Creativity

The first article "Ideas in creative writing" is informative and gives good ideas but, for the most part it was just telling me what to do and how to do it. I agree with what they say but the way they go about it, it feels less like suggestions and more like commandments of fiction writing. The first thing is that the article tells you that you should avoid macro level ideas and stick with just characters. The problem is often times some of the larger forces that we he is telling us not to write about become the influential force behind characters. Fiction also becomes a way of transposing radical ideas into a package that can be given to the general public. It would have been better to say focus on character development rather than to toss out macro level ideas.

The other opinions set forth in this article are pretty good though. I think as far as organic and static characters it is true. If the character doesn't change through the story than the story doesn't feel like it moves at all. The thing that contradicts this though are characters in television show. The story isn't exactly a book but they don't change. In cartoons their clothes don't even change. The characters go through some ordeal but at the end they are the same character and we still love them. I love the last idea from the article though, drawing from real life for fiction is always great. It creates a more dynamic character if the person is real in a basic form.

The article "Getting started in Science Fiction" was hilarious, and despite the best effort of the author after reading it I just wanted to write more. The article isn't so much telling you how to write but telling you that you will suck and it will be hard. It is more about living as a writer than about actually writing. The problems you will face as a writer in science fiction are innumerable. It does give some positive messages too about starting out (that everyone sucks at the start). A lot of the advice given is helpful and recognizes that ideas come from anywhere but aren't what make the story they just shape it.