Or an inspirational quote, or anything you can imagine as the first slide in a PowerPoint about working smarter, or written in cursive font over a photo of someone cycling in the rain.
Your creation must look right and sound right, and yet remain so shatteringly banal and devoid of utility that it could not possibly help or inspire anyone in any context. If you deploy it in conversation, a listener should go ‘wow, that’s deep’, and then five seconds to a minute later, go ‘wait, what?’.
Credit yourself. Points are deducted if you accidentally come up with a real saying.
‘You can’t cut a string in the same place twice’ - paraTactician
‘A full cup may spill more water’ - ArcticKayla
‘The sky is only blue when you’re looking at it’ - gymnopaedy
‘There are a multitude of stars, but only one universe’ – tazmuir
(via forlornest)
I have the privilege of my novelette, “The Deepwater Bride”, appearing in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. This is obviously awesome in every single way. Check out this beautiful object. Get it in your eyes. I would heartily recommend you also getting it as a physical thing in your life and home (click on the PayPal button if this seems opaque). Editor C.C. Finlay gives a whole bunch of excellent reasons as to why you should, and I want to join my voice in saying that completely apart from reading a thing by me there is a fantastic line-up. I was particularly taken by Rachel Pollack’s Johnny Rev, and on my to-read list went immediately the other stories in her Jack Shade universe. I hadn’t read them at all, and now I want to fix errors made by my incorrect lifestyle. Check out further reviews here:
Martha Burns reviewing @ Tangent
Sam Tomaino reviewing @ SFRevu
Lois Tilton reviewing @Locus Online
I won’t talk too much about Deepwater because I already gave an interview. It really is one of those stories where if I talk about it, I will give away the plot. All I can say is that if you want girls solving Lovecraftian mysteries and finding out the real mystery is… friendship*, Deepwater’s your huckleberry.
*is the real mystery friendship??? read to find out