Children

Your Work Is Not for Everyone

By Guest Post April 8, 2019

by Jeff Goins

The point of marketing is not to convince people to buy your stuff. It’s to help you find the people who need your work. Don’t create something for everyone. Create something for someone.

I once saw a conversation between Michael Hyatt and an upset fan.

The fan started complaining about how Michael didn’t really care about people and all he cared about was money. He started to attack how my friend had conducted himself on his blog and podcast. The fan ranted and protested, and as I watched this go down on Twitter, I wondered what Michael might be thinking or feeling. I know what I would’ve been feeling at that point: a strong need to defend myself. However, when I saw Michael’s response I was blown away.

He said quite simply, “I’m not for everyone.”

Did you know that your work is not for everyone?

That is actually the point of it. Most of us get into creative work, whether that’s starting a business or painting a picture or trying to write a book, not because we want to make something for everyone but because we want to make something for someone.

We want to create something that has never been created before. We want to write something that has never been written, not like this, ever. But at some point along the journey, we lose our way. We start to think about who might not like it. And as we consider those who don’t like it, we start to hedge and play it safe. We remove any of the strong language that could potentially lead to people disapproving of it. They might unsubscribe or ask for a refund, we think, so we do whatever we can to avoid any kind of criticism.

But here’s the problem: the kind of work that doesn’t deserve criticism doesn’t deserve praise. Read that again and let it sink in.

The kind of work that doesn’t deserve criticism doesn’t deserve praise.

If you don’t do something worth criticizing, then you aren’t doing something worth appreciating. So as we venture forth to make our things and share them with the world, we have to consider a few questions before we begin.

Who am I not trying to reach?

Before we think about who this work is for, I wonder if it would be a better strategy to consider who this is absolutely not for.

Who is going to disapprove of this?

Who is going to hate it?

In fact, in the “growth hacker” marketing community, thinking about who will absolutely hate this is one way to stir up buzz about the product.

If this thing is not worth hating at least by someone, is it even worth creating?

What will it not do?

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Creativity

10 Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills

By Guest Post February 19, 2019

by Mark Nichol for Daily Writing Tips

1. Prepare
Absorb information about writing, but don’t overwhelm yourself. I’ve been known to read a writing handbook or editing manual cover to cover, but I recommend reading one chapter or section at a time and absorbing information from online resources in similarly small doses as well. Our website is a good starting point, as it features thousands of posts about specific grammar, syntax, and style topics as well as vocabulary-building posts and more comprehensive posts about writing, editing, and language.

2. Practice
Work on your writing every day. Commit to a daily writing exercise, even if you have only five minutes to spare. If you write for a living, or writing constitutes a significant proportion of your daily tasks at work, still set aside time to practice other forms of composition. Style or subject matter can vary day to day, or you can decide to, for example, respond in writing to something you experienced with any of your five senses (including anything you watched or read by way of a form of media). Alternatively, find a list of writing prompts online, and use the next one on the list each day, or choose one randomly. (Encourage family members or friends—or even coworkers—to join you in producing their own responses.)

3. Engage with Others
Participating in a group learning activity is a great motivator. When you have paid for a class and/or scheduled time for attend classes or workshop sessions, you’re more likely to persevere, and completing assignments and projects will help you establish and/or maintain your writing discipline. If you’re intimidated by a group setting, consider finding a writing partner with whom you can exchange drafts and/or discuss concepts and practice skills, then graduate, on your own or with your partner, to a course or workshop. Alternatively, seek out online courses or groups.

4. Read
Read for education, enjoyment, and enlightenment. For the most part, with recreational reading, just sit back and enjoy yourself. But consider devoting occasional sessions to analytical reading, in which you highlight particularly effective words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs and think about why they stand out, and apply the techniques to your own writing.

5. Organize
Use organizational techniques such as outlines and diagrams. Brainstorm keywords and essential ideas or plot points. If other forms of creative expression stimulate you, use them: Listen to (or play) music to inspire a certain mood, collect photographs or illustrations of people, places, and things that suggest elements you want to incorporate into an essay or a short story, or draw sketches of characters or settings to help you visualize them.

6. Research and Fact-Check
Whether you’re writing nonfiction or fiction, take care to write authoritatively. If you’re writing a short story or a novel, read about the historical background of the setting to make sure that you are not introducing counterfactual or anachronistic elements. When crafting a newspaper, magazine, or website article, or a blog post, educate yourself on your topic, and double-check quantitative information: proper names; affiliations and relationships; and dates, distances, dollar amounts, and so on.

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Creativity

Writing Tips: How To Turn A Thesis Into A Book That Sells

By Guest Post February 12, 2019

by Tracy Stanley

Writing a thesis is a huge accomplishment, and in today’s guest post Tracy Stanley discusses how all the work you put into that project doesn’t have to end once the thesis is submitted to your academic advisors. As always, your writing can be turned into more than one asset; it’s possible to turn that thesis into something you can sell.

I spent four years researching and writing for a Ph.D. on the topic of How Work Environments Contribute to Creative Behaviours and Employee Engagement.

