What It Takes

The Value of Words

By Callie Oettinger | Published: June 2, 2017

Numbers are concrete.

Unless they’re being manipulated by a slug, I don’t look at “2” and wonder if it is really “4.”

I know that the absolute value of 2—whether it has a negative sign in front of it or not—is still 2, because numbers are ultimately about distance. Both 2 and -2 take up two spaces on the number line, whether I’m moving forward or backward. (more…)

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What It Takes

First Story Gridding Steps

By Shawn Coyne | Published: May 26, 2017

We’re story gridding The Tipping Point.

Why are we doing this again? (more…)

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What It Takes

Baseball, Bouncebacks, and Stealing Joy

By Callie Oettinger | Published: May 19, 2017

A baseball hit me in the face.

The short story:

I was at a baseball game when a player hit a ball, the ball hit a guardrail, and then the ball hit my face.

Every experience in life is spooled on a loop, so as the Camden Yards staff hovered to make sure an ice pack was all I needed, I wondered which loop I was existing in at that moment. Why did this happened? Of all the people at the game, why me? What had I missed? Why was I in that loop? Why not the loop of the happy family enjoying a sunny day and a game? Could I have made an adjustment that would have had me living a different loop when the ball was hit? (more…)

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