Futurismic

I expect many of the writers in Futurismic’s readership are already using Twitter to communicate with colleagues and friends across the globe… but have you considered putting it to the more practical use of getting people to help you brainstorm your plot problems? PR maven Steve Rubel points to a friend of his, Jeff Kirvin, who has done exactly that.

Personally, I think I’d struggle to ask the hive-mind a question that specific about something I was writing; outsourcing some of the imaginative process would probably derail the pleasure and focus of creation for me, I think. Do you lot ask for help on sticky plots, or do you conquer the mountain alone?

And speaking of help with plot points, I got an email from one Helen Callaghan informing me that she’s hosting a guest blogger whom you might want to ask questions of:

Marcus Chown, popular science author of We Need To Talk About Kelvin [and cosmology consultant to New Scientist - Ed.] will be guest blogging on my site!

He’s agreed to answer science questions from SF writers, so the idea is, if you’ve got a plot issue or setpiece that’s bugging you, or you ever wondered what would happen if a certain scenario came true, here’s your chance to get an expert opinion.

The idea is that we can start asking questions now by posting them in the comments on the site, and the answers will be posted on the 11th.

Thanks, Helen; that gives you a few days, so pop over and leave your questions if you got ‘em.

Does Not Equal is a webcomic by Sarah Ennals – check out the pre-Futurismic archives, and the strips that have been published here previously.

[ Be sure to check out the Does Not Equal Cafepress store for webcomic merchandise featuring Canadians with geometrically-shaped heads! ]

Does Not Equal is a webcomic by Sarah Ennals – check out the pre-Futurismic archives, and the strips that have been published here previously.

[ Be sure to check out the Does Not Equal Cafepress store for webcomic merchandise featuring Canadians with geometrically-shaped heads! ]

Does Not Equal is a webcomic by Sarah Ennals – check out the pre-Futurismic archives, and the strips that have been published here previously.

[ Be sure to check out the Does Not Equal Cafepress store for webcomic merchandise featuring Canadians with geometrically-shaped heads! ]

Ugh, Monday… if you’re feeling like I’m feeling, you could do with some light entertainment. Well, this should be just the ticket – especially for those of you a little jaded with the proliferation of barely defined yet still rapidly ubiquitous and cliché-ridden subgenres of fiction. You see, there’s a webcomic called Wondermark, and a few weeks back its creator drew the wonderfully cod-steampunk Electro-Plasmic Hydrocephalic Genre-Fiction Generator 2000.

Which is funny enough alone, but – the internet being the internet – someone else rapidly threw together the code to automate the procedure, allowing you to create your very own fake fictional framework at the merest click of a mouse. So go have a play – once my tasks for the day are complete I will be settling down to write a story entitled “The Cosmoblades”:

In a post-apocalyptic Aztec empire, a young wisecracking mercenary stumbles across an otherworldly portal which spurs him into conflict with a government conspiracy, with the help of a leather-clad female in shades and her reference book, culminating in eternal love professed without irony.

All the chores of theme and plot swept away, as by an unobtrusive yet efficient man-servant. Huzzah! [original comic seen via loads of people but initially via Jay Lake; automated version via MetaFilter]