WEALTH OF IDEAS

1. On Sunday, I discovered this applocation called Spotify (which I told isn't new at all), which allows you to search for and listen to music (while you work, etc). A friend on facebook had listened to a song, and facebook had told me, so I followed the link, and with minutes I was listening to Zimbabwe's Leonard Dembo (while I worked). And I realized too that facebook was telling the world what I had listened to, which I didn't mind because I want the whole world to listen to what I listen to. Like much social media, Spotify doesn't charge for these products but it makes money on you, as well as your friends, being the its product, the fact that you are listening, and that you become part of the listening stastics. They play ads as well, which do not take much from your listening time. And why is this part of writing news? Because when I said I listened while working, I meant that I was writing, or editing, or sometimes just looking at what I had, or had not yet, wr...

Perhaps as a way to demonstrate how plot works to shape a piece of fiction, Margaret Atwood wrote this humorous piece of inter-connected plot pieces. I am going to be talking about plot as a writer's tool at UCDE on Tuesday, and I thought I must share a link to Atwood's story. Here it begins: John and Mary meet. What happens next? If you want a happy ending, try A. Read the rest of "Happy Endings" here . After you read, challenge yourself and write a short piece of metafiction (it should be a story that talks about stories in some way, could even sound like a lesson on how to write stories or certain aspects of stories). Why do this? Because you can, and you have the time to do so. Who knows, you may actually end up producing an award-winning piece. Just like that.