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Posts Tagged “

Writing

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steal this pitch

How To Bring The Weird In Your Near-Future Stories

Everybody says we're living in a science fictional era now. Your grandma's poodle is on Facebook, your whole social life is on your iphone, and mega-corps know everything about you. But if you think the world is futuristic now, just wait another twenty years. The weirdness will swarm exponentially, making the world of 2028 easily as jarring as 2008 would seem to a visitor from the Reagan era. So how can we, as writers and storytellers, create a believable medium-near-future world? More »

Feature

9:12 AM on Wed Apr 23 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
2,601 views, 33 comments

Latest by n/a: @Charlie Jane Anders: Charlie Jane, Do you know what sort of publishing platform the site currently runs on? (It's probably a blogging platform like Wordpress or something) Wordpress up, Timber more »

steal this pitch

The Coming War Between Religion And Super-Science

The 21st century may well see a final showdown between scientific rationalists and religious fundamentalists. We'll see more and more conflicts — like Dawkins vs. creationists, or Bush vs. stem cells — as scientists discover more facts that challenge religious beliefs. But I've been racking my brains to think of science fiction stories that depict the conflict between science and religion in a compelling way. Why don't we see more stories that deal with this? And how can you (yes, you!) write about these conflicts in a smart, interesting way that doesn't resort to caricatures? More »

Feature

9:45 AM on Wed Apr 9 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
7,626 views, 255 comments

Latest by RAHfanboy: @jesustonight: Ripped from tomorrow's headlines. more »

x-men

X-Men To Move West, Have Sex

Marvel Comics plans to publish a much less depressing version of the X-Men, if news reports coming from this weekend's WizardWorld: Los Angeles are anything to go by. Following the culmination of literally decades of angst, death and depression culminating in the accidental shooting of Professor Xavier and its aftermath, July will see the start of a new era for the characters. Writers Warren Ellis and Matt Fraction are joining the writing team, the team is moving to San Francisco, and... well, there some sex, apparently. More »

8:40 AM on Mon Mar 17 2008
By Graeme McMillan
6,600 views, 27 comments

Latest by zenpoet: If its not Rob Liefeld, I won't read it! *gets struck down by God* more »

steal this pitch

8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories

Short fiction is the "garage band" of science fiction, claims Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden, so it's time to step on that fuzzbox and thrash as hard as you can without knocking over your mom's weed-trimmer. Actually, I think Nielsen Hayden was referring to the fact that you can try more crazy experiments in short SF than in novels, because of the shorter time commitment of both writer and reader. But how can you become a super-master of the challenging form of short fiction? Here are a few suggestions. More »

Feature

9:35 AM on Wed Mar 12 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
15,403 views, 44 comments

Latest by n/a: Aboslutely perfect, bang-up job as always Charlie Jane. Posts like this make io9 one of my favorite stops on the web. Maybe I'll put these tips to work this weekened :-) more »

time travel

Los Angeles is Open for Your Time Travel Business

If you're a temporal traveler stuck between decades and you find yourself in need of Mammoth Chunks, Anti-Robot Fluid, or Barbarian Repellent, you can now head to Time Travel Mart in Echo Park, Los Angeles. They'll probably have it in stock. Unfortunately, you'll have to come back yesterday if you want something from the Time-Freezy Hyper Slush machine — that's the last time it was working properly. No problem! You're a busy time traveler, but everybody needs a hyper slushie. Find out more inside, and check out our gallery of chronolistic goodness. More »

10:20 AM on Thu Feb 28 2008
By Kevin Kelly
4,713 views, 17 comments

Latest by MickyK: that water is very expensive... more »

interview

Controversial SciFi Realist Tells io9 Why Warp Drives Suck

Most science fiction movies make jumping to other star systems look as easy as stepping out for a bagel. But scientists think it'll never be that easy. So science fiction author Geoff Ryman (Air) invented a new school of writing called Mundane Science Fiction, which avoids faster-than-light travel, time travel or parallel universes. Why is he such a buzzkill? We asked him. More »

11:30 AM on Fri Dec 14 2007
By charliejane
591 views, 1 comment

Joss Whedon and Ron Moore Pencilbath Here's a video showing Buffy / Firefly creator Joss Whedon and Battlestar Galactica remaker Ronald D. Moore dumping half a million pencils into a box that's being sent to Hollywood fatcats to help illustrate the writer's strike. Here's an idea: let's cut down the entire forest and ship reams of blank white paper to 'em! That way we can deforest the planet and make a point at the same time. [Whedonesque]

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