Weekly Wrap-Up #7

We really need a better name for these. Any suggestions?

infamous-kaijyu-byoin-dragon-fortHaikyo

Urban Exploration is such a big deal in Japan that they have their own word for it. Haikyo. Thsi week I found a fascinating website for looking at building and pictures of haikyo. It’s even cooler in Japan than it is in the US because they have all these weird buildings, like those by the architect Watanabe Youji. Manyof the buildings on Haikyo.org are examples of a style known as metabolism architecture, which you can read more about here on Wikipedia.

Understanding Steampunk

vernaeronefWhat is this steampunk thing anyway? And why should you care? An article titled Five Thoughts on the Popularity of Steampunk gives an answer that’s more substantial than the usual “Gears and leather and retrofuturism” stock reply. And there’s a book called “Steaming into a Victorian Future” that gives far more information on the subject than anyone could need or want. Meanwhile, if you already know and love steampunk and want to write some steampunk short stories, there’s a pretty well-trafficked steampunk blog called the Pandora Society that publishes short stories every week, and enters them into a contest to win fame and reknown.

Should you Stop Writing?

This is a topic that’s been address fairly often by many writers around the web. This is a question every young writer has stopped and asked themselves at some point along the journey. Should you keep writing? Should you just give up? What if you really aren’t any good at it? Maybe you should get a real job that doesn’t involved making things up and writing them down. But by far and away the best post on the topic is the one published last week by Chuck Wendig. As is usual for this author, it beats around the bush and is peppered with offensive language, but also as is usual these two usually objectionable traits combine to deliver a powerful punch about what it means to write, to need to write, and how to answer for yourself the question of whether you truly are a writer.

And that’s all for this week!

What cool stuff have you seen around the internet lately? Anything inspirational or just plain odd? Be sure to share it with us in the comments!

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