When submitted it was 103,850 words and I knew that no more than six people in the world would read it. As a result, it was unlikely to have an impact on anything. Yes, I’d written shorter academic articles, but these were also designed for a mainly academic audience.

I wanted to share what I’d learned to a different audience, to managers, and to share the main messages in my own voice, not my carefully restrained academic voice.

Starting was hard

The journey took me a couple of years. Like many, I suffered from the Jekyll and Hyde phenomena of thinking:

Who am I to write this book?
to
Of course, I can write a book.

This imposter syndrome plagues many writers and I highly recommend you read, The Successful Author Mindset by Joanna Penn before starting the journey as it will help you to confront your demons.

Next, write a book proposal that you might send to an agent or publisher, (even if you don’t and choose to take the self-publishing route). Think of your proposal as a pitch – so use marketing language to communicate its value in terms of content and your value as the subject matter expert.

The proposal will help you to organize your thinking and to focus on your audience and their pain points.

The book proposal should include:

Problems the book addresses for a specific market;
Value that will be provided to the reader in terms of pain points addressed;
A proposed title;
Evidence that there is a need for the book based on market research. This should come from an analysis of similar books in the marketplace and from talking with people impacted by the problem you are solving; and a
Contents page.

As you did with your Ph.D., write your contents page as soon as you can. This will help to organize your thinking. We know that it will probably change, but it’s a great starting point.

Having written a Ph.D., you are unlikely to suffer from a lack of content. Indeed you may be able to repurpose your research into several books. I could see that I could split my thesis fairly easily into two books around the themes of employee engagement and creativity.

I suggest that you look at your Abstract and Contributions of the Study chapters in your thesis to glean key areas you want to draw on in your book. But do not do a direct copy and paste as you will be copying your academic voice as well.

Lessons learned from the journey

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Community

Killing Creativity With The Rise In Zero Sum Thinking

By Guest Post January 28, 2019

by Larry Robertson

Synopsis: Creativity has everything to do with mindset – beware the zero-sum mindset.

Pause a moment longer to take a more considered look at it, and it’s easy to discern that creativity is always, always, always a multiplayer game too. Indeed this is fact doubly true. Not only are breakthrough creative ideas a result of an accumulation of many smaller ideas, but inevitably those many contributing ideas come from many contributors too, rather than some single, mythical, creative genius source. To punctuate the observation, consider that MacArthur Fellows, those famous creative folks who have the moniker of genius thrust upon them, are the quickest to tell you that, in the words of mathematician and Fellow Maria Chudnovsky, whatever they create rests on the broad shoulders of others before them, and that their greatest hope is that what they create will do the same for other people and other ideas yet to come. In short, the multiplayer nature of creativity is true both in any individual creation and across creations and time.

If all of this strikes you as somewhat self-evident, you might be asking yourself, why make the point? Considered in a thoughtful moment, the answer is just as clear, though in the current environment, all too easily missed. Our world is increasingly dominated by the short view, the quick answer, and the implicit goal of finality. On a growing list of subjects, we humans are also increasingly leaning towards not only an us versus them view, but strategy, a textbook zero-sum strategy where I must win, and you must lose, and together we fail to advance. At the very least, if our endeavor is a creative one, with this mindset we’re pretty much done before we even begin. But as zero-sum spreads to an ever-widening number of endeavors, it’s important to do the math. Inevitably, the conversation is about far more than pennies.

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Communication

Recommended Course on Scrivener 3.0

By Terence Gillespie January 5, 2018

I was thinking of creating a course on Scrivener 3.0 when I found an excellent one by Karen Prince. Now that Karen has made this one I might focus on teaching advanced tips (if making one, at all):

Scrivener 3 Full Course on How to Use Scrivener 3 for Mac by Karen Prince.

The subtitle of the course is “Master all the Major Features of Your Scrivener Writing Software to write eBooks and Paperback books”. Karen specifies the Mac version but there’s few differences between the mac and pc versions.

Karen has an excellent teaching style (and voice) and the course will take you way beyond the point of being productive with the software. My only gripe about the course is the length of her videos (which some might view as a plus). I would prefer videos be kept to bite-sized chunks of 5-minutes or less whereas Karen’s are often in the double-digits in this scrivener course.

I purchased the course on sale for $20 though it’s listed for $80 between sales.

BTW, if you’re a writer and don’t yet use scrivener you’re almost certainly wasting time, writing worse, or writing less than you might. I made the switch two years ago and it was more than worth the week it took to come up to speed on the workflow.

Children

Story Cubes for Storytelling

By Terence Gillespie March 31, 2017

Four months ago, I received a “Must Read!” article from my wife: “6 Ways electronic screen time makes kids angry, depressed and unmotivated“. Sure enough, our 8-year-old son was showing some of the symptoms described in the article:

Disrupts sleep and desynchronizes the body clock.
Desensitizes the brain’s reward system.
Produces “light-at-night.”
Induces stress reactions.
Overloads the sensory system, fractures attention, and depletes mental reserves.
Reduces physical activity levels and exposure to “green time.”

