My Valentine’s Day wish for us all:
Thank you, Michael Faraday🙂
Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’
Happy Valentine’s Day
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, finishing, inspiration, Michael Faraday, quotes, Thoughts, work, writing on February 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Fifty Problems
Posted in Likes, tagged constructive creativity, creativity, design, innovation, inspiration, Peter Smart, practical, problem solving on February 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »
This is the coolest thing: a designer decided to tackle fifty problems in fifty days. I think it’s terrific when creative people find ways to use their talents to fix problems, particularly when they focus on challenges most of us have been living with for years. It’s easy to get used to doing things one way even when that way is not optimal, and once acclimated it can be hard to even see the issue, much less fix it.
This is what happens when creative people look at the world with fresh eyes, and decide that they can, and should, do something to make it better. Constructive creativity for the win.
What “fifty problems” would you choose?
Free Download: “The 2014 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology” at Stupefying Stories
Posted in Writing, tagged books, campbell award, free, genre fiction, inspiration, literature, science fiction, sff, short stories, speculative fiction, Stupefying Stories, Writers, writing, yay on February 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Another year, another free Campbellian download!
Stupefying Stories has just made available M. David Blake’s “The 2014 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology.” This collection contains more than 860,000 words of fiction by authors eligible for this John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer award. Fabulous fiction, and all free free free!
Limited time offer, get yours today!
Try, Try Again
Posted in Writing, tagged creativity, failure, inspiration, progress, quotes, Samuel Beckett, success, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing, yay on January 29, 2014| 1 Comment »
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:)
It Really Is Monday
Posted in Writing, tagged creativity, inspiration, JK Rowling, quotes, Thoughts, work, writing on January 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »
“…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:)
Pass It On
Posted in Likes, tagged creativity, Feynman, future, inspiration, Motivation, quotes, science, Thoughts, work, yay on January 8, 2014| 2 Comments »
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
Right and True
Posted in Likes, tagged awesome, creativity, inspiration, neil gaiman, Thoughts, yay on January 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The following is from Neil Gaiman’s Journal: My New Year Wish in 2011, and is, as far as I’m concerned, about as good a guide for the coming year as I can imagine:
…for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.
And it’s this.
I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
…
Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.
Make mistakes, and pat yourself on the back when you do. Then get up and try again.
In related news, I just spent the past hour ice skating. I don’t skate:)
Holidays
Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged Anne Enright, creativity, finishing, inspiration, Motivation, resolutions, Thoughts, work, writing on December 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Apologies for my lack of presence here; like many of you, I’m up to my ears in holiday fun. Eggnog, presents, family, Swedish smörgåsbord delights, and the ensuing fallout has me busy, busy, busy! I’ll be around the site off and on for the next week and back in force after the New Year. In the meantime, let me leave you with this terrific quote:
Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.
― Anne Enright
It’s applicable to writing, of course, but substitute “do [fill in the blank with your own white whale]” for “finish this book” and it may also be useful for those looking ahead to the new year, and related resolutions:)
A Night and a Sky
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged inspiration, quotes, space, Thoughts, Van Gogh, writing on December 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.
— Vincent van Gogh
Today’s Quote: 12/14/13
Posted in Likes, tagged inspiration, quotes, Thoughts, Victor Frankl, work on December 14, 2013| 1 Comment »
I was thinking about all the things I have to do and the diminishing time in which I have to do them when I came across this lovely quote from “psychiatrist, neurologist and Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl” at the Root Simple blog:
The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back. He can reflect with pride and joy on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest. What will it matter to him if he notices that he is growing old? Has he any reason to envy the young people whom he sees, or wax nostalgic over his own lost youth? What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him?
No, thank you, he will think. Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, although these are things which cannot inspire envy.
I think I’ll choose optimism:)
-
Recent Posts
She Said, He Said
-
-
Favorite Posts
Archives
Categories
It’s All So Random
What I’m Reading
You must be logged in to post a comment.