Aug 20
Khakjaan WessingtonArt, Combat Words, Craft, Literature, TWAK, evolution, guns, humor, memes, philosophy, poetry, politics, promotion, random, richard dawkins, science, web, writing combatwords
CombatWords! August 20, 2010: Evolution
This cycle of cells is vicious, isn’t it? Predator and prey all germinated from the same batch(es) of cells and filled every exploitable niche on this planet: an endless cycle of growth and consumption. Parasites, symbiotes; eater and eaten all draw energy from the sun and its legacy. When I think of the chain of life, I sometimes think I am a skin cell that has forgotten it is part of a bigger organism. Of course, most of the time, I just think my cluster of cells is precious and the rest have little to do with me. Evolution can be metaphorical as well; I find it hilarious for example when I hear about technology ‘evolving.’ Do creationist engineers hide in secret covens and call their manifold works the products of intelligent design? Do they grit their teeth when their colleagues discuss the ‘evolution of the business process’? There’s more than one angle to this one.
Combat Expiration: Sunday, August 22, 2010; 12am PST
Critique Expiration: Sunday, August 22, 2010; 6pm PST
Bonuses: Flat bonus of +1 for compositions posted before Friday, August 20, 2010 9pm PST. +2 for compositions posted before Friday, August 20, 2010 6pm PST.
Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html
ps: Okay, this is posting >1min early. Those who got here early have some extra initiative.
Aug 15
Khakjaan WessingtonArt, Combat Words, Craft, Literature, Publishing, books, humor, memes, poetry, promotion, random, web, writing
CombatWords! August 15, 2010: Lightning Round
You have one hour to weave the below keywords into a composition. I’ll be really impressed if you can find more than one theme to unify the keywords/concepts.
Keywords/Concepts: tropic, sound, insanity, strategy
Combat Expiration: August 15, 9PM PST
Critique Expiration: August 16, 6PM PST
Time Bonus: +1/5 minutes ahead of deadline, max +5
The Official Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html
Jul 30
Khakjaan WessingtonArt, Craft, Literature, humor, memes, philosophy, poetry, writing combatwords
CombatWords! for July 30, 2010: Good
The Good: Shall we say ‘The Good’ maximizes human happiness, as Aristotle would have us define it? Good is of Anglo-Saxon origin, so I think it’s safe to say it predates a Latin—and therefore Mediterranean—definition. GE Moore sez ‘The Good’ is for suckers. Or let’s make it more simple—what if you could go back in time and shoot your French machine-gun a little more accurately at Hitler in WWI? Is that good if you prevent WWII? Is that bad if that means WWII is fought in the 50s with nuclear weapons? See? This shit gets tricky. What does it mean to be good? Is it an act constrained to time? Our experience? Or forget all that; be opposite-kid and write about Evil, because ooh, you’re so rebellious. As long as you riff off the theme, you can rack up the bonus points.
Combat Expiration: August 1, 6pm PST
Critique Expiration: August 3, 12am PST
Bonus Increment: +1 per 3 hours ahead of deadline with a maximum time bonus of +15. Yes, time bonuses are going to be huge in this CombatWords, but quality matters. The limit is +15 to give PST people some time to write after work. Don’t want to give the East Coast an unfair advantage. If you don’t want to wake up with the Saturday penalty, you’d better get writing NOW.
Rules are here: http://trickwithaknife.com/?p=861 and here http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html
Jul 30
Khakjaan WessingtonArt, Craft, Uncategorized, memes, poetry, writing combatwords
Rules for CombatWords! Updated for July 30, 2010:
Critique & Scoring:
Scoring is based off critique. Each critique item is worth one point. Positive critiques are +1, and negative critiques are -1. One critique per reviewer, per composition—so get it right the first time. Simple “I liked it” (ILI for short) and “I didn’t like it” (IDLI) critiques are only worth +/-1. Critiques may be as general or as specific as the critic would like. However, anyone may critique a critique to adjust the score: this includes the author of the subject composition. However, only one critique per post per poster, to prevent vendettas from mucking up the game. Critiques may go into overtime, but only in the case of thread consensus.
