Take another look at "On A Quest."  What emotions does it bring up?  What is the story of of this person, and what will they find when they finally reach the city on the mountain?  Use some of these words and phrases to form a draft poem, but give yourself a time limit - fifteen minutes at most.

Tuesday, April 16 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  For this prompt, pick something that you can do with a time limit - say twenty minutes from start with the prompt to finishing the draft poem.  Don't think about it too hard, just get the words down.

Wednesday, April 17 -  Choose a hobby that you enjoy, and answer these four questions, with four words each.  Do this fast, two minutes total, and don't feel the need to stick to the questions too closely.  Hobby consists of?  It makes me feel?  Sensing it is?  It provides?  It relates to?  I chose my hobby of origami, and my lists are:  Hobby consists of - origami, paper, crafts, folding.  It makes me feel - satisfied, frustrated, accomplished, entertained.  Sensing it is - beauty, symmetry, smooth, light.  It provides - soothing, escape, perfection, controlled.  It relates to - creation, birth, new, real.  Use at least two words from each section to draft a poem.  For this you get eight minutes, for a total of a draft poem in ten minutes.

Thursday, April 18 - Thursday is Camera Day.  Take some pictures with your camera, and choose one to use as inspiration for a draft poem.  In keeping with our themes, find one that makes you think of a journey/quest, or something that brings up the concept of time and deadlines.  Feel free to take photos all week, and then pull out your favorite for Camera Day.  (If you don't have a camera, draw a picture of the scene, and then use that for your inspiration.)

Friday, April 19 - Think of a time you were confronted with a deadline.  It can be a work project, trying to catch a plane, an upcoming holiday, or anything that had a hard and fast limit.  Think of this subject and your deadline in two ways.  First, write out negative words and phrases that come to you about your subject and its deadline.  Then, write out positive words and phrases about this subject and deadline.  Use this material to create a draft poem in two stanzas.

Saturday, April 20 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  Find a prompt that makes you think of a long trek, quest, or trip.  Do the writing, and then choose images, phrases, or sensations from your writing to include in a draft poem.

Sunday, April 21 -  Short poems can take longer to write than long poems, but for this week, we are going to form a set of haiku on a schedule!  Give yourself four minutes to write down words that evoke the four seasons.  Don't be too restrictive, feel free to associate as you like.  Now, pick a subject that exists in all four seasons - sports, holidays, events, or even yourself or your pets, for example.  Give yourself four minutes to write four sentences, each with your subject and some of your seasonal words.  Give yourself another four minutes to go back and try to reform each of these sentences into the 5-7-5 syllables per line pattern associated with haiku.  It does not need to be perfect, go with the flow and the sense of the tension in the lines.

If you are behind, you can use these four haiku as four separate poems.  If not, you have a nice set of poems for your 21st day of NaPoWriMo.

Image Credit: "On A Quest" used with the generous permission of the artist, Lassi, Ehecod on deviantArt.com.  

Daily Astronomy Poetry for NaPoWriMo 2013

Rising to the challenge of NaPoWriMo
Sky Pirates No. 8 by quartertime

Several friends and colleagues have risen to the challenge of NaPoWriMo by posting a poem a day about our favorite subject - space.  Each is putting their own personal spin on the topic, and I'm sure that over the month some real gems will surface from the intense rush of creative writing.

Here's a taste of some of the interesting writing that has already appeared ...

On Imperturbable Music, the author muses about his seeing Saturn through a telescope:

The first view was a jolt.
It really looked like they said it would,
pale and perfect, ansa to ansa.
A platonic ideal of itself
even today. 

Taken from Planet's Above, we are led to consider the line between our dreams and reality:

So hide, obscure, amongst the fading wings
of Icarian ice, now stripped and set ablaze -
but know; our sleepless eyes will find you there,
unless ... unless you are just myths, of course.

From Tycho Girl's blog, we are inspired to keep on going, like a rocket:

watch the blue line
trailing from my candle
’cause I’m getting there.
 
So if you enjoy writing, astronomy, NaPoWriMo, and especially all three, you'll want to check out the following blogs this month (twitter handles also noted):

Tycho Girl http://tychogirl.wordpress.com/ @tychogirl
Imperturbable Music http://imperturbable-music.blogspot.com/ @asrivkin
AstroPoetAmee  http://astropoetamee.wordpress.com/ @AstropoetAmee
Bizzare Lag Phenomena http://iyzie.wordpress.com/ @iyzie
Sue Couch NaPoWriMo2013 http://sylvanellenapowrimo.wordpress.com/ @suzifulham
Planets Above http://planetsabove.blogspot.com/ @Alex_Parker

Image Credit:  Sky Pirates No. 8 by quartertime on deviantArt.com in the public domain.

