“Whether you’re a programmer or a seamstress, it’s all about new techniques, simplifying old techniques, and consolidating steps. Making things go faster – but not worse.” – Martha Stewart, Born Aug. 3, 1941. Whatever it is you do more than once, you should always be looking for efficiencies and tricks to make that task easier… Read More →
What Makes You “Strange” Also Makes You Powerful
“A lot of life is dealing with your curse, dealing with the cards you were given that aren’t so nice. Does it make you into a monster, or can you temper it in some way, or accept it and go in some other direction?” – Wes Craven, Born Aug. 2, 1939. You know what… Read More →
Anyone Can Write, But *WRITERS* Finish What They Start
”Ideas are not – ideas come at me all the time; it’s just the way I’m wired. It’s just a matter of focusing it in and figuring out what to do with that.” – Gail Simone, Born Jul. 29, 1974. Everyone has ideas. So what? Dime a dozen. Dime a MILLION. Who cares about your… Read More →
When You Focus on the Work, The Simplest Tools and Tactics Serve Best
“A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop.” – Robert Hughes, Born Jul. 28, 1938. Ah, the monkey wrench. A large, solidly made tool – that can repair big machines… Or if deliberately tossed into a running machine, wreck… Read More →
A Random Encounter with the SECRET of Winning the “Game”
“The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don’t need any rules.” – Gary Gygax, Born Jul. 27, 1938. Business is like this and art is like this: Just like a game. Role playing games in particular have a strong metaphorical correlation with the info-marketing guru-type professional internet celebrity “industry”. There… Read More →
Creation Is Only Part One of the Process of Producing Quality Work
“A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.” – Raymond Chandler, Born Jul. 23, 1888. How many people think writers know exactly what they are going to write before it starts coming out of their fingers? We don’t. It would be boring if we did. Sure, you research and plan loosely. But… Read More →
We Don’t Make “Mistakes” – We Have “Plot Developments”
“No matter what I do, it somehow comes out right – even if it was a mistake!” – Mario Montez, Born Jul. 20, 1935. Consider what you’re doing – your work, your career – as one long, unfolding story. It’s not a series of projects and goals, but an overall plot arc. … Read More →
Why Hand Copying Old Sales Material Is a Big Dumb Waste of Time
“It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one’s memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.” – Edgar Degas, Born Jul. 19, 1834. “They” say you should take old winning sales letters by the greats,… Read More →
Don’t Waste Being Provocative Without Actually Provoking Action
“I don’t intentionally go: ‘Ooh, what is provocative,’ and try to do that. I just do stuff, and people go: ‘Ooh, that’s provocative.’” – M.I.A., Born Jul. 18, 1975. Good writing provokes. It isn’t comfortable and breezy. It causes discomfort and dissatisfaction. It gives hope and makes promises. It stirs ACTION. But lots of writers… Read More →
The Secret of Being Excellent Is Being Prolific First – So Get Started
“Black Sabbath was written on bass: I just walked into the studio and went, bah, bah, bah, and everybody joined in and we just did it.” – Terence Michael Joseph “Geezer” Butler, Born Jul. 17, 1949. Just start doing what you want to do. Don’t think about it too much. And I don’t mean warming… Read More →
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