Short Story Update – Completed First Draft of ‘Body Issues’

Posted on By Jackson Allen

Pleased to say that I finished the short story I was talking about earlier this week. ‘Body Issues’ explores life for girls in a world where genetic engineering and consumer bioengineering have gone mainstream. It’s out for comments with my writing group and I’ll submit it after Body Issues is greenlit. I’ll post another update in a…

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Scifi – Where the Future Just *Is*

Posted on By Jackson Allen

I’m scared to talk about this. But I need to talk about this. Here goes. One of the things I’m doing with Inkican is to build scifi where the future just is.

Scifi Where the Future Just IsWhat does that mean? One of the things I want to do with my science fiction is avoid doing what everyone else is doing. That makes sense, right? I can’t call myself creative unless I’m pushing into new territory. The question is, what territory? Where does creativity stop and thoughtfulness begin? These are all the questions I’m thinking about as I work on a new short story.

‘Body Issues’ is a short about a teenage girl and the new social issues coming our way. I don’t want to give away the plot, but the main character is a girl and she’ll be non-white, too. For those of you saying, “So what?” let me say this: Thank you. I think this should be a no-brainer, myself. Given the current landscape of humanity, I’m afraid of negative repercussions. I don’t think it’s right to let that stop me.

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Guy Who Writes Scifi Short Stories – Remember Our Geeks

Posted on By Jackson Allen

Notes from a guy who writes scifi short stories - Remember Our Scifi Geeks

Here are some notes from a guy who writes scifi short stories – let’s remember our geeks today. We lost two of our own in the past seven days. I was saddened to hear of the loss of two of our elder geeks.

You won’t see trending #RIP hashtags on Twitter for them. They won’t make the Oscar’s ‘In Memoriam’ reel either. Yet, their contribution to science fiction is both significant and enduring. These two geeks’ names are unknown except to a precious few, but their achievement is immortal. Like Steve Jobs said, they put a dent in the universe.

To me, it’s infuriating that two celebrities and their personal lives dominate the public consciousness. It shouldn’t be that way. Perhaps things can change. Let’s bypass that debate. Instead, let’s simply remember our friends for the amazing people they were. C. Martin Croker and David Kyle changed the way you see science fiction. Let’s take a moment to examine why that is:

C. Martin Croker

Guy Who Writes Scifi Short Stories - Remember Our GeeksYou didn’t know him but you loved him. Clay Martin Croker was both an animator and a voice actor. You enjoyed his work on the seminal Space Ghost show … he was the voice of Zorak and Moltar. It didn’t stop there: Croker was also an animator for the show. That made him a bit of a unicorn: animators rarely do voice work.

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Sounds Like Fun – Let’s Try It

Posted on By Jackson Allen

Storytelling. That’s the name of the game.

When I started this journey toward a ‘third act’ in my life, one of the things I wanted to do was tell stories again. I love doing it. I missed the creative process and the way a good story connects you with other people. To that end, I’ve been thinking about the kind of stories I want to tell and doing some research. Then I got an ‘a-ha!’ moment when I stumbled on this list of rules that Pixar uses in their stories. These rules can be incredibly valuable for any storyteller, so I’m posting them for you as much as I’m capturing them for myself.

Human beings communicate via stories. For good or evil, storytelling is a very powerful way to share ideas, get your point across, or draw people to your cause. I’m sure you can think of a hundred examples of this, but for me I just turn on the news. All you see now are different people telling stories to explain their politics, their personal feelings or their reasons for whatever they do. Stories are powerful. Therefore, as a storyteller, I must learn to tell good stories. I’m life-hacking my way through this process, and the following 22 rules are a good step in that direction.

Let’s look at them together, shall we? I’m not going to try and break them down for you: like a good story, I think they speak for themselves. If you’re having trouble reading them, just click on them for the big version:

   

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