Procrastination = bad

So! Nothing like staring at a page ten minutes before I’m supposed to be in bed, and an hour before midnight, with no idea of what to post. I tried to write something about how I come up with ideas, but it ended up falling really flat, and I wanted to do a better job with it.

What do I call this? Blogger’s block? Posting block?  I spent all day dealing with slush or reading boring science reports block? I’ve been on the computer for way too long block?

None of those really roll off the tongue.

I feel bad doing yet another post about nothing, since all I did last week was rant about my computer (which is still broken, but not nearly as badly. This week’s post is brought to you by the generosity of Lawyer Friend, who is letting me borrow her old laptop.  This bumps Lawyer Friend up to the #2 thing I would save in a fire, after my cat*.)

I really apologize… but I got nuthin right now.  So, here are some writing links:

 http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/

One of SFWA's many fantastic articles.  This is a good source of inspiration when you're trying to develop a new world, and need a kickstart of what to figure out.

http://www.strangehorizons.com/guidelines/fiction-common.shtml

One of my favorite pages: Strange Horizon's list of stories they see to often.  I see these a lot in the slush pile too.  Especially the one about heaven as a bureaucracy. A very good thing to read if you're publishing short  stories.

http://www.simegen.com/school/beginners/WORKCharacterDrivenPlot.html

A short but very helpful post with a very simple rule for telling if you story is plot or character-driven (at least from the outset).

And some funny pictures:

Pun of the week:

For my fellow scientists:

And specially for Sarah:

And a promise to do better next week.

*I’m at best the #3 thing Lawyer Friend would save in a fire, because she has two cats.