Another most excellent cartoon by one of our heroes, Grant Snider.
See this and more at Incidental Comics!
Category: Productivity
Do You Really Want to Write?
Is success as a writer (in any medium) worth all you have to give up in order to get it? Here’s a thoughtful answer to just that concern:
by Rita Karnopp
So you’ve received a rejection letter – and you’re in the middle of writing yet another book. Suddenly you’re in the slumps and wonder if all this work and upset is worth it. You stop writing – and now you just don’t feel like going back to your office and continue with your work in progress.
Hmmm . . . sound familiar? It’s not an easy profession, is it? We have our highs – and oh so many lows. It’s not easy to receive a rejection letter on one of our books. It’s deflating. It’s frustrating. It’s depressing. Yet, after you cry, throw a tantrum, crumple the rejection letter and toss it in the trash – you take a deep breath – and ask yourself – “Should I keep writing – or quite?”
October TVWriter™ Advanced Workshop Still has Openings!
Who’d a thunk it? The next TVWriter™ Advanced Online Workshop starts October 2nd, a week from today, and we have three openings left.
If you’re ready to dive in and learn more at each of the four meetings than you ever thought you’d learn in, oh, a whole semester in a normal writing class, then now’s a perfect time to sign on and be amazed by Our Beloved Leader, Larry Brody, the dude behind this site.
Editing/cutting down on wordage is everything to LB, so we’re going to follow his lead. Which means that instead of going into all those details, details, details about what the Workshop is and how it operates, we’re sending you straight to the Advanced Online Workshop Page.
How To Be Creative
The title says it all. (Like a good title should, right?)
by Jonah Lehrer
Creativity can seem like magic. We look at people like Steve Jobs and Bob Dylan, and we conclude that they must possess supernatural powers denied to mere mortals like us, gifts that allow them to imagine what has never existed before. They’re “creative types.” We’re not.
But creativity is not magic, and there’s no such thing as a creative type. Creativity is not a trait that we inherit in our genes or a blessing bestowed by the angels. It’s a skill. Anyone can learn to be creative and to get better at it. New research is shedding light on what allows people to develop world-changing products and to solve the toughest problems. A surprisingly concrete set of lessons has emerged about what creativity is and how to spark it in ourselves and our work.
How to Apply Lateral Thinking to Your Creative Work
…Cuz it’s wild, it’s zany, it’s…well, it’s about learning to look at things outside the box those things create for you, and isn’t that what good writing always should do?
by Shane Snow
Pretend that you’re trapped in a magical room with only two exits. Through the first exit is a room made from a giant magnifying glass, and the blazing hot sun will fry you to death. Through the second door is a room with a fire-breathing dragon. Which do you go through?
The first door, of course. Simply wait until the sun goes down.