Category: appreciation

Schedules Over Deadlines: Roald Dahl, Anna Akana, iDoneThis

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I couldn’t help but notice that recently shared perspectives from Roald Dahl, Anna Akana and iDoneThis hammer the importance of being disciplined, building routines or a schedule and having realistic short-term goals as keys to producing creative work.

Reminds me of what Ira Glass said in an interview (below) about how to close the gap between where your work is and where you want it to be: “do a huge volume of work… so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story.”

Here is the excellent All Things Considered story “Roald Dahl Wanted His Magical ‘Matilda’ To Keep Books Alive” which reveals some of Roald Dahl’s writing habits.

“If you’re not in the arena also getting your ass kicked…

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…then I’m not interested in your feedback. Period.”

That’s from Brené Brown’s 99u talk. And there’s so much more good perspective packed in there as well. Love the storytelling approach and the good humor. Give it whirl by hitting the link below.

Brené Brown: Why Your Critics Aren’t The Ones Who Count

Update: pairs quite nicely with this Anna Akana video on sucking, criticism and practice.

Game Changing: the latest from The Story of Stuff

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The latest installment of The Story of Stuff, “The Story of Solutions,” is an accessible, even empowering fresh framing of familiar environmental and social issues. Although we’ve bemoaned the shortcomings of GDP as a progress indicator for quite some time, Annie Leonard does an amazing job of explaining this and offering a path forward in just under 10 minutes!

While the analogy of the economy as a game used in “The Story of Solutions” is simple, it’s remarkably effective in its intuitiveness and provides insight for action. I also love that excellent examples of what is working (what Dan and Chip Heath call bright spots in Switch) are mentioned in this video to give us a sense of what we can do now. And speaking of Dan and Chip Heath, with this video The Story of Stuff Project, once again, nails nearly every dimension of stickiness in the Made to Stick SUCCES model. Awesome.

NaNoWriMo kicks off today!

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NaNo Poster2.47

It’s now National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! Although I won’t be taking part this year (to preserve the quality of other projects and the mental energy they need—though admittedly, frenetically writing a novel could be highly invigorating and re-sanitizing…), I am once again excited to find out what happens and am generally thrilled about the very idea of writing an entire novel in 30 days in the company of other literary creatives; it’s invigorating to know there’s a chunk of time proclaimed for a collective challenge to craft substantial fiction. And there’s so much great stuff on NaNoWriMo.org, like listings of local events, fun posters and ways to get encouragement from fellow novelists.

Good luck to all you November novel writers out there!

Gravity is as good as (or better than) they say it is

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In his Fresh Air film review, David Edelstein is right on about Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. As is The Verge in theirs. There’s been so much good press and word of mouth about this film, I couldn’t help but enter the movie theater with high expectations. But Gravity surpasses all of them. I know people can fuss over the scientific accuracy, but its utterly, mind-blowingly convincing realness in its luminous, looming hugeness in the darkness of a cinema is so epically engrossing, suspension of all disbelief is easily achieved.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. Preferably without watching any of the trailers, like the one below.

“…but candy is the one that says, `hey, this is a treat’…

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Candy, book cover… Candy never says, ‘it’s fiber, it’s vitamins, it’s all natural, it’s good for you. Candy is honest and says, `this is a treat, look at it as a treat, enjoy it as a treat.’ “

I just listened to a Weekend Edition interview with Samira Kawash, discussing what many of us have copiously purchased (or eagerly hope to obtain for free) for tomorrow evening. Some of the delightful and surprising comments mentioned are to me evocative of Steve Almond’s Candy Freak, which was a wondrous tour through (and ode to) part of the candy-making world.

The audio of the interview is fantastic; if you have a few minutes, hit the link above and give it a listen!