Some of you will have seen this poem, but I fielded a question about it recently and wanted to revisit what is a sometimes painful yet ultimately encouraging truth:
Ever tried.Ever failed.
No matter.
Try again.
Fail again.
Fail better.
—Samuel Beckett
Not “stop trying.” Not “don’t fail.” Fail better. It’s a sentiment close to the heart of many writers:)
Posted in Writing | Tagged creativity, failure, inspiration, progress, quotes, Samuel Beckett, success, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing, yay | 1 Comment »
Dear Air New Zealand and Australia.com,
Please stop showing me perky web ads with weather maps of your fair region. I know that it is summer there when it is winter here, but you don’t have to rub my face in it. I know that my −24C is your +24C, but thinking about it makes me want to cry. I also know how lovely it is Down Under, how full of stunning vistas and sumptuous wines and delectable foodstuffs, and sigh as I peer over the wind-swept mounds of snow outside my window.
So please, please, Air New Zealand and Australia.com, stop rubbing it in. Have pity on a poor Northern Hemisphere-ite, and let me freeze in peace.
Yours in winter,
J.R. Johnson
Posted in Other | Tagged Air New Zealand, Australia, cold, holidays, home, New Zealand, snow, travel, vacation, weather maps, winter | Leave a Comment »
A City truck is outside, parked next to the fire hydrant. The hydrant has a long arm attached to it, one that goes up every Fall and comes down in the Spring, so workers and fire fighters can find it even in snow. That’s not good enough, though, not up here where ploughs pile drifts that can be my height or more, and so this worker is outside in −25C weather, digging out the hydrant.
This is my neighborhood, it’s my house, and it’s my hydrant. If I have a fire, or one of my neighbors does, that’s the hydrant we’ll need to put it out. The City takes care of it, just as they take care of the sidewalks. Cute little plows buzz up and down the walkways after a storm, pushing aside snow and spraying ice melt as they go, keeping the pavement clear for pedestrians. I love that.
Every other place I’ve lived, clearing sidewalks is the homeowner’s responsibility. That’s all well and good except for the years I spent climbing over and sliding through other people’s lack thereof. Responsibility, I mean, snow was in abundance. The danger of twisted ankles, sprained wrists, shattered hips, all because someone didn’t do their shoveling. Here, keeping pedestrians healthy and on their feet is considered a public good, benefiting all, and as such is taken care of by the City.
My tax dollars at work, and I’m all for it.
Posted in Likes | Tagged home, o canada, public health, responsibility, snow, Thoughts, urban living, winter | Leave a Comment »
“Persistence.” That’s what my father told me when I asked what it took to succeed in graduate school. Smart helps, yes, but there’s no beating the commitment and perhaps sheer bloody stubbornness that comes with persistence. That advice served me well in academia and elsewhere, particularly when it came to writing.
There are a lot of challenges around writing: the difficulty of learning a skill so complex that the greatest achievement is to make it look simple, the often solitary pursuit of improvement, and “overnight success” that is usually anything but. Kameron Hurley, author of God’s War, has an essay about this topic today on Chuck Wendig’s site. She sums it up well:
Persistence, I realized, was not the end goal. It was the actual game.
Now, I argue for a balanced approach to writing or whatever your project may be, and I’m too attached to my family and my health to sacrifice them in the hopes that will make me a better writer. For me, the opposite is true; strength in one area translates into strength in others. If, as my ever-wise father says, you are willing to persist. That note rings loud and true.
For more on Kameron’s experiences and her long journey to (and eventual redefinition of) “success,” read the full essay here.
Then whatever it is you are working on, finish it.
Posted in Writing | Tagged artists, Chuck Wendig, creativity, Fiction, finishing, Kameron Hurley, Motivation, rejection, sff, work, Writers, writing | 1 Comment »
John Scalzi has a nice piece up today with encouraging words about persistence in writing… I particularly like this bit:
Who knows what will happen tomorrow.
Will you, as a writer, become like George RR Martin? Probably not. But you might find your own measure of success, so long as you keep showing up.
This last weekend I had an enjoyable time at the Confusion convention, which is no surprise, as I usually do — it’s one of the reasons I’ve gone back to it now for nine years running. I mostly hung out in the bar and talked to writers, doing the usual combination of business talk and complete idiocy, as writers generally do at conventions when they chat with each other.