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Jul 23
Khakjaan WessingtonCraft, Literature, TWAK, Uncategorized, evolution, humor, memes, philosophy, poetry, writing combatwords
Combatwords for July 23, 2010: Pleasure Versus Pain
Pleasure and pain; comedy & tragedy; happiness and despair—these are the moods and feelings we chase or flee. They are also the foundations of behavioralist worldviews. Han Fei Tzu and BF Skinner have plenty in common, despite their 2000+ year gap. Take this topic however you’d like: humans as animals; the two flavors in life; whatever.
Combat Deadline: July 25, 6pm PST.
Critique Expires: July 27, Midnight PST.
Time Bonuses: +1 per 5 hours ahead of deadline.
ARE YOU A JERSUSALEM CRICKET OR A CAMEL SPIDER???!!!
FIGHT!!!!!!(?)
Jun 22
Khakjaan WessingtonCraft, Literature, Review, Uncategorized, philosophy, poetry, writing Shitbots on the web
http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2010/06/why-no-writer-knows-what-hes-doing.html
I wrote a comment on there, but wanted to copypasta what I wrote on Twitter as I was still in the throes of outraged nausea.
“@KMWeiland the whole argument is predicated on the fallacy that mastery is a set of immutable traits. You measure literature by the metrics of other disciplines, rather than as the thing in itself. There are so many errors in that essay, the only thing that shone through was a willingness to subordinate coherent thought & method to the essay format. I don’t care if I alienate a bunch of ppl for saying this, because that essay is literary poison & the position it represents is my mortal enemy. Learn some basic logic!”
There’s more on the comment page; but I wanted to take a moment here to remind you cats that form is the platform, but the content has all the components. You can build a jet out of balsa wood, you can paint it so it looks real, but the motherfucker will not fly. If you do not have anything to say, it doesn’t matter how you say it. If your writing lacks engines, machine guns, an ejection seat and the like, buy some fucking books and quit breathin’ my ink!
May 10
nate InnomiCraft, TWAK, guns, writing assault rifle, fucking trigger, literary magazine, pseudo-intellectual, writing
This generation of social media and electronic over-stimuli isn’t do you any favors, twenty-first century writer. All this technology is at your fingertips and you’re caught up with writing on your friends walls. Spending your time punching links and “liking” bullshit isn’t getting your writing career anywhere fast – or anywhere at all. It’s time to drop the status updates and write something substantial.
This isn’t basic anymore; this is a war zone.
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May 06
jmeshornCraft, Literature, writing questions, writing
So, what’s the point of writing? When I write I have no thought of publishing (I rarely get published). I do it for me. Therapy, I guess. I am my audience. I have no belief that I will ever make a living at it. Nor do I care. I can survive on my sales job for as long as I need to. Big question after the jump.
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Apr 30
Nathan TyreeCraft, writing Craft, style
I realized long ago that I have a specific voice; a style. That style has evolved over the years (I think that I have gotten better as a writer, but then who am I to judge). I also tend to revisit the same themes in a lot of my writing (I try to stretch to get to other things, but we all have our obsessions).
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Apr 20
Nathan TyreeCraft, Literature, writing Craft, critics, writing
When you write something, can you tell if it’s any good? See, I’m never sure. Maybe I’m stylistically tone deaf or something. I always doubt the quality of my own work. To know that something I’ve written is good, I need feedback. I get feedback from trusted (honest) friends. I get it from my writing workshop. Then, once I’m convinced that it must be at least workable, I send it out into the world. If an editor likes it enough to publish it, then I assume that it was at least okay. If it keeps getting rejected over and over, I conclude that it is bad and it goes into a special folder. That folder is a writing purgatory. Sometimes a piece gets pulled from it, re-worked and makes it to the good pile.
So, do you know if your writing is good? If so, how?
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