Archive for the ‘Creating’ Category

Remember NYCMidnight's "Tweet Me a Story" contest? Hundreds of writers wrote stories of 140 characters or less, using a supplied word? And then some of the writers made it to the final round, and we all got the same word? And I posted my entries here?

One of them made the top 25, chosen by NYCMidnight's judges, and now the final vote begins. So I'm shamelessly asking for votes.

Head to http://www.nycmidnight.com/2009/tweet/tweet.htm and vote for me (if you feel my story deserves it, of course). You can also vote for any other of the entries you like. No registration required, no e-mail, nothing. Mine's the 4th one down:

"Aren't you skydiving?" "Yup." "You're calling from midair? That's sweet!" "I love you…" he said, watching the tear in the fabric spread. CREATED BY Chris Bridges

Voting ends Wednesday, 9pm EST. Thanks!

So, I made the final round of NYCMidnight's "Tweet Me a Story" contest. So, the remaining writers all got the same word last night to use in our 140-character stories. So, the word was "tear."

Here's what I submitted, with titles added afterward for fun:

Last Call

"Aren't you skydiving?"

"Yup."

"You're calling from midair? That's sweet!"

"I love you…" he said, watching the tear in the fabric spread.

Father Knows Best

"But I loved him, daddy!"

"Wipe that tear away, honey. Other boys will respect you more."

"How do you know?"

"Because they'll see his body."

Anything for You

"You said you were too happy to write tear jerking songs?"

"Yeah?"

"I just stole your truck to go sleep with your sister."

"Oh, I love you!"

Interestingly, all of them are about love, one way or another. Noticed that after I submitted them. Here's what I didn't submit, and why.

Read the rest of this entry »

So NYCMidnight.com is holding a contest for writers to craft Twitter-sized stories of 140 characters or less, which must include a supplied word.

So all of the entrants were split into 20 groups, with a different word for each group, and we all wrote (my word was "heaven").

So the first round now has been judged, and the best 15 stories of each group have been chosen, and now everyone gets to vote on their favorites out of each group.

And of the 15 chosen in my group, 2 of them are mine.

And now it's time for you to vote. I'd appreciate it if you voted for mine (although there are some excellent competitors there). You can even vote for both of mine, if you've a mind to.

Go to the first round page and click on Group 1. Mine are the top two stories in the list, the ones by Chris Bridges. Vote!

Voting goes on till next Monday night. The writers of the 5 top stories of each group will go on to the finals, and I'd sure like to be there. I hear it's nice. Thanks!

The first round of the "Tweet me a Story" writing contest from NYCmidnight was last night. Entrants were assigned a word at 7 p.m. and had 5 hours to come up with up to 3 stories, under 140 characters each, including that word in proper usage.

My group got the word "HEAVEN." Here's what I submitted (titles added for fun afterward, not included in submission):

SUBMISSION #1: "Watching the Fur Fly""

"I don't think 'All Dogs Go to Heaven' was a suggestion, Bill."
"Just keep feeding me cartridges," Bill said. "This is gonna take a while."

SUBMISSION #2: "Sacrificial Yammering"

"What do you mean I can't come in," he said. "I gave up everything to get to heaven."
"Exactly," said St. Peter. "You're too boring now."

SUBMISSION #3: "Afterlife Is a Bitch, and Then You're Dead"

Listen: Sometimes Heaven and Hell swap, as a lesson to the saved and damned souls alike.
Where will you go if you die tonight? Depends…

Granted, they're more like scenes than actual beginning-middle-resolution stories, but those are a pain to cram into a tiny box.

On June 1st, 15 winning stories from each group get posted for online voting, and the winners progress to round two. I expect slavish, devoted voting for me from all of you.

That… was an excellent movie.

I'm about to go into detail, so don't read on if you're avoiding spoilers. Lots of them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Missed this when it came out, but some time back the folks at the SAMBA blog decided to see how tough it was to come up with new ideas for products or businesses, and offered them free to anyone who wants them. It's worth skimming through just for the laughs or the "huh, why hasn't somebody…" realizations. Some of the suggestions already exist in one form or another (which could be why one suggestion is for a service to tell you if your idea has been done; I smell some desperation there) but some are just inspired.

A church-issued credit card that automatically deducts your tithe? Movie theaters that display televised sports events on a 70-foot screen? A cellphone with a USB memory stick built in? In-grocery-store food prep that would chop your veggies while you shop? The notion of creating a portable drive-in theater with two semis (one to be the screen, the other to be ticket sales and concession) to go around showing independent movies appeals to me. And I would go for this one: "Rent a llama or goat to eat your front yard."