Reset Your Child’s Brain

That lead to reading the author’s book, “Reset Your Child’s Brain: A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen-Time by Victoria L. Dunckley, MD

We didn’t go through all “TEN STEPS TO PREPARE FOR A FAST” that Victoria recommends:

Define problem areas and target goals
Get your spouse and other caregivers on board
Set a date and create a schedule
Inform relevant adults in your child’s life
Obtain toys, games, and activities to replace screen-time
Schedule breaks or treats for yourself
If possible, enlist a playmate’s parents to join you
Inform your child and involve the entire family
Perform a thorough “screen sweep”
Set your intentionMy wife and I talked for an hour on Friday night mapping out activities, games, and alternatives and how to break the news to the kids. Then, on Monday, we went cold-turkey on the ipads for both boys.

My wife and I talked for an hour on Friday night, mapping out activities, games, and alternatives, and how to break the news to the kids. Then, on Monday, we went cold-turkey on the ipads for both boys.

The Results?

After two weeks, the symptoms were gone! Now, at four months, the absence of these two “little” ipads in their lives (and ours) has been working out, splendidly.

The ipads were replaced with more outdoor time, interactions between them and with us, looking out the window on the way to school, lots of storytelling, and one thing we’ve still got to work on: watching Japanese dance videos on YouTube (via the TV).

Storytelling Design

The bromide that “Children are natural storytellers” is true, but it’s deeper than that. Children live in the story version of their lives, going in and out of what we adults would call the “real” version.

Here’s Lucas living in his story. Notice that his dad is standing six-feet away, recording him, but he takes no notice. Then, when his stuffed animal drops, he’s jarred into the “Real” life of eating his cereal.

Have you ever tried to get a yes or no answer from a child? They answer every question with a story because they’re living in one. By telling you a story, they’re not evading; they’re giving you a more complete answer.

Rory’s Story Cubes

A month after the ipads “disappeared”, I found a game that fit Victoria’s advice to replace screen-time with other activities: Rory’s Story Cubes.

They come in packs of nine cubes. The 6-sides of each cube has a picture on it of either a thing or an action (a noun or verb in adult-speak). You roll the cubes and make a story out of the ones that roll face-up.

As I was reading the box, and wondering if the game would be too much for our 4-year-old, Lucas rolled the cubes and cut me off saying, “Once upon a time …”

It was more than adorable; it was wondrous to watch his brain firing on all cylinders, reaching into the vast experiences of his four years of life experience, and telling us a story. “Can you believe this?!”, I asked my wife.

It’s not only possible; it’s their preferred means of expression. Children are designed to communicate in story. Before they have words for the things around them, before they put words together in sentences, they’re tracking the story of what’s happening to them, and around them. A few weeks after they’re born they look at you while you’re changing their diaper and you can see them taking it all in. There are no words, but they’re recording the beginnings of their own story.

The Gillespie Cubes

When playing, we give each player six cubes to roll for a new story. We have 27 cubes in all (Rory’s 9-cube starter and 9-cube action sets, 3-cube pre-historia, 3-cube sports, and 3-cube medic sets). If I was purchasing for the first time, again, I’d get this bundle:

As long as you have the self-contained 9-cube starter set there’s no wrong way to add to the set.

If you’re expecting this article to end with us going through every step of the book and living happily-ever-after, that didn’t happen. Although Victoria’s book outlines steps to reintegrate screen-time back into your child’s life in a non-destructive way, we haven’t even thought about bringing the ipads back to battery life. We’re on pause, for now, and not looking for the “play” button.

There are a few things that would make me reconsider: if the Kahn Academy greatly improves their app, or a similar life-changing technology appears on the scene. If so, we’ll make the kids earn every minute of screen-time like an allowance. Until then, we’ll stick with the best killer apps, of all: playing outdoors, talking with people, reading, and telling stories.

Communication

McGillespie’s Writing Personality & Voice

By Terence Gillespie January 26, 2017

Writers must know their writing personality. They must also discover, and write with, their unique voice. There’s even 7 Great Reasons for Non-Writers to Discover their Writing Personality.

In this essay, I’ll describe my writing personality and voice, for three reasons:

So that my children will better understand their father, his vantage point, and the writing goals of McGillespie.com.
To provide one example, one breadcrumb thrown down, for other writers (and knowledge workers).
To complete the exercise under the artificial duress of having to publish it.

The Path of Discovery

I found my writing personality and voice by:

Writing, and singing, lyrics and songs. I remember melodies and forget lyrics. When I can’t remember the lyrics I make them up to fit the melody.
Writing for over 10,000 hours. Non-writers don’t need to do this. More crucial, for me, was …
Knowing what I wanted to write about. At the heart of good writing is angst and anger. I write to keep the former from turning into a toxic form of the latter. I’m thankful for angst. It impels me to read, think, and write to achieve clarity on what’s causing it.
Over-learning subjects that are important to me. I’ve taken many writing courses, such as Stephen King’s “On Writing”, Julia Cameron’s “Artist Way”, and Jeff Goin’s “Intentional Blogging”.
Having a keen desire to master the “active literacies” of writing, argumentation, and public speaking to write the script of my own life.

