Writing isn’t always easy. Some days, you might be extremely productive, while on others, you don’t get as many words on the page as you had hoped. Whether you’re writing a novel, maintaining a blog, or keeping a journal, the answers to these problems are mostly the same. Writing is like exercise: adopt a sensible training regimen, apply it consistently, and you’ll grow stronger. But it’s also like meditation: open
We’re all familiar with information overload, when demands on our attention start to feel overwhelming. On a typical day, info comes at us in a nonstop flood of work meetings, social media, email, and news that can leave us feeling exhausted, or even paralyzed. For writers, especially those working on a book, there’s another source of potential information overload. Unfortunately, it’s one we can’t turn off or step away from.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that writers love systems. Oh, how we love them. We’re particular about our ways of working, our personal rituals, and especially our tools. So what about Evernote? You already know it’s great for brainstorming and research notes, but writing the actual drafts? Scenes and chapters? Emotions and experiences? That’s when many of us turn to another app, either a utilitarian word processor or one
What’s your biggest goal for 2018? Finally writing that book you’ve had inside you for years? Launching a podcast? Performing stand-up comedy in front of an adoring crowd? Whatever your aspiration, this can be the year you take positive steps toward making it a reality. As scary as it might be to think about what lies ahead, big goals don’t always demand big actions. Often, all you need to achieve
In the last post, we discussed how Shakespeare’s communication style made his words timeless, and how you can put some of his techniques to work in your own communications. But Shakespeare was more than a great communicator. Recent research has shown us proof that he was also a great collaborator. Thanks to technology, we can now analyze texts and get a pretty good idea of where one writer leaves off,
It is a truth universally acknowledged that William Shakespeare is the greatest writer in the history of the English language—and possibly every other language, as well. For more than 500 years, his plays have been performed in virtually every country on the planet in a myriad of languages on stage, on film, on television, radio, and the internet. The words and phrases he coined are part of our everyday usage,
The Death of Socrates (Detail), Jacques-Louis David, 1787 Life boils down to just two things: experience and information. Experience is what happens in your brain. The slippery chill of diving into a swimming pool. The bittersweet taste of chocolate ice cream on your tongue. Those are experiences. Information is the breadcrumb trail left behind by experience. The photograph of you by the pool. The chocolate stain on your shirt. Information
Last month, thousands of writers around the world took the ultimate writing challenge: writing a 50,000-word novel in 30 days as part of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Participants wrote furiously, checking their online productivity statistics on the NaNoWriMo website. The writers tracked the number of words people wrote, without worrying too much about quality. The task was to produce a certain number of words in a finite time.
In the blistering heat and never-ending sand dunes of the Sahara Desert, the bravest, fittest souls in the world look across the vast, terrifying expanse and see only challenge and opportunity. For them, the six-day, 156-mile (251 km) annual race across the unforgiving Moroccan desert known as the Marathon des Sables (MdS) is the ultimate test of stamina and endurance, and thousands sign up every year—but only a few complete
Sometimes, the simplest systems are the best. That’s what Bryan Kramer, a leading social media strategist, discovered while using Evernote to write his book, Shareology. As CEO of PureMatter, a digital marketing agency based in San Jose, California, Bryan is an expert on using technology to make thoughtful, transparent connections. Every day, he helps brands and entrepreneurs understand the importance of embracing #human2human contact. But while working on the book,