One evening I talked to a couple of different authors about writing careers and the ups and downs careers have, and how from time to time we’re all filled with frustration with them, especially during a downturn. We all want to be on award lists; we all want to have bestsellers. If those things don’t happen we can wonder if what we’re doing matters much at all. As we were talking about it I came up with a metaphor which I…
View original post 857 more words
Posted in Writing | Tagged artists, creativity, Fiction, john scalzi, Motivation, sff, Thoughts, Writers, writing |
Just in time for the weekend, here is my favorite brownie recipe. It’s quick and delicious. It’s also in metric, because once you get a scale and get used to the routine, the weight method is indeed easier and more consistent. Making fewer dirty dishes is an added bonus. Also, cocoa powder means no waiting around to chop and melt chocolate bricks. I have a double boiler but yeah, no.
Brownies
Posted in Food and..., Likes | Tagged baking, bribery, delicious, food, home, Motivation, recipes, yay | 2 Comments »
The Society for the Constructive Pursuit of Creativity, or SCPC. Yeah, I just made that up. As of five minutes ago it’s my new thing, and it is time to formulate some founding tenets. Like so:
— Be awesome. Duh. And ignore people who tell you that what you are working on is anything but. If you love it, that’s good enough.
— Be constructive. We’re on the planet to laugh and love and all that touchy-feely stuff but we are also here to make things. Elephants think, dolphins talk, even crows use tools. What humans do better than any other species yet met is build. (And don’t give me any guff about acres of mold growing underground or gigantic ant hills; that’s all well and good but when an ant designs the next great handheld device then we can talk.)
— Be productive. That doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk about it, just do your work without worrying too much about the next guy over.
— Be more productive than you were yesterday, or than you thought you could be when you woke up this morning dying for caffeine.
— Try not to overthink. That path leads to insecurity and insecurity leads to procrastination.
— If you must procrastinate, try to make it as constructive as possible. Just because you can’t do what you are supposed to do doesn’t mean you can’t do anything at all. Figure out what your mind will let you work on and do that. When you finish the new thing, add it to your To Do list so you can have the satisfaction of crossing it out at the end of the day. Design a new organization. See? Fun!
— If you happen to be less awesome or productive than you would like, do not under any circumstances beat yourself up about it. That’s like shouting at a cat, momentarily satisfying but with no long-term benefits whatsoever. Encouragement, goal setting, and bribery are much more effective. I prefer cookies or a chilled glass of Bailey’s, myself.
— Treat projects like practice. It worked for Ender. I take notes on the backs of used envelopes and write in pencil to convince myself that whatever I’m doing, it isn’t serious enough to stress over. Hey, whatever it takes.
— Along those same lines, do not be afraid to hack your mind! It’s a great way to increase productivity, to keep yourself from falling victim to those paralyzingly bad habits you developed in grade school, and if nothing else it gives you an excuse to watch good TED videos.
— Finally, fun is our watchword. Remember, if it isn’t fun and it won’t ever be fun and you won’t feel good about it after, you’re doing it wrong.
Motto: A Posse Ad Esse ~ From Possibility to Actuality
…
Right, that’s done. Now, what was I working on?
Posted in Favorites, Writing | Tagged #SCPC, awesome, caffeine, cat herding, creativity, finishing, fun, humanity, Latin, Motivation, procrastination, productivity, TED, Thoughts, work, writing, yay | 5 Comments »
“…perfection is not necessary to make a real and lasting difference in other people’s lives.”
— JK Rowling
Thank goodness, that’s all I have to say. Because some days the best you can hope for is some small measure of progress. Why, Monday, why?
Time for another cup of tea, methinks:)
Posted in Writing | Tagged creativity, inspiration, JK Rowling, quotes, Thoughts, work, writing | Leave a Comment »
We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.
— Richard P. Feynman
Posted in Likes | Tagged creativity, Feynman, future, inspiration, Motivation, quotes, science, Thoughts, work, yay | 2 Comments »
It’s been a cold week here in Ontario, as it has for much of the continent. This is basically my world right now:
Yep, that’s a lot of snow, and that’s a shovel. ‘Nuff said. Oh, except that I have now had the fascinating experience of −40 degree weather. As cold as parts of Mars, which is spectacular, and so ridiculously frigid that I don’t have to specify Celsius or Fahrenheit… because it’s the same thing!
On that note, I leave you with a video I wish I’d thought to make:
Here’s hoping you are having a warm and happy New Year, wherever you are.
Posted in Funny | Tagged deep freeze, home, Ontario, shoveling, snow, Thoughts, winter | Leave a Comment »
You must be logged in to post a comment.