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Consistency is simpler than you think.

Why does mediocre writing and photography often get more attention than best of the best? Why do mediocre “coaches” get more attention than industry veterans with decades of advice summed up in a single book, video, or blog post? What are we missing here? The hardest problem to solve in

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The C Word

“Curation” shouldn’t be a dirty word, but it is. In the last decade, it has come to mean slapped-together-links, or outright-stolen content, used to fill space and capture just enough attention to convert free onlookers into consumers. There’s a lot of truth behind that association.

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Is AI going to take creators’ jobs?

Yes. Over enough time, there’s isn’t anything we do as creators that AI (as it's defined now by tools like GPT from Microsoft) won’t be able to do. AI has all the time and energy in the world to learn and improve. We don’t.

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Just a Series of Garden Offices

Creator Cabins seem to be a growing business – thanks in part to the increase in remote work. Who doesn’t aspire to have a place of their own for uninterrupted creative work? Within that genre resides the more-within-the-grasp-of-an-actual-human cabins for backyards and “gardens.

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Consumption is underrated.

“Create. Don’t consume.” Do you hear this mantra as much as I do? Does it get under your skin too? Behind every hour of good writing is at least 10 hours of reading. Every great writer I’ve known is a voracious reader. Every great musician I’ve known

Consumption is underrated.
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You are more interesting than you think.

I’m guessing you’re a generalist, because most people are. But the online content-consumption machine seems to reward those who make their personalities all about one thing. I believe that’s a distracting, unhelpful remnant of the first 29-ish years of the web — minus the first five

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Practical Ways to Post Something Every Day

I create the equivalent of at least 1 book worth of writing per week. Most of my work ends up in newsletters, websites, and marketing campaigns for companies you know very well. You won’t see my name, but you’re probably reading my stuff all the time. On good

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After, Not Once

When I was a technical writer, one of the first things I learned was the difference between “once” and “after.” We were just creating manuals and procedures, but this one rule was profound and extended way beyond our day-to-day writing. The rule was: never use “once.” “Once” is

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Daily Lunch Notes Update

This may be the last two weeks of my punny, daily lunch [https://www.cjchilvers.com/my-most-important-daily-writing-assignment/] notes [https://www.cjchilvers.com/daily-lunch-notes/] to my son. He says the other kids at lunch enjoy them more than he does now. After a few

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My Holy Grail Pen and Paper

Writers spend way too much time and money seeking out their “grail” pen and paper combo — the tools that will make their work so much “smoother.” It’s a pattern we’ve seen repeated in all creative pursuits. I did that for a while, many years ago, but it faded