Reading Personality

I love being immersed in a great story! That’s why I read so much non-fiction: The greatest stories ever told are about what really happens; what people really do.

My reading is non-fiction, punctuated by ecstatic binges of fiction (Which I’ll only read if recommended by a friend). If you often say, “You can’t make this stuff up!” or, “If this happened in a movie or book no one would believe it!”, perhaps you’d enjoy reading more non-fiction, as well.

Writing Personality

INFJ

I’m an INFJ on Meyers Briggs personality tests (MBPTs) with primary and alternative traits of:

Introversion over Extraversion (59%)
Intuition over Sensing (50%)
Feeling over Thinking (31%)
Judging over Perceiving (25%)

I’ve take more extensive versions of the MBPT but have misplaced the results. Those results are probably more accurate on the percentages. Still, I’m consistently an INFJ and, more rarely, INFP. That would be consistent with the above results as the “Judging” dominance is only 25% over “Perceiving”.

‘Careers’

The online test says INFJ’s might excel in “careers” around: Education, Law, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Arts and Humanities, Graphics Design and Multimedia, Humanities, Social Services, Health Care, Early Childhood Education, Librarian.

Note: I put quotes around “career” because it’s a silly word when applied to most people. There are lifetime occupations and callings. But, most people change jobs an average of six times over a lifetime. My experience in corporate America was that the word “career” is used to keep the employee motivated, and invested, in long term benefits that may, or may not, ever materialize. I’m all for people respecting the big picture of the company they work for. The word, “career”, however, is often a lying word used to sell something.

Communication Skills

To help others wherever possible, and even when it seems impossible, is what fills an INFJ’s life with meaning and serves as their main motivation. This is their main orientation in the world, and it defines how they relate to events and to people around them.

In communication INFJs come across as thoughtful, supportive, and caring. Communication with an INFJ is pleasant and easy, since they are inherently well-disposed towards the other party. They are attentive and empathetic to other people’s feelings. Whenever one communicates with an INFJ, he or she instantly feels just how much they care about the people they know.

INFJs find it easy to communicate with people of various types and on variety of topics. However, INFJs can occasionally come across as somewhat reserved in their communication. Yet what they do when they appear reserved is taking time to sort out their feelings and thoughts of other people or current events.

An INFJ’s everyday social circle is unlikely to be extensive. It mostly consists of close friends, colleagues, and family members.

Those who work in the same field (e.g. coworkers or colleagues) are often reliant on, or interested in, an INFJ’s expert opinion of counsel on professional subjects. An INFJ is perfectly capable of maintaining an eventful business communication agenda involving an exchange of ideas and opinions, as well as practical solutions.

BookGeome Project

This BookGeome personality chart is based on uses of dialogue, descriptions, prose, and pacing in fictional writing. Amber Helt explains how to use the chart. Though I write non-fiction I went through the exercise for the sake of completeness.

DIALOGUE — Expressive (E) vs. Stoic (S)
DESCRIPTIONS — Detailed (D) vs. Concise (C)
PROSE — Hefty (H) vs. Breezy (B)
MOTION — Patient (P) vs. Kinetic (K)

That would make me either an SCBP or an SCHP. That type, they say, is suited to write on subjects of Education, Business, Economics, Religion, Self-Help or Performing Arts. Those are, in fact, many of the subjects I’ve written about in the past.

Weaknesses

My current weaknesses are in editing and speed of publication. I often write thousands of words per day but don’t publish thousands of words per day. My ratio of written-to-published words is about 5-to-1 and that’s too high. The ideal is probably closer to 2-to-1. My ratio is too high for three reasons:

Lack of brain dominance leads to indecisiveness in the editing process. The many options for phrasing, wording, ordering of paragraphs and sentences, feel more like solving a math problem than editing words. A hypothetical audience would probably see little difference in drafts after the first two.
Fear of being wrong about something important. The material I write about is often deep territory. There’s usually much research and reading that goes into it.
Fear of burning through the attention span of the reader before imparting the important points of the piece. This impels me to spend more time — too much time — in the editing phase.

Remedy

Publish more under deadline. I imposed an artificial deadline on this essay for just that reason. The less time I stew over editing choices — after the first two drafts — the better. Happily for all, needless words are omitted by the second draft.

My Writing Personality(s)

Within Jeff Goin’s blogging types, the strongest, for me, is that of an Artist. Almost equally strong is Professor. Only with a subject firmly “in hand” does the personality of a prophet creep in.

Journalist? Only if an important job requires it. My book, The Creature from Galt’s Gulch, required a journalistic personality. Since it’s not my natural personality I find it difficult to write follow-up articles.

Star? None.

Artist

I gravitate towards creativity, beauty, music, art, and entrepreneurship. I appreciate all mediums in which they present.

