If you’re struggling to get started, do it badly
“Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly,” advises the author Alain de Botton. Perfection is the antithesis...
Tag: Writing
The streak goes on
Writing can be a painful activity. The idea of thinking and starting from scratch every day frightens the resistance. But just as in exercise, the...
Writing through sheets of ice
You bought the new notebook, snagged a new pen, and listened to a motivational podcast. You’re ready to do the work! But two things happen as...
Walking in circles
Abstract thinking strings together collisions of thought, producing ever-more complexity or the deepest simplicity. Tinkering with possibilities makes everything strange, at least at first. But...
The chorus of arrival
“The pen is the tongue of the mind,” wrote Horace. It scribes from experience and the imagination, ricocheting from one neuron to the next. Sometimes...
Creativity lies within
The quest of creativity is really the search for aliveness. It is no wonder that when we spend the time to make and ship our...
The road to becoming a mentality monster
She never imagined what her artwork could do to her. Her output fostered confidence in the images of the psyche. She brushed with aplomb, thinking...
It’s the indecision that’s risky
In the absence of ideas, we’re lost floating at sea. Weighed down in idea debt, a lack of action can have the same debilitating effect....
Notebooks are ‘a forgotten account with accumulated interest’
Listening seeds ideas. Overheard dialogue, especially misheard words, are auditory stimulants for the imagination. Said Joan Didion in her essay “On Keeping a Notebook:” “See enough...
Write to be misunderstood?
The write to be understood trope is itself, misunderstood. Don’t be too specific. Keep it vague enough to goad a broader curiosity. The details ruin...
Doing honest work
When it’s all said and done, your work’s satisfaction will depend on your level of completeness. Should your efforts have skirted the task in any...