Mediate

(I haven't done a word of the day in months, might as well try it again)
Universal Translators don't help much if you don't understand the culture. When the Thrxya arrived, hovering in their gleaming gold colored ships over the White House, they seemed very patient with us while we learned their language and they learned ours.
Unfortunately, because the translators relied on their computers to get the messages right, we declared war on them. Here we are, pissy litte planet that won't even go into orbit, let alone the moon, and we threaten a species that has the technology to get here from whereever they are from. There are too many variations on phenomic structure to be sure that any communication is accurate. Hell, asking the cashier at the gas station how his day is going can be a difficult thing some days. It's even worse when the grammar used by a person depends on their social status.
We studied everything about their language that they shared. We debated over what message to send. Even though they'd been there for months, we decided on being friendly. "Welcome to Earth" we said in their language. Somehow we used the grammar structure reserved for God in their sacred scriptures. We said "R!pa shu-ug latkla Earth" instead of "Shu-ug Earth R!pa latkla." We hired an actor to record the message so we'd have it right. Right words, wrong order.
I'm sitting in the crater that once was the White House, trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to send our surrender.

Information provided by Petersons.com (Through my.yahoo.com.)

More on Genius Writing

Just for a lark I picked up Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird. I do not find her an inspirational writer, especially when I start reading her experience of every first draft being absolutely wretched. I've had a hot and cold week. After getting back home after a family emergency I wrote two first drafts. These weren't really brainstorms, they were full drafts, beginning, middle, and end. The whole story appeared to me at once.
However, two other stories fizzled. One story is about a mobile home taxi cab in a world without airplanes. I've tried to write this one several times and started over and the thing just fizzled out after a few hundred words. Nothing fancy, but it is probably a story that I will have to wait to write later, or write it in different chunks, out of order. The other one is one of two new ideas that also fizzled. Bogged down in dialogue. Ah well. I think I started writing so much dialogue that the workshop voices made themselves heard and the 'talking head' death knoll sounded. I might have to do a full brainstorm without dialogue to get that one out.
So I have no new rules for writing to share, but maybe they are rules. Let stories tell themselves, and let the story dictate when it needs to be written. Don't let an unfinished draft sit for too long; either start over completely, or make sure you are in the same voice as the first writing when you are ready to continue. Several writers have rules like "finish what you start" and "only work on one thing at a time." These are good rules, and I try to follow them, but I am openly and knowing breaking them.
What do I do when a story fizzles? If I just run out of words for the day, I research markets or I go read a few of the online markets. This can be a dangerous thing. I just read Abimagique by Lucius Shepard over on SciFiction, and it is so damn good but different from what I write, my reaction (as a writer) was "I'll never be this good." That's not a healthy reaction. Shepard has been successful, at least, if I had his list of published works I'd think of myself as successful. But I have a different voice, a different set of experiences, and I don't want to move my audience so much as make them think.
Okay, one rule: Never write witht he goal of winning an award. Writers of the Future, Nebulas, Hugos, etc. Leave them out of your head. Write for you, and sell it. I'm still working on that last part.