NaPoWriMo Week 2 - Time to Shake it Up

Time to embrace the unexpected and uncomfortable.
"METAVERSE" by Robert Steven Connett on deviantArt.com. 

Week Two of NaPoWriMo is the time when the difficulty moves up a notch and the motivation moves down one.  It is harder to be enthusiastic.  After all, week one is behind us, but there are three weeks to go.  Ideas are more scarce, time seems to be more pressing, and things aren't going quite the way we planned.  You know - this is the usual way with writing projects, but it doesn't make it any easier. 

So I think of Week Two as the time to shake it up a bit.  Time to try things you haven't considered before.  Time to pull in some new influences and move out of the comfort zone.

And if today's Monday Art Day doesn't shake you up, nothing will.  This is "METAVERSE" by Robert Steven Connett on deviantArt.com.  I thoroughly enjoy this sort of art - the kind where my mind and emotions will not settle.  The artist comments "I thought it would be interesting to create a "stage like" outer environment with which to gaze in at inner world I created. This "outer world", like an opening in a cave, is something I have not done before."  The outer frame provides the context from which we view this strange new place.  There is so much happening here - wild colors, a mix of organic and industrial imagery, motion, and EYES everywhere!  The image is teeming with a strange sort of life filled with wires and light.  Creatures are spawning, swimming, hunting, and crawling.   

So here are the prompts and exercises for week two, starting with this evocative art. 

Monday, April 8 - Monday is, of course Art Day.  Take another look at METAVERSE.  Spend some time checking out the details in the piece, and how colors and lighting are used.  How does the art make you feel?  Disturbed, energized, anxious?  What genre would you give the piece - horror, science fiction, fantasy, or simply science?  Write a poem in that genre, using some of the emotions you feel looking at this art.  As an additional challenge, write from the viewpoint of a creature inside the art itself.

Tuesday, April 9 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  Pick weird ones for this week in keeping with our "Shake it up" theme.  Do the writing, and then choose images, phrases, or sensations from your writing to include in a draft poem.

Wednesday, April 10 - Find a word that rattles you and shakes you up in some way - good, bad, or a mix of feelings.  The word could be anything, since words and experience are so personal.  A few that I might pick are: blood, mother, crash, god, and hate.  Pick one and write out ten related words or phrases than include it, like goddess, godhead, godliness, ungodly, etc.  Write a poem using at least three of your related words, trying for that feeling of being rattled or shaken up.  An additional challenge - after you draft the poem, remove all the lines with your related words, and reform the poem.

Thursday, April 11 - Thursday is Camera Day.  Take some pictures with your camera, and choose one to use as inspiration for a draft poem.  Try to find a subject or scene that makes you feel something in a new way, or even makes you uncomfortable.  Feel free to take photos all week, and then pull out your favorite for Camera Day.  (If you don't have a camera, draw a picture of the scene, and then use that for your inspiration.)

Friday, April 12 - Find a poem that takes you somewhere new, or out of your usual mental space for writing.  You don't need to know why, or to explain it.  Something about 20 lines long is just about right.  Do the classic exercise where you write out each line of this poem with an open space in between.  Now fill in the missing lines with your own work, responding to what comes before and after.  Remove the lines of the original poem, leaving behind only your responses.  Take ten or so of these lines and reform them into a draft poem.

Saturday, April 13 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  Pick weird ones for this week in keeping with our "Shake it up" theme.  Do the writing, and then choose images, phrases, or sensations from your writing to include in a draft poem.

Sunday, April 14 - Look through your books and try to find one that rattles you, either because it is horror, is on a difficult subject, or is connected with a time in your life when things were in motion.  Flip through and copy down at least ten words or phrases that strike a chord in you.  A few I found from my chosen book are: compulsion, fix yourself, silence, body all bent, convalescent, and obsess.  Use five of these words or phrases in a poem.  Additional challenge, remove the lines with your specific words and reform the poem.

Image Credit: "METAVERSE" used with the generous permission of the artist Robert Steven Connett on deviantArt.com