Andrew Gormley, keeping designs well-oiled since 1985.
 

Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

Jump Start Your Writing Process

I recently ran across a post that elaborates on 7 Can’t-Miss Ways To Kick-Start The Writing Habit and it immediately piqued my interest because this is an area where I want to improve.  For me, writing is something that I’m  pretty good at when I take my time, but not great at. I’ve always been more acclimated towards designing, programming, and video editing instead of writing for my website, which explains why finishing my “About Me” page took longer than a majority of coding anything else. But now that I’ve finally started my own blog again, I’ve faced a weird dilemma: running out of ideas and not knowing how to jump-start my blogging again. When I run out of design inspiration I usually just browse through collections of CSS galleries or read design-centric blogs like A List Apart or 24 Ways, but when it comes to writing I haven’t found that one things that sparks my inspiration.

Here are a couple of the tips from that very article that really made a lot of sense to me:

  1. Write nothing but headlines
  2. Write ‘crap’ without feeling guilty
  3. Schedule regular time and show up, even if you think you can’t write.
  4. Write about how you solved a problem

I’d like to throw one more thing in there to get the list to a nice, even 8: Look for articles that interest you and use them as a starting point for your own writing.  If you learn from the greats, you’ll start to pick up some of their important habits like establishing flow and pacing and even creating your own unique voice.

Mark This Day

From Obama’s Speech:

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it.”

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words.

Aside: Obama’s speech writer is a young man by the name of Jon Favreau. Not the actor/director, but a cool coincidence nonetheless.

Quotable

From Steve Jobs, though I’d never heard this one before:

We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.

Life is brief, and then you die, you know?

And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.

Amen, brother.

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