Entries Below Are About The Topic Of on-writing

Better — Merlin Mann

“To be hon­est, I don’t have a spe­cific agenda for what I want to do all that dif­fer­ently, apart from what I’m already try­ing to do every day:

The Craftsman’s Creed by Josh Kaufman

Beau­ti­ful stuff: “The Craftsman’s Creed” by Josh Kauf­man I am a crafts­man. I am ded­i­cated to per­fect­ing the art and sci­ence of my craft, which I have cho­sen freely. I am con­stantly, relent­lessly search­ing for ways to improve my craft. I am ded­i­cated to learn­ing from the mas­ters who have pre­ceded me in every way I am able. I cre­ate valu­able things that other peo­ple want or need. I gen­er­ously offer my work as a gift when it is wise, but my pur­pose is … Con­tinue read­ing →

Exposing Yourself to Positive Black Swans | via: The Blog of J.D. Moyer

What’s the take­away?  If you’re lucky enough to have an activ­ity that excites and inspires you, then put in the time and put in the money.  There’s zero risk if you enjoy the activ­ity itself (the means is the end), and you expose your­self to the pos­si­bil­ity of luck and suc­cess.  Suc­cess comes unevenly, so 99% of  your efforts might yield zero rewards.  But that 1% — the black swan event — can make it … Con­tinue read­ing →

Barry Michels, Therapist for Blocked Screenwriters | via The New Yorker

They brought up Barry and his sis­ter in West Los Ange­les, and their best friends were Rod Ser­ling, who cre­ated “The Twi­light Zone,” and his fam­ily. Ser­ling gave Michels his first les­son in writerly dis­ci­pline. When the fam­i­lies took vaca­tions together, Michels noticed that Ser­ling woke up every morn­ing at five or six to work and did not emerge from his room until eleven. via newyorker​.com This is but one gem from a very inter­est­ing arti­cle. … Con­tinue read­ing →

Time Is Money | via A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing

Time=money.First, it’s impor­tant to under­stand that in tra­di­tional pub­lish­ing (which my friend Barry Eisler calls “Legacy Pub­lish­ing”), time moves slowly. When your agent sells you novel, it can take sev­eral months to get the con­tract. Once you sign the con­tract, it can be months before you’re paid. Once you turn in the man­u­script, it can be months, or even over a year, before your book is pub­lished. The large, inef­fi­cient, unwieldy indus­try that is legacy pub­lish­ing … Con­tinue read­ing →

How Much Can You Take? | via The eBook Test

So con­sider this: if all those cry­ba­bies with the mil­lions of dol­lars of bud­gets, well-known brand names, and cor­po­rate struc­tures and con­nec­tions are hav­ing trou­ble con­nect­ing — how much harder will it be for you, a soli­tary, unknown, “brand­less” writer? And I mean writer — not some yutz who got it in his or her oth­er­wise empty yet cheer­ful nog­gin that he/she could sud­denly put down words on a screen or page and com­pete against those who absolutely … Con­tinue read­ing →

The Wordslinger Manifesto

There are only two things that really mat­ter if you want to be a bet­ter writer: ONE: Read a lot. TWO: Write a lot. Every­thing else is just iter­a­tion and refine­ment. Peo­ple who claim: “I only write for myself,” aren’t writ­ers. They’re diarists. Authors write for an audi­ence and for them­selves. If your work is good enough to enter­tain, edu­cate, or inspire just one other per­son, then you ought to feel oblig­ated to share its value with as … Con­tinue read­ing →