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Advanced Writing Advice for the Modern Creator
Next-level writing is not just about consistency. It’s about better first drafts. It’s about pushing the niche boundaries. It’s about moving past the comfort of rituals. It’s about dwelling on an idea where others won’t.
22 Time-Saving Tips for the Modern Writer
What these tips really do is trim down the time you spend not writing. That way, you can focus on commas, semicolons, and surprising your audience with an antiquated adjective. Freed from slow procedures, you can finally get around to writing those ideas tucked away in the corner of your mind.
5 Ways to Write More, Faster
Whether you’re working to create the next quotable line for your feature film, or simply crafting a Seth Godin-style short post, you need to have ammunition for the days you can’t seem to get momentum.
How To Unlock the Power of Persuasion in Your Writing
I’m writing this because I want to help you. Even though I’ve been writing professionally for over 10 years, I haven’t done much writing about writing.
No, You Will Never Write That Book
If there’s anything a writer hates to hear, it’s this: “Oh, you’re a writer? I have a great idea for a book!” Nobody means any harm about this, of course. But the implication is clear — anybody can write anything if they try hard enough. After …
How to Make Art Which is Truly Unique
She sits across from the music legend, black shirt hanging loosely around her shoulders, hair draped over her chest. It's been 3:22 seconds since either of them have spoken. …
The One Element Which Matters Most in Creative Work
Kate walks on the beach in front of me, her father to her right. I don’t know what, exactly, I am looking for. Something, anything, which shows they share a gene pool— a 6th toe maybe? A flair on the right pinky which had been passed down through …
How to Make Money Writing
If you're anything like me, someone once told you something like this: "You never make any money writing." This comment, though well-meaning, often damns the dreams of Ernest Hemmingways and John Greens to be. It's the "any money" which …
Forget Going Viral and Do This Instead
After walking to the stage, pumping his fist, and yelling ecstatically, Chancelor Bennett gives a nervous chuckle when he gets behind the microphone. The crowd is on edge, waiting to see what this first-time Grammy winner will say. Every musical …
4 Ways I Improved My Life as the World’s Most Average Person
Ready for some honesty you don’t see much on the Internet? Here we go: I am 26 years old, have started exactly zero companies to date, and currently have a net worth of approximately not very much. I have 3 very close friends and a pretty close …
The Reason You Feel Motivated at Night But Lose It By Morning
It was May in 1930. A man with a fabulous mustache sat upright in his favorite chair, seconds away from dozing off. Just as his head dipped into dream world, the ball bearings plummeted from his hand and onto a metal plate, where the clatter shook …
One Exercise Which Will Change the Way You Write Forever
Okay, first I’ll give you the very simple goal of this tip: REMOVE THE BRAIN FROM THE WRITING PROCESS. Let me explain. At a job — you think about stuff. A specific problem is presented and an objective decision is made based on cost and time and …
This is The Most Overrated Pleasure
No, it’s not the cell phone specifically. The most overrated pleasure is the notification (in all forms). You see how it happened, don’t you? First: The notification told us about human interaction: Ring! — “Oh, someone is calling. …
These 6 Words Helped Me Overcome My Fear of Failure
Blink-blink-blink. My cursor pulsed on the blank page. I wrote sentence and then deleted every word. I stood up 6 times for coffee in 2 hours. Surprisingly, my page would still be blank when I returned. I wanted to start a blog. I wanted to start …
Shift Your Mindset By Saying Less of These 4 Things
The ball rocketed into the air, took a definite left turn, and crashed down into the water with a sickening: *Splash* My dad and I were on the 11th hole, and I was practicing for an upcoming golf tournament. The day’s work wasn’t exactly going …
How to Ignore Absolutely Everything
And that’s how I got banned from Amazon preorders for a year. Oh wait. I have to write the post first, don’t I? Let me go back. Here is what I’ve noticed about being an adult so far: Everyone wants my attention. Everyone …
NANOWRIMO INSPIRATION | GO ALL IN
I was exactly where you are today. I didn’t know if I wanted to take this big of a bite. I didn’t know if I couldn’t handle it. I didn’t even know if I was a good writer. But I had a friend tell me something which changed my mind about …
NANOWRIMO INSPIRATION | RIDE THE WAVE
Here’s why some of you will fail: You will fail at NaNoWriMo because you won’t take advantage of the early momentum. You won’t write more when you could have. It’s a lot harder to make progress when the shine wears off. Instead, RIDE THE WAVE. …
NANOWRIMO INSPIRATION | MAKE THE DECISION
There is a lot of hyperbole on the Internet about NaNoWriMo. Here’s something I didn’t have to exaggerate one bit: This program completely changed my life as a writer. Although I’m not participating this year, I’m making a different kind of …