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Posts tagged as “Cracking the Narrative Code”

you don’t have to go home …

Published August 18, 2025 by centaur
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Worldconners closing out the Fountain bar last night

Worldcon is over, and people are now returning to their lives. I've got a day and a half here to enjoy Seattle, but the funny thing is, right now I'm in the same hotel bar where the above die-hards were closing out Worldcon last night - it's got a great high-top table at the window, which is great for writing.

The window seat at the Fountain bar where I'm writing.

Which I need to do, after reading more of Dwight Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer over breakfast. You'd think I'd have finished this book given that I lecture on Swain, but I got introduced to him through his audio lectures, so the lead up to my Worldcon talk was my first time to go through this book cover to cover, and even then I focused on the scene-and-sequel stuff that I was discussing. His discussion of openings - focusing on where, what's going on, and to whom, with what conflict, expressed with showing through immediate action - got my brain thinking about how to rework the opening of WATCHTOWER OF DESTINY. My room's being cleaned, so I decided to sit down and write my notes on these ideas right now.

Breakfast at Alder and Ash - smoked salmon omelet, dry toast and fresh fruit.

Even though I'm a night owl, sometimes it's good to start the day with food for body and mind.

It can inspire you.

-the Centaur

Pictured: The Fountain bar last night, the Fountain bar this morning, and yet another breakfast at Alder and Ash - smoked salmon omelet, dry toast and fresh fruit.

Worldcon 2025: Day Two

Published August 14, 2025 by centaur
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The Neurodiversiverse on display at Liminal Fiction

Day Two of Worldcon! And The Neurodiversiverse is already selling out at Liminal Fiction! (Apparently someone mentioned it at a panel!) But if you want forty-plus hopeful, empowering own-voices stories of neurodivergent people encountering aliens, conveniently packaged with poetry and art in an award-winning anthology, please drop by their booth and buy up the rest of their stock of the NDV!

We still don't have a fully staffed table as some people couldn't make it to the con (one, yesterday, held up when their train stopped while the police resolved an active shooter situation (!)). But I am getting work done on my presentation for Saturday (and on my blogging!)

View from the CA/Milford table, featuring Anthony's laptop

Some great costumes and t-shirts this year, even though traffic near the CA/Milford booth is a bit thin.

T-shirt reading "My body is a temple: ancient and crumbling, probably cursed or haunted"

I particularly liked this Oz guardsman!

An Oz guardsman.

Also met many authors and friends of authors I know. And, at breakfast at Alder and Ash this morning, I got in line at the host stand, only for the guy in front of me to step aside and say "Sorry! Still waiting for my party to arrive." I was seated promptly ... and then, moments later, the guy saw the woman sitting at the table next to me and joined her, saying "You were seated at the only table I couldn't see from the door. THEN this random dude starts mentioning that The Shattering Peace was doing well and discussing panels, and a quick glance confirmed it was John Scalzi, my favorite blogger, who apparently also writes books or something, which some of you may have heard of, discussing publishing with someone in the industry.

Breakfast at Alder and Ash with the book "Techniques of the Selling Writer" by Dwight Swain on the table, and John Scalzi NOT visible just to the right of the picture.

I let them eat, and finished my delicious breakfast so I could staff the table.

-the Centaur

Pictured: NDV at the Liminal Fiction booth, the booth itself, the view from the CA/Milford table, a t-shirt, an Oz guardian costume, and breakfast at Alder and Ash (with John Scalzi just outside the frame to the right).

Anthony at Worldcon!

Published August 8, 2025 by centaur
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Hey folks! I'll be attending WorldCon as part of the Academic Track! My presentation is on "The Cognitive Science of Scenes and Sequels" - an exploration of the real science behind writing teacher Dwight Swain's theory that you should write stories in action scenes followed by reaction sequels - and will be held Saturday, August 16th, at 11am, with a poster session in the Paramount Lounge from 12-1:

Many of my colleagues will also be there - Liza Olmsted and Betsy Miller of Thinking Ink, and our Neurodiversiverse authors Clara Ward (author of Be the Sea) and Cat Rambo (author of You Sexy Thing). Fellow Taos Toolbox alumnus RM Ambrose, editor of Vital: The Future of Healthcare will also be on a panel.

I hope to see you there!

-Anthony

The Lorentzian Argument and its Impact on Transgender Narratives

Published August 5, 2025 by centaur
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I'm working on a paper on "The Cognitive Science of Scenes and Sequels" with my friend Kenny Moorman. We're attempting to harmonize "scenes and sequels" from professional writing craft with the findings of the cognitive science of story understanding ... and I'm presenting it at WorldCon in a little over a week.

It's been slow going due to the amount of research involved---at least seven narrative disciplines affect our work, and relevant papers and projects go back fifty years---not to mention my periodic struggles with writer's block whenever I switch projects (as two other writing deadlines are overlapping this one).

SO! I've been working on the paper a lot of late, scribbling on printouts over coffee, then editing over dinner, staying up late at night to harmonize details. And I was plugging away at the "WC:AD" (WorldCon ACademic) paper when I hit a new section my collaborator had added on "the Lorentzian Argument."

Huh, I thought, I've been working on general relativity, where Lorentzian metrics show up; I wonder if this is the same Lorentz? Surely, I thought, I could take a stab at the section. Then I saw Kenny had moved the section on "Implications for the Transgender Narrative" to just after "The Lorentzian Argument."

He'd done so on purpose. There were notes there. There was a deep connection between them.

I realized there was no way I could fill out this section; I had to move on.

Then I woke up.

-Anthony

Pictured: Working on WC:AD at Monterey by the Mall. I wonder if the strength of the margarita has any effect on the bizarreness of the dreams?

P.S. In case it wasn't clear, our paper doesn't have implications for the transgender narrative, nor is there a Lorentzian argument in narrative theory---at least, that I am aware of. My brain made it all up probably because I'm also studying general relativity and transgender issues in the background for other projects.