Writer as Coder: The Iterative Way to Write a Book By Leo Babauta The traditional way of writing a book is like the old Microsoft model of developing software: you write it in isolation for a year or two, and then put it out as a fully-formed product. The problem with that method is that it’s never been tested in the real world. You don’t know if readers (or users) will want it, you don’t know where you’ve made huge mistakes, you don’t know how it will work in the wild. That “Microsoft” model of making programs has been replaced in the last decade or so by iterative programming, where you make a Minimum Viable Product as soon as possible, and let a small group of people (alpha or beta testers) use it and give you feedback and report bugs. Unfortunately, we authors are still stuck in the Microsoft model when we’re writing a non-fiction book. There’s no reason for that, so I used the iterative software model when I wrote my new book, “Zen Habits: Mastering the Art of Change“. The process is one of the best things I’ve ever done as a writer.
The Workhorse and the Butterfly: Ann Patchett on Writing and Why Self-Forgiveness Is the Most Important Ingredient of Great Art by Maria Popova “The ability to forgive oneself … is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life.” “All makers must leave room for the acts of the spirit,” Ursula K. Le Guin wrote in her lucid and luminous essay on where ideas come from and the “secret” of writing. In her magnificent memoir-of-sorts This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage (public library), novelist Ann Patchett offers one of creative history’s finest and most convincing counterpoints to this myth. Ann Patchett by Heidi Ross She writes in the introduction: The tricky thing about being a writer, or about being any kind of artist, is that in addition to making art you also have to make a living. In my mind, fiction and nonfiction stayed so far away from each other that for years I would have maintained they had no more a relationship than fiction and waitressing. Illustration from 'Inside the Rainbow: Beautiful Books, Terrible Times.' Forgiveness. Donating = Loving
How to Find Fulfilling Work By Maria Popova “If one wanted to crush and destroy a man entirely, to mete out to him the most terrible punishment,” wrote Dostoevsky, “all one would have to do would be to make him do work that was completely and utterly devoid of usefulness and meaning.” Indeed, the quest to avoid work and make a living of doing what you love is a constant conundrum of modern life. The desire for fulfilling work — a job that provides a deep sense of purpose, and reflects our values, passions and personality — is a modern invention. … For centuries, most inhabitants of the Western world were too busy struggling to meet their subsistence needs to worry about whether they had an exciting career that used their talents and nurtured their wellbeing. Krznaric goes on to outline two key afflictions of the modern workplace — “a plague of job dissatisfaction” and “uncertainty about how to choose the right career” — and frames the problem: There are two broad ways of thinking about these questions.
Shorter Really Is Sweeter – If you’ve been trying to write picture books, you’ve probably heard that they ought to be short: 800 words, 600 words, 500 words. Or even LESS. This can seem scary. But it can be done without sacrificing plot or story. In fact, many pre-published manuscripts I see could lose 200 words and be better for it. The keys are: Paring your story to its essence. One book that does these things frighteningly well is ZOMBIE IN LOVE, by Kelly DiPucchio. Here’s how: You immediately know what it’s about. Readers know what the problem is the first three words. From there, every scene in the story shows Mortimer pursuing his goal of finding a sweetheart. Through all this, notice what’s not there. There’s also no unnecessary detail. Its pictures are worth … well, you know. The illustrations say a lot in this book. And in one of my favorite spreads, DiPucchio simply says: “Mortimer smiled. Each word has earned its way into the manuscript. Some people think writing short means you can’t show any personality.
Comment créer des publications de l'espace pour votre blog ?Social Bistrot Le marketing de contenu est une stratégie inévitable pour faire connaître votre entreprise et générer des ventes. Pour réussir à écrire un bon article, il existe un bon nombre de tâches à réaliser. Le site Quicksprout a créé une excellente liste de contrôle claire et complète. Suivez ces quelques éléments proposés pour vous assurer de réussir à rédiger des publications parfaites. Au niveau du titre : Mon titre peut-il être saisi dans Google ? Mon titre suscite t-il la curiosité ? Mon titre correspond t-il au contenu ? Mon titre comporte t’il les mots clés nécessaires ? Au niveau de l’introduction : Mon introduction est-elle accrocheuse ? Mon introduction est-elle concise ? Mon introduction comporte t-elle une image ? Au niveau du corps de texte ? Mon corps de texte comporte t-il des sous titre ? Mes paragraphes font-ils moins de cinq lignes ? Est-ce-que ma publication donne l’illusion d’une conversation ? Mes sources sont-elles citées ? Mon vocabulaire est-il bien adapté ? Pour conclure
What I’ve Learned as a Writer By Leo Babauta I’ve been a professional writer since I was 17: so nearly 24 years now. I’ve made my living with words, and have written a lot of them — more than 10 million (though many of them were duplicates). That means I’ve made a ton of errors. Lots of typos. Lots of bad writing. Being a writer means I’ve failed a lot, and learned a few things in the process. Now, some of you may be aspiring writers (or writers looking for inspiration from a colleague). So for anyone interested in writing, I’d love to share what I’ve learned so far. Write every damn day. And one thing I’ve learned, above all, is this: the life that my writing has changed more than any other is my own.
