Alternate worlds: in which love is mandatory

Jimmy wakes up on the morning of his 18th birthday and drives to the clinic for his mandatory injection of love serum. This is a special medicine that makes him fall in love with the next person he sees. This is required of all adult citizens, once per year. It is very unlikely that the …

Alternate worlds: in which I didn’t burn my bacon

Incoming, a series of posts about alternate realities that we almost lived in. Or maybe some we never had a chance to live in... In this alternate world, I didn't leave the bacon in the oven for nearly an hour and come out with black strips of salty carbon. In this world, I remembered and …

Late night thoughts

Somewhere, there is a tree growing which will some day be cut down and made into your coffin. No one will ever truly know you, but you. The person you love most in the world has secrets they will take to their grave, kept even from you. The things people do for love, when done …

Languages

I wonder how or if my writing would improve if I knew multiple languages. Haruki Murakami translated his first book into English, then back into Japanese when he first wrote it in order to simplify his style. I wonder if it added new ideas to it as well. There must be some ideas that are …

Rewriting someone else

In 1Q84, a writer is rewriting the novel of a dyslexic teen who dictated the entire thing to a friend. He finds passion in rewriting it, because the story is very appealing to him and he wants to improve the writing to bring out the nugget of goodness within it. I wonder if I could …