What with server issues, the last round of drabble lab was pretty quiet. But we still got a few great entries! I’ve included all of them, and our winner’s illustration, below. So, going forward, there are two possibilities: either round four was especially quiet due to server issues and happenstance, in which case there will be a bunch of entries this time around and we’ll keep o... »
Despite issues with logging in to the comments, last week’s drabble lab was great. Hopefully, sign-in issues will be resolved this time around; if you couldn’t get your drabble in for last time I’m sorry! I was really impressed this week with the breadth of interpretations of the theme. There were a lot of different interpretations, and they were all quite interesting! Read on fo... »
This round of Drabble Lab made me grin, because there were so many repeating themes. You know you write for a wonderfully skeptical audience when the prompt of ‘truth’ yields stories mostly about the fallibility of human reason and the possible reality of totally implausible situations. In short, in most of these stories, there was no truth. And that was awesome. Once again, I recommend everyone c... »
Recently, Douglass Rushkoff talked about something called “Present Shock” in Wired. In particular one quote stood out for me, about how storytelling is changing: “Think Game of Thrones. In the old days, this sort of show might be considered bad writing. It doesn’t really seem to be moving toward a crisis or climax, it has no true protagonist, and it’s structured less like a TV sh... »
Drabble lab last week went phenomenally! There were so many great entries that I had a desperately hard time choosing a winner. You should definitely check out the whole thread, with all 14 drabbles (that’s only 1400 words; it won’t take you too long!). But in the meantime, here are runners up, a winner, and a new theme! For those of you who don’t know what is going on: Drabble l... »
Maybe you’ve been watching the photo lab with a certain amount of envy, because your camera is covered with a thick layer of dust that inspires nothing short of shame and dread when you think about picking it up. Maybe you’re like me, and write with a certain compulsiveness that is just short of unhealthy. Maybe you want another opportunity to participate, or want to give writing a try... »
Mad Art Lab just turned two. To celebrate, I’m giving away my novel for free. This blog and its readers have been very good to me and to show my appreciation for you being awesome, How Not to Poach a Unicorn will be free for Kindle from Amazon, Saturday March 2nd to Wednesday March 6th. Read it, love it, share it with your friends, share it with your enemies (but make them wait till they hav... »
I recently got into it with someone over a quirk of the English language while having some of my work edited. It was a wholly pedantic argument and I thought that I would share it and ask you all to join in with your own thoughts. It’s the word “unique” and how it is supposed to be an absolute term, and in that capacity it may not have any linguistic or logical value. »
