Blog
This is where I post stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else. Some of might be related to writing or literature. Some of it might not. Some of it might be useful. Some of it might be total nonsense.
A year of tiny stories, and a new experiment
(tl;dr: my daily stories are now at www.scattering.ink, along with a weekly newsletter version that includes longer fiction)
A year ago, I started writing a tiny story (92 words, on average) every day. I thought this would be a good way to practice having ideas and acting on them while holding them lightly. But mostly I thought it would be fun. And it was!
I also decided to post them all online. I have always been a nervous sharer of my work in all sorts of ways, so I thought a bit of regular practice putting stories out there would do me good, too. A few people have said nice things about them, which is delightful. But I’ve also found it much easier not to worry whether people say or think nice things about them, or the other things I write. It’s become easier not to think of my stories as my babies, and instead to think of them as seeds. I scatter them to the wind, and a few might find the kind of earth they need to take root. That’s enough.
Read Lots Of Books At Once
Bookshops and Bookshelves
Does it happen this way for you? In a bookshop or a library, your eyes and fingers dance over the spines like you are blackberrying, and you are quickly laden with rich fruit. At home, surrounded by all these books you picked, it is as though they have already grown fur. There is nothing to read.
Objects you find in library books: A brief guide
Mark can write a little story, as a treat
I have been writing a tiny story every day for the last six months. I’m not really sure why I started. I think I just thought it would be fun. It was not an attempt to be more disciplined or productive or consistent, which is probably why I’ve been able to keep it up.
Not long after I started, my wife asked me if it ever felt like a burden, having to do it every day. It doesn’t, because I don’t have to do it every day. I get to do it every day. I’ve given myself permission to spend a few minutes of each day on this, whatever else is going on. This is perhaps a healthier attitude to creative practice than any of my past attempts to be more disciplined, productive, or consistent.
Story recipe
Building a children’s storybook reader
Reading MiFare Ultralight tags on Raspberry Pi with the RC522 and SimpleMFRC522
My 2022 New Year’s Resolutions In Review
How I Wonder
Lying on my son’s bed as he fell asleep, I couldn’t believe quite how much the glow-in-the-dark star stickers on his ceiling resembled the real thing. Even so close, they evade your focus as a real star does from inconceivable distance. As the fovea dances around them and the eye’s blind spot flicks across the imaginary sky, they even seem to twinkle. At the edge, where the landing light spilled through the crack between door and doorframe, there was the last hint of sunset.