Welcome to the 16th (5+5+5+1) writing club update. Looking at the intro to the 16th chapter of Procedural Generation in Game Design: Generative Art Toys by Kate Compton, we find the somewhat quaint observation:
Everyone loves being creative. And everyone likes discovering that they’re more creative than they thought they were. For many years, people have enjoyed crafts like pottery wheels, Spirographs, Mad Libs, spin art, paper marbling, and tie-dye. These artistic toys helped everyday people make interesting artworks (even if those people lacked creative talent or inspiration) by producing surprising and emergent results from simple choices.
Now that we have digital systems, we can make art toys with even more surprising and emergent behaviour. […]
This book (edited by Tanya Short, and Tarn Adams) was first published in 2017, long before the term “generative art” would take on a very different insinuation. I’ve certainly got some strong opinions on the subject of both interpretations, but this is a writing club update not my personal soapbox.
Having now fulfilled my self-imposed rule of introducing a quote related to the number of WC updates since we started, I now turn to an observation about my local climate/weather, before introducing our writers, and finally extending a friendly invitation to any lurkers in our midsts. :)
Up here in the Northern hemisphere, at the heel of October, it’s starting to get chilly. The ideal weather for reading and writing probably varies as much as the individual writer, but for me this feels like book weather.
Speaking of individuals, here is the call for our regular writers to share their updates!
I think I’ll move this list to the main Writing Club sticky post next update, since the @s don’t seem trigger notifications consistently across applications. Let me know what you think, if you have an opinion on this.
As is forever the case, passers-by are very welcome to come on in and lurk, comment, or post their own updates.
Personally and anecdotally, that has been my experience with post-secondary: that it can mark a decrease in creative writing, as so much of your active and even idle focus powers are taken up cogitating over what you’re studying. Not to say that that’s a bad thing, and I’m positive this is not universally the case. Also, it can be a very rewarding time for writing and reading, and in other ways, so please don’t take my factoid as pessimism.
Reading and collecting ideas is so great. In some ways it’s my favourite part of the cycle. It’s my suspicion that even if you aren’t consciously doing creative writing, that if you’re feeding your imagination your creativity will inevitably find some avenue to express itself. Even if that’s just hosting a monthly writing club, hehe. :)
I agree, unless I’m taking a creative writing class, my mind tends to be focused on my coursework. I’ve found I’m most creative when I have lots of slightly idle time – when I’m doing something with my body but its simple enough that my mind can wander. Things like driving, or working a very repetitive job.
Still its always good to get new information in, and I enjoy hearing about what other people are up to :)