Category: Writing
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An academic genealogy
Some years ago I came across the [Mathematics Genealogy Project](https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/index.php) – the idea is to create a family tree, but based on your academic supervisor rather than your parents. At the time I couldn’t trace myself back very far, but looking again recently I found that I can now get back pretty far… (One note…
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Story: The Day I Created a New Nation
Well, the first annual [IntShoStoWriWe](http://www.exasperatedcalculator.com/archives/2008/02/nanowrimo-for-short-attention-spans/) was a success, with 100% of participants completing a short story of at least 2,500 words. OK, so it was just me this year. But I actually finished a story for a change. It’s a little rough around the edges, but I think it works as a complete piece. The…
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NaNoWriMo for short attention spans
Last year I tried to complete [NaNoWriMo](http://www.nanowrimo.org), the National Novel Writing Month. I did better than the year before, but still fell well short of the goal of 50,000 words written in the month. It’s hard to commit to something for as long as a month – life tends to intervene, and once it does…
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First 500 words
I made an attempt in November to try and write a novel, but it was pretty farcical: I only managed to make time for it on the first day, and after that it was all downhill… The next four or five days I couldn’t find the spare hour, and then I was so far behind it wasn’t…
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Can you tell a story in six words?
Via Boing Boing (and many others) is this brilliant project from Wired magazine. Ask a bunch of famous writers to tell a story in six words: Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so. (Joss Wheedon) Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time (Alan Moore) Kirby had never eaten toes before (Kevin Smith) Awesome stuff! (Although that last…