http://amancuso.org/blog/260 Unorthodox Creativity Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:13:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://amancuso.org/blog/260/comment-page-1#comment-153 John Schmidt Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:29:01 +0000 http://amancuso.org/?p=260#comment-153 Carl Sagan had an interesting formula that strikes me as more important than scientific accuracy in fiction: express a sense of wonder and retain some skepticism. Isaac Asimov insisted that a good story trumps scientific accuracy in fiction. When mining the pillars I only go far enough to quiet my curiosity and assemble the material required for a plot element that satisfies the needs of a story. I'm always willing to listen to complaints from others who might find one of my fictional science plot elements to be absurd. With some thought, even the most absurd fictional science can be "justified" by imagining an advanced technology with what seems like magical powers. Carl Sagan had an interesting formula that strikes me as more important than scientific accuracy in fiction: express a sense of wonder and retain some skepticism. Isaac Asimov insisted that a good story trumps scientific accuracy in fiction. When mining the pillars I only go far enough to quiet my curiosity and assemble the material required for a plot element that satisfies the needs of a story. I’m always willing to listen to complaints from others who might find one of my fictional science plot elements to be absurd. With some thought, even the most absurd fictional science can be “justified” by imagining an advanced technology with what seems like magical powers.

]]> http://amancuso.org/blog/260/comment-page-1#comment-131 Kaitlyn Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:30:49 +0000 http://amancuso.org/?p=260#comment-131 Granted, my chances to write fiction of late have been few and far between but I have been struck by how much my anthropological and musical training gets incorporated into what I do write. Writing about the things that I do versus what I study on a regular basis are very different through. What I study goes into how I think about what I'm writing, how I approach it, what questions need to be asked -- I don't think it necessarily affects the content directly, but instead shapes it before hand. What I do, however, being tactile and more concrete in a fashion, definitely affects the actual words going onto the page as I'm writing them. For example, if I'm writing about someone playing a whistle, the sensation of doing so gets incorporated into the character as I'm typing it out. The memories of the sensations and the sounds are immediate. Academic knowledge shapes things long before I start putting words to the page/screen. Granted, my chances to write fiction of late have been few and far between but I have been struck by how much my anthropological and musical training gets incorporated into what I do write. Writing about the things that I do versus what I study on a regular basis are very different through. What I study goes into how I think about what I’m writing, how I approach it, what questions need to be asked — I don’t think it necessarily affects the content directly, but instead shapes it before hand. What I do, however, being tactile and more concrete in a fashion, definitely affects the actual words going onto the page as I’m writing them. For example, if I’m writing about someone playing a whistle, the sensation of doing so gets incorporated into the character as I’m typing it out. The memories of the sensations and the sounds are immediate. Academic knowledge shapes things long before I start putting words to the page/screen.

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