Next up on the reading list. Based on the sample chapter, Kissane’s thinking seems to jive with my own. Should be a great read.
Contents is a new magazine at the intersection of content strategy, online publishing, and new-school editorial work.
My head’s full of lots of really goofy ideas, little scraps of whimsy and wild hypothetical that pop into my head throughout the day and, most commonly, as I drift off to sleep. I always keep a pen and notebook near me to capture them, no matter how dumb. (See: some recent tweets.)
So I decided to do something with those scraps. Every weekday (most, anyway) since April I’ve set aside 30 minutes to write something silly. Most of my daily tales aren’t great, but sometimes I write something clever. And it’s a fun writing exercise, if nothing else. Rather than let the good ones collect figurative dust on my hard drive, I’m going to start posting them here, maybe weekly.
Expect the first peek into my Daily Tale project tomorrow.
From 1958:
And don’t think that my arrogance is unintentional: it’s just that I’d rather offend you now than after I started working for you.
One of my favorite writers.
Loved this bit:
I’m a three-time (soon to be four-time) published author. When aspiring authors learn this, they invariably ask what word processor I use. It doesn’t fucking matter! […] Picking the right text editor will not make you a better writer. Writing will make you a better writer.
Arthur Krystal:
Like most writers, I seem to be smarter in print than in person. In fact, I am smarter when I’m writing. I don’t claim this merely because there is usually no one around to observe the false starts and groan-inducing sentences that make a mockery of my presumed intelligence, but because when the work is going well, I’m expressing opinions that I’ve never uttered in conversation and that otherwise might never occur to me.
Ryan Gonzalez:
I felt a little disheartened that only a fraction of the people who visited actually took the time to look around and size the place up. They didn’t even give my content the chance to impress them. It made me think about why I write, and who actually cares about what I produce—the kind of readers that I want for the content that I love to make.
Merlin Mann:
I’ve learned that my job is to just sit down and start making the clackity noise. If I make the clackity noise long enough every day, the “writing” seems to take care of itself. On the other hand, if there’s no clackity noise, no writing. No little stories. The stories may be in there, alongside God knows what else, but there’s no way to know. You must make the noise.