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Unsolicited Advice for Life, Work, Work/Life and Lifework
Life is flux, but one thing I keep returning to is the Word.
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writing
Writers are special people.
Writers are special people. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Because it's true.
Writers are the imagination of our future and the memory of our past. I wrote that before, and I write it again here, now.
I met a writer today, who had tattooed on her wrist, "dialogos" in Greek letters.
Dia. Logos. The transmission, the stream. Of all truth.
Permanently inscribed in her skin.
Imagine someone in sales tattooing on themselves, "customer service". You can't.
Writers are special people.
In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God.
John 1:1.
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CNET Writes Linkbait Headline as Twitter Mom Grieves 2-year Old's Drowning
The reporting is fine; the results of her communication is sad, her loss is sad. All those factor in to the saddest thing of all, CNET, trading in humanity for some ******** page views. You bastards are disgusting. Change the title of this post.
via news.cnet.com
Found a comment down the page that quite expressed what I feel.
The woman's 2-year old kid drowned in between tweets. That's like saying he drowned in between phone calls on a mobile phone. (Actually tweeting takes less attention than a phone conversation.)
Personally, I would not take my eyes off a little kid for a moment, in any potentially hazardous environment. That said, this sounds like one of those senseless, tragic accidents.
People get scared that this kind of thing could happen to them, so they try to fault the mother, in a futile attempt to foist a factor of control onto the random tragedy:
"I'd never do what she did, so this'll never happen to me." So one hopes.
Fact is, according to the mom, the kid just ran off for a couple of seconds. Maybe she's lying, maybe those are just the frightening facts. That death could come at any time, is too much for some.
Those who think she was inside on the computer while the kid was outside next to the pool are n00bs who have no idea how people tweet.
This story is sensational because of the keyword "Twitter". Idiots. Every new thing gets blamed. Blue jeans. Beehive hairdos. Drainpipe jeans. Comics. Television. The World Wide Web.
I remember how the newspapers once reported that a little girl asphyxiated when her neck got caught in some crazy laces she tied around her bedpost. The tone of the story was that crazy laces (those delightfully horrid, fat fluorescent shoelaces of my early teens) were bad. That's like parents who teach their kid to blame the floor when the toddler stumbles and falls. Idiots.
Now I'm going to hug my kid.
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How to "Power Through" Writer's Block
Focus.
Yea. That’s one way. Keep whacking away at it.
Writer’s block? Just keep whacking away at it.
Or:
Take a different trail.
Got stuck with your murder mystery? What do you feel like doing? Maybe your muse is whispering about a lost space transport in a parallel dimension of time that appears in the 1980s that we knew. Maybe you should go with that. The murder mystery will still be there when you’re done with that. (Or get stuck with that.)
What if you’re working on deadline? All the more reason to trail off on a tangent. On two tangents. On three tangents. As many as possible, as quickly as possible. Keep iterating, iterating, iterating, till you come back to the murder mystery. And the problem will be solved.
Hey, the tangent you need might even be to go do your accounts.
The thinking behind this theory is thin-slicing, is adaptability, is rapid iterations. In other words: ready, fire, aim.
It is a legitimate technique used by many famous people. (So you know it’s solid.) It’s what they mean when they talk about putting your nose to the grindstone. It’s what they mean when they talk about DOING THE WORK. It’s what they mean when they talk about putting in the hours.
Somerset Maugham and his “inspiration always strikes at precisely 9 am every day”. It’s The War of Art guy’s sitting down and “invoking the muses”. It’s that other guy’s saying that “good art is simply good work”.
Yea, you’ve gotta work, but you can’t sit at the computer and stare at the blinking cursor. You’ve gotta write something. And if you can’t write what you need to write, write something else. Just write. It’ll work itself out eventually.
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Writing completes what reading starts.
Greg's tweet got me thinking: What if the answers we seek are not found in the books we read but in the books we must write?
Do not all artists create for themselves, after all? Chefs cook what they like to eat. Musicians play what they like to hear. Authors write what they like to read. And yet, it's not selfish to do so, because we share so much in common with each other, that what helps me can likely help you. And so, in creating for myself, I also help you. And vice versa.
But the thought that struck me tonight, is the remembrance that reading is not enough. Writing is the completion of understanding. And now that I have written this thought down, it sounds so obvious. But the truth, once articulated, always seems obvious. And this is the truth: There is a spot in our personal psyche that reading just can't reach. Writing must fill the gap.
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WriteRoom is worth the "price" of the @MacHeist 6 free apps (4 more days)! @mahyuni
I must thank Erna for turning me on to WriteRoom. What an awesome thing it is! Nothing but an old-fashioned black screen with green terminal-style type. Hahaha! This is liberating. But it's got automatic spellcheck? What on earth. Is that red underline a good thing? I don't know, yet. We shall see...
Okay, that red underline can be turned off. WriteRoom is truly the distracted writer's dream come true.
Hurry to http://macheist.com/ if you have a Mac. 6 free apps, 4 days more!
Hurry to http://store.apple.com/my if you *don't* have a Mac ;).
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How to Tweet Like @guykawasaki
Question: Why do some people attack you for using ghostwriters?
Answer: Because they are angry, little people who cannot generate content, so they try to generate controversy to get attention.
via openforum.com
I love Guy. Nobody does chutzpah like Guy.
Read this FAQ of Questions he has Frequently Asked himself on his Twitter proficiency. You'll learn something.
Even if it's chutzpah.
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Anne Rice on *Twilight*
I felt that it reflected the deep desire of young women to have the mystery and protection and wisdom of older men.
- Anne Rice on Twilight
via guardian.co.uk
An eloquent description of "teeny chic lit" ;).
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New Experiment: Writing 20 minutes a day for 21 days #write20x21
Today, I've decided to start another experiment - 20 minutes of writing a day, 21 days.
I'm in the middle of another experiment - in bed by 10, for 21 days. That's not going too well at all. It seems that nights are not very much in my control. Why? See, a lot of things - collaborative things - happen at night. Social stuff, after-hours stuff, voluntary stuff. The net effect is, I've not been able to make it to bed by 10 for many nights. I'm still trying, of course. You can actually track my progress on this page, courtesy of flowingdata.com:
Now, I'm trying this other experiment of 20 minutes of writing a day for 21 days. I know, I know, I know Stephen King says 1,000 words a day, but - perfect is the enemy of good. i.e., when you're "good enough", good becomes the enemy of best. But, when you're not "good enough", best is the enemy of good. So, I'm not aiming for 1,000 words a day, but 20 minutes of writing a day. I think that's doable. We'll see.
And why 21 days? There's no real research I know of to support it, but it's a rule of thumb that many "experts" throw around as the minimum time required to develop a habit. Yes, I'm aiming to make 20 minutes a day of writing a habit. (And that doesn't include writing "at work".) After that, then we'll work on 1,000 words a day, Mr King.
Also, the experts (Leo Babauta at least [http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/01/07/the-power-of-less-leo-babauta-zen-habits/]) say that you should focus on one habit at a time. It's hard enough trying to adopt one habit. Don't scuttle your efforts by trying to do too many life-changing times at one go - that seems to be the wisdom. We'll see how I make out with this thing. And you're welcome to watch! I'll even track it on flowingdata right here:
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