The Psychology of Writing and the Cognitive Science of the Perfect Daily Routine Reflecting on the ritualization of creativity, Bukowski famously scoffed that “air and light and time and space have nothing to do with.” Samuel Johnson similarly contended that “a man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.” And yet some of history’s most successful and prolific writers were women and men of religious daily routines and odd creative rituals. (Even Buk himself ended up sticking to a peculiar daily routine.) Such strategies, it turns out, may be psychologically sound and cognitively fruitful. [There is] evidence that environments, schedules, and rituals restructure the writing process and amplify performance… The principles of memory retrieval suggest that certain practices should amplify performance. Kellogg reviews a vast body of research to extract a few notable findings. The lack of interruption in trains of thought may be the critical ingredient in an environment that enables creative flow.
Swami Vivekananda on the Secret of Work: Intelligent Consolation for the Pressures of Productivity from 1896 by Maria Popova “Every work that we do… every thought that we think, leaves such an impression on the mind-stuff…” In December of 1895, the renowned Indian Hindu monk and philosopher Swami Vivekananda, then in his early thirties, traveled to New York, rented a couple of rooms at 228 West 39th Street, where he spent a month holding a series of public lectures on the notion of karma — translated as work — and various other aspects of mental discipline. Vivekananda begins by noting that a great deal of our existential confusion about work has to do with our chronic judgment — and, most cripplingly, self-judgment — regarding “good” and “bad.” Good and bad are both bondages of the soul… If we do not attach ourselves to the work we do, it will not have any binding effect on our soul… This is the one central idea in the Gita: work incessantly, but be not attached to it. (Cue in Joan Didion on character.) If good impressions prevail, the character becomes good; if bad, it becomes bad.
How to Become a Children’s Author | Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) If you want to publish a book for children, the first thing you must do is ask yourself why. Is your motivation to publish a kid’s book one of the following? Your kids/grandkids/nieces/nephews/neighbors/students love a story you’ve written.It would be fun to see your name in print.You want to sign autographs.You want to make money, quickly.You want your artist cousin/sister/friend to illustrate it. If you answered “yes” to any of the above, please read this post. I write this to save you a lot of time and frustration. New writers often believe they can pen one story in an hour or two, never revise it, yet somehow land an agent and a publishing deal—-as if the simple act of writing begets publication. Hitting one baseball does not mean the Yankees will draft you. Everyone believes the first thing they write will be golden and they’ll never receive a single rejection. The motivation to write a children’s book should be: You love to write. Notice fame and fortune have nothing to do with it.
I Removed Every Inessential Thing From My Website and This Happened When I built my first website a little over 3 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. Naturally, I figured that looking at what other websites and blogs had on their pages would be a good place to start. I started seeing sites with social media buttons, email popups, advertisements, comments, and all sorts of other things. But as I continued tweaking my site design, I tested what would happen if I eliminated the unessential pieces. As I pulled away each piece, a funny thing happened. But it’s not just websites. The Power of Less When I was a kid, I looked like a string bean. I spent hours trying to come up with the right combination of exercises and the perfect split routines for each week. It took me about 7 years (I’m a slow learner), but eventually I figured out that the answer was the exact opposite: simplicity. I abandoned the complex workouts, focused on one foundational movement (the back squat), and did just 2 or 3 exercises per workout. Eliminate Your Distractions
Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing By Maria Popova In the winter of 2010, inspired by Elmore Leonard’s 10 rules of writing published in The New York Times nearly a decade earlier, The Guardian reached out to some of today’s most celebrated authors and asked them to each offer his or her commandments. After Zadie Smith’s 10 rules of writing, here come 8 from the one and only Neil Gaiman: WritePut one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.Put it aside. For more timeless wisdom on writing, see Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 rules for a great story, David Ogilvy’s 10 no-bullshit tips, Henry Miller’s 11 commandments, Jack Kerouac’s 30 beliefs and techniques, John Steinbeck’s 6 pointers, and Susan Sontag’s synthesized learnings. Image by Kimberly Butler
David Foster Wallace on Writing, Self-Improvement, and How We Become Who We Are by Maria Popova “Good writing isn’t a science. It’s an art, and the horizon is infinite. In late 1999, David Foster Wallace — poignant contemplator of death and redemption, tragic prophet of the meaning of life, champion of intelligent entertainment, admonisher against blind ambition, advocate of true leadership — called the office of the prolific writer-about-writing Bryan A. Over the course of the exchange, the two struck up a friendship and began an ongoing correspondence, culminating in Garner’s extensive interview with Wallace, conducted on February 3, 2006, in Los Angeles — the kind of conversation that reveals as much about its subject matter, in this case writing and language, as it does about the inner workings of its subject’s psyche. Wallace begins at the beginning, responding to Garner’s request to define good writing: In the broadest possible sense, writing well means to communicate clearly and interestingly and in a way that feels alive to the reader. Donating = Loving
Curiosity and Wonder Are My Religion: Henry Miller on Growing Old, the Perils of Success, and the Secret of Remaining Young at Heart by Maria Popova “If you can fall in love again and again… if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from growing sour, surly, bitter and cynical… you’ve got it half licked.” “On how one orients himself to the moment,” 48-year-old Henry Miller wrote in reflecting on the art of living in 1939, “depends the failure or fruitfulness of it.” Over the course of his long life, Miller sought ceaselessly to orient himself toward maximal fruitfulness, from his creative discipline to his philosophical reflections to his exuberant irreverence. More than three decades later, shortly after his eightieth birthday, Miller wrote a beautiful essay on the subject of aging and the key to living a full life. Miller begins by considering the true measure of youthfulness: He later adds: I have very few friends or acquaintances my own age or near it. If you have had a successful career, as presumably I have had, the late years may not be the happiest time of your life. Donating = Loving Share on Tumblr