Deconstructing power through fetish

I’ve been hitting a cold hard wall a few days straight now. Creativity-wise. At times like these, inspiration is always the hardest friend to find. I tried everything. I read articles on inspiration, listened to “California Love” on a loop (which is my go-to song for any moment shitty), watched YouTube videos that people swore their family heirlooms by, and — last but not least — banged my head against my bedroom wall. Nothing worked.

And this is pervasive throughout some of our greatest stories, fairy tales, and myths.

There are more unfinished novels, blog posts, and job proposals on my laptop than I’d care to admit. I know I’m not the only one guilty of this.

As a firm believer in the notion that knowledge shared sincerely with others becomes wisdom, I've reflected on the life lessons I've learnt from blogging.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” For a long time I thought I understood this quote. It’s so straightforward, there seems little room for misinterpretation. And yet, there is. See, for many years, I thought Lao Tzu was saying that every journey begins with that first, single physical step. We put a foot out in front of us, lean forward slight, and then whoosh! Away we go.

When you attempt to envision a writer, I imagine many of you see a quirky recluse, hunched over a desk in some cabin, crumpled paper strewn about as they obsessively work on the next great American novel. But writing is so much more. Prose is thought put to page, which makes all of us writers, even if we don’t have the chops to tangle with Faulkner. In most cases, writing is most useful as a tool for thinking, expression, and creativity; cabin-dwelling novelists be damned.

Beyond the picnic-table crisis. By John McPhee.

This morning, I woke up at 5am and turned coffee on. I sat there in silence for a few as it brewed, as I usually do. Typically I use that time to see the day I have in front of me, to mentally lay out what I’d like to do with it. Shortly there after, I usually begin reading for a few minutes just to get my mind moving. I usually go with something positive or spiritual. From there I usually know if I’d rather sit and write or go for my run first.

You’re a better writer than you let on. Most of us trying to write to gain an audience, inspire people, market ourselves, etc. are all doing it wrong. We stick with the education and rules we learned in high school and college: “Don’t end sentences with prepositions.” “Don’t start sentences with conjugations.” “Sentences have subjects and predicates.” We focus on the perfect paragraph and essay structure.

 A friend sent me news that E. B. White’s saltwater farm on the coast of Maine is up for sale, and my mind leapt back nearly 20 years—an impressive leap for a mind in my condition—to a visit I’d made there to mark the 100th anniversary of White’s birth in 1899. I was on assignment for a magazine, a staggeringly profitable magazine that offered its writers expense accounts that can only be described as bottomless. (Yes, kids, there really was such a magazine. Lots of them, in fact.) White had died 14 years before, in 1985. My job was to call on the current owners of the house and nose around and come back with some kind of...

Do you struggle to post to your blog regularly? Is it hard to keep your idea bucket so full you never worry about having something to say? If you’ve been plagued with writer’s block and find yourself wondering why you ever started blogging, have I got good news for you!

Frenzied penises, bulbous salutations, bulging trousers, howling, groans, sighs, minty-flavoured tongues, awkward positions and spasming muscles: these all things you would expect to find in some of the winning entries of the Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award.

The difference between good writers and bad writers has little to do with skill. It has to do with perseverance. Bad writers quit. Good writers keep going. That’s all there is to it.

Most people don’t believe me when I say that I write 10,000 words per day, every day.

Ursula K. Le Guin is a giant of literature. Her new book, "No Time To Spare," shows her mind operating in a new medium.

For anyone who writes, it is the absolute toughest and most nausea-inducing moment of the day: the minute you reach your desk to compose your first words. The screen is blank. The cursor blinks and mocks you. Imposter syndrome creeps in. What if it’s just plain bad? What if I can’t produce anything? The physical feeling is as real as the thoughts in your head: You feel the pit of your stomach drop.

A best-selling author submits a draft to his editor. Hijinks ensue.

Writing allows you to explore who you are. It’s a way to revisit the past, connect with the present, and draw a map for the future.

Steven Johnson talks with the Wired co-founder and bestselling technology theorist about writing in public and strange power of music on infinite loop.

Winners include the latest Expanse novel, Stranger Things, and Wonder Woman

I can’t rewrite my past blog posts. Or my first book. Or my second, actually, and that only came out this year. I would, if I could, but that wouldn’t be fair on the people who’ve already read them.

University launches consultation over concerns students reliant on computers are losing the ability to write by hand.

If you can’t be the best at something, is it even worth doing? It turns out, being “the best” is something we have 100% control over.

Some say English instruction must get back to basics, with a focus on grammar. But won’t that stifle a student’s personal voice?

A new study represents a new low for pop psychology.

Enough with the bullshit gurus. We’ve all seen it pop up in our daily digest, no matter how hard we’ve tried to purge it: and let’s face it, we’ve all clicked on it at least once. It’s the inevitable motivational article by some or other self-proclaimed “successful” writer or blogger, who is invariably never one of the great authors of our time, or even a middling one.

Do I have a bucket list, have I considered suicide, have I become religious, am I scared? My answers haven’t changed since I was first diagnosed.

Check out these 8 essential writing tips for writing clear, concise, and compelling content.

Forget everything you learned back when you were writing book reports. (Well, almost everything.)

Sarah Lyall interviews two masters of espionage on the page.

Recently, I was talking with a friend who was overwhelmed by the editing process. How do you know when a blog post is finished and ready to be published? How do you remember everything that you should do to optimize your post?

Here’s why so many famous writers love going on long walks...

What’s a writing identity? “Come on, Emma,” you’d say, “YOU should know. You even have the word ‘identity’ in your name.” Indeed, I do; yet what I call writing identity and what you might mean by the expression could turn out not having a single letter in common. And it is a much bigger controversy than you may think.

If you keep resisting the “creative you,” then you’ve got work to do.