Beauty and functionality are rarely seen apart from one another. The shape and skin of a dolphin is as beautiful as the jet plane or submarine that mimics it. The reverse is equally true: That which achieves a high level of functionality is inevitably beautiful.

By starting with art, an artist need give up nothing of functionality.

Professor

Writing in the role of a consultant often requires the personality of the “Professor”. The challenge is to impart the information, professionally, without sucking the “voice” out of it. Even dry material is more easily digested when presented in a unique voice.

I like “Playing the professor” as it forces me break things down into implementable steps. That turns data into knowledge, making wisdom possible, and action (Or silence), possible, as well.

Anything that solves a problem is also beautiful, especially to the one with the problem!

Prophet

With artistic eyes, and the eyeglasses of the professor, I can sometimes look out at the landscape of the subject and make predictions. Such “prophecies” are not outcomes I wish to be so. They’re outcomes I think likely to occur given the trajectory of the predicting elements of the matter at hand.

Only a fool would underestimate the power of man’s free will. Even in the Bible, foreknowledge is not predestination.

Voice

Take away the voice and all that’s left are facts and data. Even formal expression is more interesting, and easier to digest, when presented in a unique voice.

The activities and desires in “The Path of Discovery” are how I discovered my writing voice. I’ll try to fit those discoveries in the acronym of S.H.A.P.E.: Finding and Fulfilling Your Unique Purpose:

Spiritual Gifts — Writing, speaking, and possibly flying, are spiritual gifts.
Heart — Truth, delivered carefully, is the best form of compassion. It is evidence of, and often indistinguishable from, love.
Abilities (Natural) — Songwriting, musical instruments, learning complex things fast, solving problems, consulting, the “gift of gab”.
Personality — INFJ, SCBP
Experience — Musician, Consultant, Songwriter, Writing

Conclusion

The journey to find my voice has been the greatest adventure of my life. Every part of it has thickened the connection between my inner thoughts and outer reality.

It’s a great thing to read and understand everything one can to improve our own lives. It’s a much greater thing to parlay that work into something to inspire, lighten the load of, or shorten the path for, others.

Things that can do that are, in my view, masterpieces.

Creativity

7 Great Reasons for Non-Writers to Discover their Writing Personality

By Terence Gillespie January 19, 2017

Writers must know their writing personality. They must also discover, and write with, their unique voice. But, what about non-writers? Why would such things matter to them?

In short, because the “active literacies” of writing, argumentation, and public speaking enable you to write the script of your own life. And, at the core of their mastery is knowledge of writing personality and voice.

7 Great Reasons

Write the main script of your own life, authentically, and in your own voice.
Replace the scripts, given to you by others, in the Seven (irreducible) Matters of Life, with your own.
“Get out of your head” by connecting your inner intellectual life with your outer reality.
Help others by “giving voice” to their concerns. Influence them to take action on their own dear purposes or beliefs.
Bypass the procrastination that comes from worrying that what you’ve written (or haven’t yet written) will “come off” as inauthentic.
Recruit allies to your work, projects, interests, purposes, and calling.
Write faster, better, and more effectively having removed these primary introspective blocks.

Ignorance of writing personality and voice are the primary introspective blocks to expression. With their removal the road to mastery of the active literacies is clear.

The Active Literacies

Any role requiring you to influence, share with, or teach others can be accomplished more effectively with mastery of what J.T. Gatto calls the “active literacies“.

America was literate beyond anybody’s wildest dreams, and not merely book-literate. Americans (Circa 1840) were broadly proficient in the formidable “active literacies” of writing, argumentation, and public speaking; things which had actually been a crime to teach ordinary people under British colonial rule.
— John Taylor Gatto, “Weapons of Mass Instruction”, pp. 17

John expands further in “The Ultimate History Lesson, a Weekend With John Taylor Gatto“.

We all are vaguely aware that literacy is at the heart of an intellectual inner life, but what we don’t understand is that is, prior to the First World War, literacy was commonly divided into passive literacy, reading, and active literacy, speaking and writing. And none of us are aware that in Colonial days, that to teach active literacy to ordinary people was a crime! Why? Because reading, you’re locked in your own head and you still have the benefit of being able to read the boss’s instructions about what to do. But if you can speak well, as our current President can, or write well, you can reach way beyond your own skull and recruit allies. That’s a no-no for ordinary people;, they’re supposed to be so inarticulate, or their writing will look so funny with ink blots and things in it, that no one treats them seriously.

Knowledge Workers

Knowledge workers are workers whose main capital is knowledge. Examples include software engineers, physicians, pharmacists, architects, engineers, scientists, public accountants, lawyers, and academics, whose job is to “think for a living”.¹

As a consultant I know, firsthand, how knowledge workers must often become functional writers. They must excel at expressing the results of their work to merely deliver it. Aside from formal occupations, knowledge work is almost unavoidable, nowadays. If you spend three or more hours a day behind a computer, chances are good you also need to write, or talk about, what you’ve accomplished. Words fly faster, higher, and more effectively, when the writer is resonating with their own personality and voice.