A few display the thinker's personal pet peeves, such as "A self cleaning microphone that never smells like breath or beer." At least one contributor seems fascinated by the concept of having your stuff — cell phones, TVs, computers — smashed and returned to you as art, although I can't tell if it's from a love of art or hatred of electronics. Many of them are just suggestions for services that the suggester wants, like public nap stations and professional obituary writing and people to deliver the single 3/8" nut you need for your repair job to your house. And some are just silly, such as "A place where you can go and pop bubble wrap. Possibly a bar of some sort."

Of course, now that I said that someone will open a chain of "Popper's" restaurants and make a fortune.

Some suggestions are illustrative of how the social interactions of the Web have changed how we think of things, such as the one that suggest a Web site that, for every product you buy, ships a mystery product to a friend for the cost of shipping and handling. Improve the economy and bewilder your friends! Win!

And some are just wrong, such as Nicocream, the nicotine ice cream. "Comfort food that helps you quit smoking (or addicts you to ice cream)."

But this one? "An application that you have your friends fill out that will compare against your answers and give you a compatibility score. In addition, tips about their personality." Totally exists. It's called "Facebook."

Next time you get a free hour or five, check out "Hamster Burial Kits & 998 Other Business Ideas" from SAMBA. If ideas are a dime a dozen, here's $8.35 worth to get you started.

It's National Kazoo Day!

Please plan your activities accordingly, especially if you're planning anything formal tonight. Remember, kazoos fit nicely into even the smallest purse or tux pocket, and nothing finishes off a romantic evening better (or more completely) than a kazoo.

This is also as good a time as any to mention the movement at kazooamerica.org to make the kazoo America's National Instrument. This plucky music maker is an ideal choice for our national musical mascot. After all, it's so democratic: anyone can play a kazoo successfully (for a given definition of "successfully").

The movement has already made great strides with appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Fox and Friends, CBS Sunday Morning News, Martha Stewart, and has won approval from bemused and often bewildered politicians across the country.

So join the hordes of buzzing musicians and help us fight to honor this lowly instrumentby raising it to the level of national recognition. Wouldn't you love to see President Obama playing the kazoo, possibly leading Congress into a rousing rendition of "America the Beautiful"? Some days, I can think of little else.

Sure, you want to send your Facebook buddies a beer or a bouquet or a box of chocolates or a plant or a pet or any of a zillion other virtual items available through the many Facebook gift-giving apps, but who can afford them?

Times are tough, and even free gifts might be too a little too much for your strained budget. Fortunately, I can help.

Depression Gifts allows you to send economy-appropriate presents to your friends. Pencils, apples, sticks, and more easy-to-afford items are available, with more coming. Your friends will appreciate the thought and your wallet will appreciate the break.

Depression Gifts. Available wherever lots of sad-looking people stand in line, in black and white.

Want to read some quick fiction?

It doesn't get quicker than what you'll find at Thaumatrope , the first zine I've seen published through Twitter.  I'm assuming you know what Twitter is, of course.  Social text messaging service where messages are limited to a dumbphone's text message limit of 140 characters.

And yes, you can deliver complete stories in that amazingly limited amount of space. Earnest Hemingway once famously wrote one in six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” And Wired asked lots of writers for their six-word creations last year. It can be done, and it's a cool idea.

Thaumatrope bills itself as "a magazine for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror fiction".  So far it features reviews of books and games, intensely short fiction, ongoing tweets from the future, and even an interview with author John Scalzi ("Why?" "There is no why. Causality is for amateurs.") And the part that amuses the hell out of me is this: they pay for fiction. 5 cents a word, average for the market. Actually they pay a flat $1.20 per accepted story.

I love stuff like this. If you recall I made the cover of The Writer for their feature on shortingly-short fiction. It's challenging and fun and maddening. So you'll be seeing my tiny byline there a few times over the next year, until they make me stop.

I hope. Setting up Twitter Tool is getting me a daily digest of my tweets posted here, which I wanted, but alao generating another tweet about my digest of tweets to Twitter, which i didn't want as that's just getting silly. Settings say not to do that; it's doing it anyway. Time to hack.

Twitter also about to play a larger role (but not much) in my job as I begin sending tweets for breaking news, polls, quick hit news blurbs, and other stuff to my paper's account, @dbnewsjournal . Had a lot of fun explaining (along with the younger reporters who already Twitter) to management what, exactly, Twitter is and what it's for and how it could possibly help our traffic. Hey, all the cool kids are doing it…

So now I get to search for the elusive balance between promotional tool and actual useful I-want-to-follow-this Twitter account for my job, which I'm actually kinda looking forward to. What makes a useful Twitter feed if it's not one of your friends or a celebrity you want to casually stalk?