Tips on Writing Flash Fiction
Writing an effective work of flash fiction isn’t just about writing a short story without lengthy explanations; it’s about compacting all of the elements of a full length story or novel into a pocket-sized version without compromising the integrity of the story. While many pieces of flash fiction or microfiction are straightforward short tales, what draws me to writing flash fiction above all other forms is the challenge of creating an intriguing story which transcends the superficial conflict and resolution by including elements of inference, foreshadowing, and character...
read moreFinding Your Inspiration Zone
As I tweeted earlier, finding an inspiration zone – the place where most of your ideas arise — is key to being a productive scanner. While many people experience writer’s block or some other form of blocked thought process, the inspiration zone is the place you can always count on your inspiration, ideas, and free thought. Finding such a place is easy for those who have experienced the constant streams of ideas in a particular place, but others take years to finally realize where they should be doing their best thinking. I’ll describe one of the most common places, explain...
read moreCriticisms of a Poorly Constructed Sport: American Football
Analyzing sports with respect to my five principles of sport and subsequent extension of those principles often exposes failures and inconsistencies in their rules and structures. By sound structure I’m referring not just to the principles in the aforementioned articles, but also to a structure that encourages and permits the highest availability of competition while still taking into consideration that, after all, not every sport can be the same. That said, one sport above all seems to be disproportionately poorly constructed while somehow maintaining its immense popularity in the...
read moreSports, Violence, and Law: A Case Study in Ethical Relativism
With the story of a junior ice hockey player elbowing an opposing player, causing the victim on-ice convulsions as a result of a traumatic brain injury (not to mention a few missing teeth), it was inevitable that violence in sports — and, in particular, ice hockey — would again become headline material. The immediate result of the infraction, as expected, is that the offending player has been suspended indefinitely. Some administrators, players, and fans, however, seem to think that a league suspension is not enough, going to far as to expect — or even demand —...
read moreThe Impact of Mere Conversation
As I wrote to my Twitter account a few days ago, “Sometimes the most memorable and humbling conversations we have are with complete strangers in short, by-chance interactions.” What I was attempting to do in 140 characters or less was refer to a specific conversation I had on a plane ride home from a hockey tournament during my undergraduate education that made an incredible, almost surreal impression on me that I will never forget. But, first, a distinction: we’ve all had emotional conversations we’re doomed to never forget. Likewise, we’ve all had “ah...
read moreThe Diffusion of Responsibility in Social Anxiety
While many people take great steps to hide from or avoid publicizing their afflictions, everyone knows someone with an anxiety disorder. One of the more prevalent of these disorders is social anxiety disorder, which afflicts approximately 15 million Americans. This disorder, as the name infers, takes hold when the person “experience[s] an intense fear of being scrutinized and negatively evaluated by others in social or performance situations.” (ADAA) Oftentimes in these situations the person will have symptoms that include “blushing, profuse sweating, trembling,...
read moreHindsight, Justification, and the Butterfly Effect
An interesting point of discussion was made by a friend of mine regarding a recent sporting event: regardless of what happened in the game, as long as the team came out as the winner, the positive outcome erases any sense of the word “mistake” on any play, by any participant, at any part of the game. The justification for this argument is that by changing any part of the game, including those parts which were previously thought to be mistakes, might change the positive outcome of the game to a negative. Does invoking the butterfly effect help justify this argument? The...
read moreA Synesthetic Life
When people find out that I am a synesthete, most people look very puzzled. They immediately look as if I might have some sort of disease, extra-sensory perception, or belong to a funny-sounding religion. Contrary to their beliefs, however, synesthesia is actually a neat little “disorder” whereby a stimulus gets a little mixed up by a person’s senses. For us synesthetes, that means, depending on the form of synesthesia, we can taste, smell, and touch things such as colors, shapes, sounds, and text — immaterial things to you, but not to us. The first interesting...
read moreThe Rules to Ensuring a Successful Movie-going Experience
Having seen a number of movies in the theaters recently, I’ve decided to make public the rules I generally follow when embarking on the movie-going experience. The principle behind these rules is that movies cost $9.00+, so the experience better be a good one. And you needn’t pay for the new, trendy luxury movie theater experiences; you can get the same experience for the normal price. It all comes down to combating the bad aspects of the common movie-going experience. The reasons for why the usual movie-going experience aren’t due to any particular demographic, but...
read moreChoosing an Unbreakable Universal Password
I don’t know a single person who hasn’t forgotten his password. And, generally, the reason you can’t remember your password isn’t because it’s so complex, but rather because you have so many of them. A site you frequent often might only require four characters, so you choose something easy like “eric.” Or another site you frequent requires at least six characters, one of which must be a number, so you choose “hockey9,” your favorite sport plus your high school number. Whatever the reason for the number of passwords you may have,...
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