Writing vs. Reading Personality

What you read is not necessarily how you’ll write. You might read science fiction, romance novels, how-to’s, or biographies. That doesn’t mean your writing personality will fit one of those styles.
Of course, everything you read informs your writing. But, don’t feel compelled to match the styles or personalities of what you read.

The Path of My Discovery

I found my writing personality and voice by:

Writing (and singing) lyrics and songs. I find it easier to remember melodies than lyrics. When I can’t remember lyrics I make them up to fit the melody.
Writing for over 10,000 hours. Non-writers don’t need to do this. More crucial, for me, was …
Knowing what I wanted to write about. That’s something you can find out with relative ease. In the case of the knowledge worker, for example, the subjects are often given to you or dictated by the work. If you’re writing the script(s) of your life, however, this will take more introspection.
Over-learning subjects that are important to me. Toward that end I’ve taken many writing courses. I enjoyed Stephen King’s “On Writing”, Julia Cameron’s “Artist Way”, and Jeff Goin’s “Intentional Blogging”.

People are Blind to Their Own Strengths

People are the first to recognize their own weaknesses and last to recognize their strengths. Writing personality and voice have positive and negative attributes. Your writing will only improve if you recognize both. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a great way to get started on finding your strengths. I also recommend taking a Meyers Briggs personality test.

Amber Helt explains how to use the graphic featured in this article which came from the BookGeome Project in association with National Novel Writing Month.

The Five Blogging Personalities

These personality types are described more thoroughly on Jeff Goin’s blog:

The Artist … writes and creates because they love beauty.
A Prophet … tells us the hard truth about the world or themselves.
The Journalist … asks questions, assimilates the answers, and shares it with others.
The Professor … teaches by taking something complex and breaking it up into small, actionable steps.
The Star … is someone readers want to be around or be like.

If you’re not sure what personality you gravitate towards try giving samples of your writing to a few people you trust. Ask them for the first three adjectives that come to mind when they read them. Then ask them if your writing matches your actual personality. What’s missing? What’s not missing and rings authentic to the real you?

Use Your Voice

Take away your voice and all that’s left are facts and data. Even formal expression is more interesting, and easier to digest, when presented in a unique voice.

What makes your voice distinct from all others?
What impression do you want to give your readers/listeners?
Can you add a story (Or a joke) to illustrate the point?
Can you tell a joke to lighten up the mood?
Would a sarcastic comment get listeners to perk up?
Would a self-effacing comment add humility to an impression of arrogance that you don’t feel?

The main acronym of the book S.H.A.P.E.: Finding and Fulfilling Your Unique Purpose is also great for discovering your writing and speaking voice:

Spiritual Gifts
Heart
Abilities (Natural)
Personality
Experience

It’s Worth It

The deep introspection involved in the journey to find your voice is worth it. Everything you learn thickens the connection of your inner intellectual life with your outer reality. What slowly begins to emerge is the masterpiece only you can be.

Davenport, Thomas H. (2005). Thinking For A Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results From Knowledge Workers. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 1-59139-423-6. ↩

Business

Markdown is the New Parchment

By Terence Gillespie June 29, 2016

If you want your words to last as long as parchment use plain ASCII text with Markdown. When found, your writing can be republished at the click of a button. It’s digital; make lots of copies.

Markdown is . . .¹

… a way to format plain text to show the formatting choices of the writer.

The syntax is natural and the formatted text is readable (Unlike HTML from which Markdown was derived as a form of shorthand). And, since most publishing software can read Markdown, directly, the writer can write once, skip the hassles of formatting, and pass the text directly on to the publisher.

Half of the Markdown syntax is just how a writer would format text, naturally. For example, you type an asterisk or a number in front of bullet points or a list of items, or hit enter to separate paragraphs. Heading levels are marked by the number of “#” signs placed before the heading. Even footnotes, tables and web links are straightforward and the text remains readable after formatting.

Storage

Plain digital text bypasses the problems of paper storage. It also bypasses the format wars of proprietary software. Your writing is created, stored, and published from the same text file. If we can read Egyptian hieroglyphs, today, perhaps people will be able to read ASCII text files, 5000 years from now.

Ideally, you make a (Digital) book available and distribute it to hundreds or thousands of people. Upload it to a website where it will be indexed, and possibly stored, by a third party. Less ambitious writers could put their text on as many mediums as they can find. Put them in a safe, wrapped in a paper printout. Tell your family about them and put it in your will. If your lucky, your progeny will see it and use the search engine of the day to find a copy, somewhere. Otherwise, perhaps one of your digital copies is readable. In terms of survivability, the paper copy is likely the weakest contender after 100 years or so.

How Long Will it Last?

Search

The presumption, even today, is that if you have the title, or the author’s name, you have a fair chance of finding the book. As more books are published in digital-only formats the odds of being able to find any book will increase.

