Nathan Bransford - The Forums

...it's hard to be realistic about your own writing, impossible perhaps because of the lack of an absolute standard in this craft. Yes, there is a 'lack of an absolute standard' in writing, but this is true and fundamental to all Art. Art as an expression of beauty is not amenable to the intellectu...

Following up on Nathan's blog: Why is it So Hard to Tell if Our Writing is Good? Four thoughts: One : The Grand Canyon People go to the Grand Canyon, take out their cameras and think that they can capture its grandeur...or even a powerful two dimensional facsimile of said grandeur. Which of course t...

This is technical suggestion, so it may not be possible--or it may be costly to implement.

There should be some connection (or some way to connect) the forum to your blog, so that blog replies can take on the 'back and forth' communication that's possible here in the forum.

Just a thought...

"I'm thrilled with the idea of having a real tablet computer that I can carry around my house and use for email and surfing without the hassle of a laptop ." from jrector Exactly. I don't think the computer industry has yet to come to understand the full power of the internet and the unrel...

"It could be smaller, but it's kind of necessary when you're screen is all touchy." That may or may not be true...I don't know enough to be definitive. But I'd like to see a software solution to the bezel, like a Windows 'screen resize button'. Screen space and overall weight are extremely...

Everything is cool but the 'form factor'...it should look like a PSP handheld device, only slightly larger. Sort of like a thin paperback book. Why? Movies would play in their native format (widescreen) and books would read 'natively' (i.e. like a paperback). And it would be 'pocketable' (given a ja...

First off, it was very brave of you to post your work. Second, I almost never comment on works in progress (like, say, in 'Absolute Write'), so the fact that I'm commenting means--from my perspective--you already have a certain (perhaps even necessary) degree of integrity and technical acumen. Third...

1. Guess it's a good thing I have a well 2. Don't trust any municipal water. Everyone knows that flouridation junk is all one big commie mind control trick! Actually, the article is extremely rigorous in its attempt to portray the reality of potable water pollutants. A rigor that--unfortunately--th...

Here's a great article in the NYTimes about municipal water supplies and contaminants. San Fran and NYC looks pretty good for big cities...the others, not so much. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all Here's the list of 47,500 water systems: http://projec...

Here's a great...really great blog post about this endless recession:

http://open.salon.com/blog/steve_klinga ... s_recovery

"Ha! Yeah, maybe I'll make a t-shirt out of it. Merch!!" In jest, many a good word has been spoken: "At Two Dollar Radio, in order to keep our book line pure and generate some alternative revenue to help subsidize the adventurous voices we elect to publish, we sell tee shirts." ...

In some sense, meta-knowledge (which essentially is what your question is addressing) is about vision rather than technique/form. That is, we create a book (as form) via technique but only see the work's totality via 'vision'. And vision tends to be a product of 'mind' rather than intelligence or ta...

Not directly an answer to your question, I have a link to a document that I think anyone interested in creating quality work (in any field) should read. I'm not a huge fan of academia or academic research per se. However, this work is both exemplary and useful in the extreme: "Unskilled and Una...

FYI...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 27740.html

"Well, when you break the universe..." Dude, this is potentially a great line for marketing! (Assuming it isn't already being used as such. And I don't necessarily mean paid for by your publisher...although, given the right publisher, who knows. I certainly wouldn't dismiss mentioning it ...