The Story of More, Our Story Begins

"All human beings are a lot better at describing what is happening than at predicting what will happen. Somewhere along the way, however, we began to hope that scientists were different - that they could be right all the time. And because they're not, we kind of stopped listening."

Crocuses Emerge from Damp Soil

But there is hope in it. Crocuses, beloved as early harbingers of spring, stand out, a little pool of brightness in a sea of drab. That combination of rich purple and zinging orange is an antidote to gloom.

I hope you can find some crocuses this week.

Clear Light Shines Through Mist

Spring is round the corner, but the corner is long.

English Pastoral: An Inheritance, Progress

Read the whole book.

new farming had taken two mutually beneficial things - grazing animals and fertilizing fields - and separated them to create two massive industrial-scale problems ... farms with thousands of animals had more muck than their land could possibly accommodate, while crop farmers now had no animals, and thus no muck to fertilize plants

English Pastoral: An Inheritance, Nostalgia

Read the whole book.

As I sat in the back of the tractor watching the seagulls, it felt as if Grandad and the seagulls behind his plough were part of the same whole, the one as true as the other. They both had timeless claims on the earth; they both belonged to the same cycle in that landscape.

Lab Girl

Just popping this book on my wishlist.

A plant that lives where it should not is simply a pest, but a plant that thrives where it should not live is a weed. We don't resent the audacity of the weed, as every seed is audacious; we resent its fantastic success.

The Concise Guide to Self-Sufficiency, Chapter 1

I always wondered why I couldn't find my 'one thing'.

"We were not meant to be a one-job animal. We do not thrive as parts of a machine. We are intended by nature to be diverse, to do diverse things, to have many skills."

ReWild, chapter 4

...since it is the sun we're talking about, when we're slowly rolled away from it...

This is, first, a beautiful book, much nicer than the pictures. It's also lovely to read. It sounds like Nick Baker is just sitting opposite you, chatting away, full of passion and information.

First Among Sequels, chapter 24

I love everything Jasper Fforde has to say about story. (Check out some other Ffordian quotes with the Jasper Fforde tag.)

"Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit."

The Cloudspotter's Guide, chapter 5

Clouds are Nature's poetry, spoken in a whisper in the rarefied air between crest and crag.

This is an exceptional read if you love clouds, which the author (and creator of the Cloud Appreciation Society) clearly does. I'm struggling to learn much, however, as the information keeps meandering into story.

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England, chapter 1

My favourite bit so far:

You will also find [in London in the fourteenth century] a communal running water supply - fed through a series of conduits... On certain special occasions the conduits are even made to run with wine - for example, on the arrival of the captive king of France in 1357, or to celebrate the coronation of Henry IV in 1399.

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, chapter 5

The writers's self-image. Writers have to simultaneously believe the following two things:

1. The story I am now working on is the greatest work of genius ever written in English.
2. The story I am now working on is worthless drivel.

[Believing 1 as you're sending and 2 as you're editing, etc.]

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, chaper 1

You know when you think you shouldn't bother to create something because it's already been done 1 million times?

The novelty and freshness you'll bring to the field won't come from the new ideas you think up. Truly new ideas are rare, and usually turn out to be variations on old themes anyway. No, your freshness will come from the way you think, from the person you are; it will invariably show up in your writing, provided you don't mask it with heavy-handed formulas or clichés.

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, chapter 1

The Infinite Boundary

...whatever is published within the field of science fiction and fantasy is science fiction and fantasy, and if it doesn't resemble what science fiction and fantasy were twenty years ago, some readers and writers will howl, but others will hear the new voice and see the new vision with delight. 

The Fifth Season, prologue

The Prologue in this book is better than anything I have ever written or imagined, and better than quite a lot of things I have read.

I was not expecting to be so instantly hooked, it usually takes me a few chapters to really get into a book.

On Clichés, introduction

Written in 1979:

Daily speech, for example, tends to loose its substance of meaning when a society modernises. As a result, the art of conversation is increasingly forgotten. Instead, modern man has become a virtuoso in chatter...

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), chapter 9

Never put yourself down about things that you create. That mean voice inside you that says, 'You're not good enough' is not your friend, okay? I used to hear that voice all the time. If I hadn't started ignoring it, I wouldn't be here right now.

There are enough negative forces in this world - don't let the pessimistic voice that lives inside you get away with that stuff, too.

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), chapter 6

Every second of writing that script felt like walking barefoot over shards of glass. I would write a bit and then I would sob, wanting desperately to erase what I'd just written. Oh God, that's not a scene, no one acts like that. I have no idea what to make happen, who should talk next? I hate myself. Then I would force my fingers to type more, every word feeling like I was bleeding from every orifice. I was engulfed with fearof making mistakes, of writing something stupid, of encountering story problems I couldn't think my way out of.

The creative process isn't easy [...]. It's more like a wobbly, drunken journey down a very steep and scary hill, not knowing if there's a sheer cliff at the end of it all.

I sometimes look at successful people and think, I could do that! I could be there I WANT to be there!, coverting the end result without understanding the WORK that proceeded it. I wanted to have written a script...

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), chapter 3

If you strive for something, make sure it's for the right reasons. And if you fail, that will be a better lesson for you than any success you'll ever have. Because you learn a lot from screwing up.

Going to drum this failure-is-okay stuff into my head until I get it. REALLY get it.

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), Intro

But the heart of this story is that the world opened up for me once I decided to embrace who I am -- unapologetically.