Write Once, Publish Anywhere

Markdown makes it possible to write once and publish anywhere. Every platform I’ve needed to publish to can receive markdown text. But, it’s even better than that: Most of my writing is outlined, written, edited, and exported directly to the publishing platform and archived in markdown from within one program: Scrivener. The text can then be updated or repurposed from the same place it’s archived! It’s hard to describe the relief of simplicity this workflow provides. It makes for a frictionless writing environment that shifts the focus of the work back onto content. You just keep writing and let the publishing platforms handle the formatting details.

Markdown Benefits

Liberates the writer from formatting concerns both during, and after, writing.
Liberates the writer from proprietary software jail.
Gives the writer the widest number of choices in publishing platforms.
Enables the writer to use the same text file to feed multiple software and publishing platforms.
Updates and editions are made to one file: The original text file.
Enables the text to be read now and for the foreseeable human future.
Puts the writing in simple text format which will outlast all software programs currently in use.
Text processing programs are everywhere as are publishing software and platforms that can read Markdown, directly. Pick one and start writing.

WYSIWYG Live Preview, Yes!

Ironically, writing in simple text was a big step for me. I worked as a typesetter before, and during, college and have always loved the look of well-formatted text and book design. My professional consulting is replete with word processors, project management software, presentations, adobe frame maker proposals, etc. To make it worse, I’ve relied heavily on HTML and InDesign for the past eight years. Must I do without the inspiration of formatted text to get all the benefits of writing in markdown?

Not at all! Marked reads your text file (Even a Scrivener file!) and displays a fully formatted version of your document in real time. As you type, Marked updates the displayed document. When you’re finished you can export the document from your original text editor or right from Marked, in all the standard formats.

Workflows

Website Articles

Scrivener to WordPress.
Markdownify plug-in within wordpress editor box.
Images stored on dropbox or website image directory.
Marked shows WYSIWYG of Scrivener file, including images, while the article is being written.

Guest posts

Scrivener exported to publisher’s format preference.
A. Cut/paste of Markdown txt?
B. Html or pdf export from Marked
C. Other?

Client Documents

Scrivener to pdf export.
Indesign for special formats only.

Books

Scrivener to first draft.
Edit drafts in Scrivener.
Send to Editor(s).
Make edits in Scrivener.
Final copy to Indesign.
Format for Kindle, PDF, etc.
Succeeding versions in Indesign.

Project Planning & Tasks

Omnifocus (Text only)
Drafts (MD and Text)
Scrivener (MD and Text)
Excel

E-mails

MailMate

Notes

Evernote
Nvalt
Drafts (iphone/pad) to Evernote to Scrivener

Misc. Tools

Byword
Brett Terpstra’s Markdown services
MultiMarkdown Composer

P.S., Nine Months Later

Shortly after starting to use Markdown I began using dictation software to talk words onto the screen. Dictation has now taken such a big place in my daily writing that my typing speed has declined. One thing I haven’t yet done is to train the dictation software to implement markdown syntax. For example, perhaps I could train the software so that saying, “Bold that”, puts double asterisks around the last word?

I no longer need Adobe Indesign or Word for daily writing. I much prefer to use Marked 2 for WYSIWYG of the draft folder of Scrivener. It’s not as good as Indesign but enough to be inspired by the clean text and formatting of what I’m working on.

When writing articles I sometimes use temporary droplink addresses of image files so Marked can show me how the picture will look with the text during the writing process. I also use droplink addresses to compose e-mails to friends (Also in markdown) if they’re to include photos. If I need the images to be viewable in the long-term I use “Transmit” to quickly upload the images to my website image directory and use that address in the markdown syntax.

When composing agendas and client documents I write them all in scrivener using markdown. I then use Marked to convert markdown to the pdf files that are sent directly to the client. Client work is started, and completed, in Scrivener where it remains in its final form. The pdf’s sent to the client are beautiful and archived in Scrivener.

Best Markdown Resources

Book
Article
Cheat Sheets
Spec
WYSIWYG Live Preview
Online Editors: Best are Dillinger and Stackedit.
Online Live Preview
Scrivener WYSIWYG using Marked 2

Invented by John Gruber and Fletcher Penny. ↩
https://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/library/from-the-vault/cuffe-manuscripts ↩
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible ↩
David Diringer noted that “the first mention of Egyptian documents written on leather goes back to the Fourth Dynasty (c. 2550–2450 BC), but the earliest of such documents extant are: a fragmentary roll of leather of the Sixth Dynasty (c. 24th century BC) ↩
Jiahu symbols, carved on tortoise shells in Jiahu, c. 6600 BC ↩

Communication

Equations in Words

By Terence Gillespie May 6, 2016

Equations are shorthand for words.

The symbols can be so mesmerizing we forget they’re a form of shorthand.

This equation…:

… Is shorthand for these words:

“. . .the net change of a smooth and continuous quantity, such as a distance travelled, over a given time interval (i.e. the difference in the values of the quantity at the end points of the time interval) is equal to the integral of the rate of change of that quantity, i.e. the integral of the velocity,” said Melkana Brakalova-Trevithick, chair of the math department at Fordham University, who chose this equation as her favorite.”¹

The equation and the paragraph describe identical truths with two different forms of notation. To the extent the equation represents truth so do the words behind them.

