writing
Be a Librarian to Your Readers: An Interview with Austin Kleon
Austin Kleon is the New York Times Bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist [https://amzn.to/2U953Cn], a guide to help you “embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path.” His follow-up book Show Your Work [https://amzn.to/2UUfDKO]
Marie Curie's Notebook
A look inside a notebook, on experiments from 1899-1902, still radioactive today (and will be 1500 years from today). This reminds me that paper notebooks are still the best format for archiving notes, and handwriting adds humanity to everything — including data collection. (via The Nobel Prize [https://twitter.com/nobelprize/
Consistency
This is one of the sentences I say regularly that drives people crazy: > “Consistency is great, but we don’t want to be consistently wrong.” Consistency really is great when it reinforces good habits in your readers (weekly newsletters, daily posts, etc.). It’s terrible when it’s used
Using Ulysses as a Database for The Van Halen Encyclopedia
My 1999 book, The Van Halen Encyclopedia [https://amzn.to/2NDrtsg], was put together using Microsoft Word and stacks of research material. Back then, I wanted nothing more than the skills to put together a database to update each entry, then publish it as a whole book every year or
Brian Koppelman: “Go Do the Thing.”
Brian Koppelman (a fellow Van Halen fan) is the co-creator of the hit Showtime series Billions [http://www.sho.com/billions], one of my favorite shows. This week, the cast and crew of Billions is back at work on a new season and Brian had some words of encouragement [https:
"We Need Publishers"
Seth Godin in his other blog, The Domino Project [https://www.thedominoproject.com/2018/01/shift-real-forever-books-numbers.html] : > “As always, books have always been a long tail business, but now more than ever. The bestselling book of the year will likely be read by fewer than 1% of the people
An Update on My Most Important Daily Writing Assignment
I'm still doing it [https://www.cjchilvers.com/my-most-important-daily-writing-assignment/]. And I'm not alone [http://jorgeq.com/jorgeqfolio/2017/12/19/my-most-important-daily-writing-assignment] .
Schedule Your Creativity
Author/entrepreneur Joanna Penn [https://overcast.fm/+PM0kwT6M/37:02] on scheduling: > "When people ask me how I get everything done my answer always involves scheduling. I schedule my time way in advance, and that includes my writing time as well as business meetings, social events, holidays and
My Most Important Daily Writing Assignment
I write all day and have for as long as I can remember. Some of it is for pay, but I journal every day as well and take an insane amount of notes about everything. But the most important thing I write all day happens around 5:30am when I&
Behavioral Economics and Creativity
I believe most the readers of the A Lesser Photographer book [https://www.cjchilvers.com/books] understood and agreed with the basic message of the book: constraints foster creativity. Yet, some of the book’s biggest fans don’t follow that message. They know what they should be doing to