A designer who writes.
A new post I wrote for work went up on the Brain Traffic blog yesterday. Continues the series on ecosystem mapping. I knocked this one out quickly, albeit late (sorry Bailey), but only after a lot of hemming and hawing. Sometimes I forget my own advice and just stare stubbornly at a blank screen, then … continue
Been writing songs with my buddy Jon for a few weeks now. Our songwriting sessions keep reminding me of the money laundering scene from Office Space: I can’t believe what a bunch of nerds we are. We’re looking up money laundering in a dictionary. As you can see in the above photo, I resorted to … continue
Extended focus is … not in my strengths column, let’s say. Here are seven of the more common excuses I’ve used to stop writing when I really really really should have still been writing: *** Originally published as List No. 59 of the 7×77 newsletter project.
Corey Gwin is building a writing app called Blurt. To promote the app, he’s been writing about writing. To promote my book, I’ve been tweeting about writing. I tweeted out one of the things he wrote, which made him notice me, and then he asked me to do a video interview for a series he’s … continue
My journal is full of entries, my Ulysses inbox is full of notions and half-starts. So I’m writing a lot. I’m writing a lot. Good. Great. But I’m not quite getting to what I want to with a lot of it. I want to be on that Austin Kleon wavelength, you know? That easy, collected, … continue
I learned a lot while writing the book, and honestly it feels like I’m just barely starting to unpack the lessons from this project.
When I’m trying to figure out what I think, to unravel something new, I use paper. Email makes you think like email. Pick some people and tell them something. But maybe I don’t need to tell anyone anything. Maybe I need to make a to-do list, or write up a list of questions and add … continue
Used a couple of Sharpie twin tips and my Baron Fig Mastermind pad to prototype my latest post for the Brain Traffic blog. Normally when I use pen and paper in my writing workflow it’s very messy and haphazard — notes jotted in random places, maybe a partial mind map, maybe a bullet point of … continue
When I know what I want to say I start at the top-left corner of the page. “Dear Sir or Madam, I demand satisfaction!” When I don’t know what I want to say — or even what I think — I start in the middle of the page. Then I can go up. Or down. … continue
I recently spent most of a weekend assembling IKEA furniture. It had me reflecting on experiences with assembling, building, and creating physical things over the years. Here are seven lessons I’ve learned from building things. 1. To not get in your own way. You have to think a few steps ahead with most builds. “Painting … continue
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