What’s Your Bias?

Which do you trust more: The equation or the words?

Equations seem to have escaped the post-modern distrust of the ability to know absolute truth. They’re more likely to be accepted as truth by contemporary Joe. In Reality, equations and words are equally prone to error.

Sock Loss Index

To advertise a new washing machine Samsung asked a psychologist and statistician to team up and develop a formula to predict the likelihood of losing a sock.

“The probability of sock loss equals the laundry size plus the complexity of the wash minus the product of the level of attention being paid to the task multiplied by the persons attitude towards doing washing.”

Where, ‘L’ stands for ‘laundry size’, based on the number of people in a household (p) with the frequency of washes (f). ‘C’ stands for ‘washing complexity.’ Types of wash (t) is multiplied by the number of socks washed in a week (s). ‘P’, or ‘positivity towards the laundry’ is subtracted from the sum of ‘L’ and ‘C’

Compounding Error

Only one “minor” symbol in an equation, or word in a sentence, need be wrong to invalidate the statements. This has profound implications.

When vetting the underlying truth of a situation it’s often required to combine the vetting of many component truths before putting them all together. A seemingly minor error may compound to dangerously false conclusions. The first result may be only a little off. Over time the conclusions drawn are exponentially wrong.

95% True!

If the sock loss index equation is 95% true you lose a few socks. If the fundamental theorem of calculus is 95% true it means untolled human misery. Some things in life must be 100% pure or they can’t be used, at all.

There’s another name for things that are 95% pure: Poison. Rat poison is 95 – 98% natural food². With 2 to 5% impurity you don’t even have to wait for the errors to compound. The rat dies in a day.

“The 11 Most Beautiful Mathematical Equations” (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-11-most-beautiful-mathematical-equations/) ↩
“In a most preferred range, the rodenticide composition can include the natural carrier matrix in a percentage by weight of about 95% to about 98%.” Rodenticide Patent, US 8574638 B1 (http://www.google.com/patents/US8574638). ↩

Children

Fairy Tales & Mythology

By Terence Gillespie April 11, 2016

Words are how the truth comes to us. They’re also how it can be taken away. Seen only as symbols and grammar, truth and lies are made from the same raw material. Your only hope is discernment. Your life depends on it.

Tolkien and Lewis regarded the fairy tale as a perfectly suited literary vehicle for expressing eternal truth. Lewis credits Tolkien and a mutual friend with helping him see that his love of myth and fairy tale blinded him to, yet prepared him for, the Gospels. He reluctantly came to believe the Gospels were eyewitness accounts of a “true myth”.¹

“I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”²

Mythology or History?

Another term used as a pejorative is mythology.

All mythology is presumed myth as the victors decide what is official history. The history of the defeated is, by definition, written by outlaws. A generation later the history of the defeated is mythology or conspiracy if it’s remembered, at all.

It’s helpful to think of mythology as collections of potential truths inconvenient to the succession of political power. Likewise, “History” is as likely to be the glorification of bureaucrats and technocrats as an accurate re-telling of the facts.

A series of time-related truths, thoroughly vetted and discerned, is not mythology or conspiracy; it’s history.

Trivium & Quadrivium

The subjects of history and philosophy were considered to be so demanding, yet so important, that they weren’t even presented to the student until after they’d studied the subjects of the trivium (Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric) and, ideally, those of the quadrivium (Arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy).³

“These seven heads were supposed to include universal knowledge. He who was master of these was thought to have no need of a preceptor to explain any books or to solve any questions which lay within the compass of human reason, the knowledge of the trivium having furnished him with the key to all language, and that of the quadrivium having opened to him the secret laws of nature.”⁴

“… When a few were instructed in the trivium, and very few studied the quadrivium, to be master of both was sufficient to complete the character of a philosopher … The candidate, having reached this point, is now supposed to have accomplish the task upon which he had entered – he has reached the last step, and is now ready to receive the full fruition of human learning.”⁵

“Some day you’ll be old enough”

The ability to grasp eternal truths and history and bring them to bear on decisions is a high achievement of a classical education. Only philosophy, by attempting to comprehend meaning, imposes greater demands for greater rewards.

“Some day you’ll be old enough” to start reading fairy tales again to glean eternal truths. Someday you’ll be educated enough to distinguish real history from stories convenient to political power.

A 1931 letter to childhood friend Arthur Greeves, Lewis credits Tolkien (and mutual friend Hugo Dyson). Paragraph reworded and reordered from an article written by Bruce Edwards (https://erlc.com/article/c-s-lewis-051101). ↩
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis ↩
Cathedral Schools of the early Middle Ages (527) on which the curriculum of Medieval universities were based (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_school) ↩
Hist. of Philos. Vol ii. P. 337 ↩
The symbolism of Freemasonry: Illustrating and Explaining its Science and Philosophy, it’s Legends, Myths, and Symbols. By Albert Gallatin Mackey, M.D., 1869. ↩

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