iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

When I was in grad school, MFA program students had a Halloween party and dressed up in various literary costumes. I did not wear a costume and just told everyone I was writer's block.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 7h

My man looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy starring in Dopesick

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 7h

Today in my Writing Fiction class, we are examining, line by line and paragraph by paragraph, much of Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge" to see what we can learn about fiction-writing techniques and decisions.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 7h

haha I've been working on the joke in my head for two days and had nothing

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 8h

"The exercise aims..." Journalists must stop conveying government justifications as if they are the genuine motivations or goals. It's like writing that Trump's voter suppression efforts are intended to fight voter fraud.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 19h

I am going to call it “super news”

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 21h

“Put me in charge of your pizza shop. I hate the stuff, but I can sell your chairs to the restaurant down the street.”

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 21h

Maybe the person running a major movie studio should like movies.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

When you're a whistle-blowing referee, people don't know if you're calling out football corruption or if that's a holding penalty.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This is why I posted this yesterday bsky.app/profile/sste...

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This is fair. In my opinion, the level of quality is low and that is part of what people (or I) enjoy about it. The plotting makes me roll my eyes, the expository dialogue is relentless, etc., but it feels like some kind of inside-joke badness that people on this site share enjoyment over.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

By the way, if you think it's easy or even possible to create something similar, try writing a Jeeves book in the style and quality of Wodehouse without actually plagiarizing his sentences.

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Reposted by Scott Stein

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

[Replicant in Blade Runner clicks on "I am not a robot"] Rick Deckard: Shit

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Because people always add something of themselves to creative work even if they're trying to create something similar, which means they have created something new. Not always entirely new, of course, but new in some way—if they're good, they create something that's alive. Because they are alive.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

In my George R. R. Martin era

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

[Replicant in Blade Runner clicks on "I am not a robot"] Rick Deckard: Shit

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The kind of crime that gets you elected now

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"My man killed millions" is a hell of a joke setup.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It's hard to blow the whistle about corruption at a whistle-testing factory. People will think you're just testing whistles.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Okay, now you've gone too far. In this essay, I will expound on the noble traits of the pet hamster.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The narrator of the audio book did a fantastic job, including fun voices for the characters and capturing the feel of the footnotes, so almost every joke lands. There was just that one that depended fully on there being numbered footnotes. www.audible.com/pd/The-Great...

audible.com

The Great American Deception

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. A damsel in distress. A dangerous dame. A metric ton of coffee. Private investigator Frank Harken’s worldwide fame has only made him more cynical. And living in a giant mall covering the entire USA only serves to drive him nuts on a daily basis. So...

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

In book one, The Great American Deception, there is a joke that references the number of the footnote. When they made the audio book, it was decided that the footnotes would be performed as asides within the flow of the text and wouldn't be actual footnotes. So that joke couldn't be included.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

There are jokes in the novel I'm currently writing that are based entirely on whether a certain word begins with an uppercase or lowercase letter. Not everything translates to audio.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

My "Strangers in Strange Lands" students are writing a paper about what Gulliver would think if he journeyed to the United States in 2026.

In this paper, you will explain what Gulliver (from Gulliver’s Travels) would think of a particular aspect of current American society or culture. The analysis of Gulliver’s opinion must be based on his A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms, providing examples and evidence from part four of Swift’s book as well as outside sources related to the topic. You are not writing about what someone from Swift’s time would think of America today. The focus must be specifically on Gulliver and the text we read.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Didn't gnaw at those stitches this time

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Hey man, insulting to mashed potatoes, which are the kindest of the potatoes.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Everyone loves beluga whales until one of them robs your house.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

They haven't seen the beluga whale riots that you've seen growing up on the south side. They've been brainwashed by Big Beluga.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

My entire team was in the hospital last year, so I am having fun not losing. But

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I was rooting against my running back but he scored anyway.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I have the Eagles defense, so besides wanting them to win because I live here, I get points if the opponent doesn’t score. But if they do score, I have strong opinions about which player it should be.

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Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I didn’t want the Rams to score just now against the Eagles, but at least it was my running back. Fantasy football is diabolical.

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