Hmm…

Tag: writing

  • Vanity, Oh Vanity

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    harmamae
    in

    OR: What Do You Mean I’m Not a Great Poet – I Got My Poem Published In a Vanity Anthology!   On the subject of poetry, it’s very difficult to publish poetry, or get famous doing it. But that’s not exactly obvious if you just google “publish poetry” or “poetry contest” and thousands of hits…

  • Frustration

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    harmamae
    in ,

    Frustration is… … having a zillion writing ideas in your head, but not having time to actually write them. Because you have to write a boring, derivative history paper instead. Or study for statistics. I came across the concept of dead fanfiction today – basically it’s fanfiction that never gets updated because of other life…

  • Teenage Dreams

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    harmamae
    in

    This poem was actually on a bus ad – our city has this program called “Poetry on the Bus” to put poetry in everyday transit riders’ lives, and my poem was selected for it a couple years back. It was actually pretty cool to hear some of my friends saw it. It’s actually the last…

  • Sci-Fi and Me: The Uneasy Truce

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    harmamae
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    After discussing Fantasy last week, I decided to examine its sister-genre, Science Fiction, next. I used to swear I hated science fiction. And I had good reason to – every sci-fi forced on me in school was invariably depressing (I’ve never been a fan of depressing stories, I usually read to escape to a happier…

  • Poetry

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    harmamae
    in

    Poetry is whirling words Apple trees and bright blue birds Words that make you feel happy That is poetry. I’ll be the first to admit what little poetry I’ve written is mostly light-hearted flights of fancy. The one above was on my Grade 8 poetry portfolio, so it seems fitting to start off a short…

  • Fantasy Round-up

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    harmamae
    in

    Lately I’ve had people ask how I get inspiration when writing, and one big part of it is – reading other books! Good books show what works, what techniques are out there, and what tropes exist (obviously not for the purpose of blatant copying, that would be pointless). Bad books show what fails horribly, and…

  • Fanfiction: For Geeks Only?

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    harmamae
    in ,

    Or, What I Learned From Writing Fanfiction   So, now that I’m looking back over my looooooooong career as a fanfiction author (just kidding) and wondering whether it was a useless exercise. After all, when I look back at some of the drivel I posted on fanfiction.net, I cringe. And it’s not like I could ever…

  • In It For the Long Haul (or, Facing Writer’s Block)

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    harmamae
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    “Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing,” is a quote I saw online once (apparently Sylvia Plath said it). If so, then my room must reek. I’ve got shelves and shelves of the stuff, and very little published writing. On top of that, most of what’s on my shelves is unpublishable – not only…

  • Finding Time to Write

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    harmamae
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    It’s the last week of January, and resolutions are meeting reality. All those lovely, grand plans we started the year with are starting to look a lot harder to achieve. Yeah, my resolution was to write more often. I know, I’m not the only writer out there who finds it hard to find time to…

  • Your Name in Print

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    harmamae
    in ,

    When I was younger (and more naïve about the difficulties in getting published), I wondered why anyone would write for something that didn’t pay you for your writing. What was the point of writing for free? Of course, I didn’t even dream of the rise of blogging, where thousands of people write everyday for no…