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Today started like every other day. With a blank page.
Articles need to be written. To-do lists need to be completed. But still that pesky little cursor stays in the same spot taunting me with his methodical disappearing and re-appearing act.
I hate the blank page. And I’m not the only one.
Despite their successes, there are hundreds of famous authors and writers out there who loathe the process of putting down words. The solitude. The long stretches of time away from any sort of human contact. The inability to think or talk about anything other than the topic at hand. And don’t even get me started on self-doubt, inner criticism, and writer’s block.
One of the greatest writers of the 20th century, Franz Kafka, burned almost 90 percent of his work during his lifetime.
Even after his death in 1924, a letter was discovered in his desk asking his friend Max Brod to burn the rest, unread. Luckily, Brod declined the request.
I get what was going through Kafka’s head as he torched his words. Anyone who has to write as a part of their job (which is pretty much every one of us whether it’s an e-mail, memo, blog post, or novel) has felt the urge to rip every page they’ve written in two or throw their laptop down the stairs.
It’s not an easy path committing your life, or even just a few hours of your day, to writing. But the results and gains are clear.
Writing is the easiest way to clear your head, formulate your ideas in a precise manner, and get them out into the world.
As Dorothy Parker so aptly put it:
“I hate writing. I love having written.”
We’re in this battle together and it helps to know that while you’re sitting there facing the blank page you’re in the same boat as some of the greatest writers this world has ever seen.
“When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth” – Kurt Vonnegut
The American novelist, essayist, and graphic artist had a prolific career yet he was often critical of the writing process and almost gave it all up during a brief stint at Sports Illustrated when he was asked to report on a racing horse that had tried to run away. (The story goes that after staring at the blank page all morning Vonnegut typed, “The horse jumped over the f*cking fence,” and then walked out of his job).
Thankfully, Vonnegut got over his initial reservations and went on to not only publish some incredible works of fiction, but also to share his wisdom on writing.
It’s probably the most unlikely place to find tips on how to write with substance, but in a 1980 issue of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ journal Transactions on Professional Communications, Vonnegut lays out his best writing suggestions:
- Find a subject you care about. “Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.”
- Keep it simple. “Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. ‘To be or not to be?’ asks Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long. Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story ‘Eveline‘ is this one: ‘She was tired.’ At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of a reader as those three words do.”
- Sound like yourself. “I myself find that I trust my own writing most, and others seem to trust it most, too, when I sound most like a person from Indianapolis, which is what I am. What alternatives do I have?”
- Say what you mean. “Readers want our pages to look very much like pages they have seen before. Why? This is because they themselves have a tough job to do, and they need all the help they can get from us.”
If you want to dig deeper into the mind of Vonnegut, read his eight commandments for writing good fiction.
“Writing is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay” – Flannery O’Connor
The National Book award winning Southern author published two novels and 32 short stories during her life and believed that building good habits is the easiest way to defeat the blank page:
“I’m a full-time believer in writing habits…You may be able to do without them if you have genius but most of us only have talent and this is simply something that has to be assisted all the time by physical and mental habits or it dries up and blows away…
Of course you have to make your habits in this conform to what you can do. I write only about two hours every day because that’s all the energy I have, but I don’t let anything interfere with those two hours, at the same time and the same place.”
“For once the disease of reading has laid upon the system it weakens so that it falls an easy prey to that other scourge which dwells in the ink pot and festers in the quill. The wretch takes to writing” – Virginia Woolf
Woolf’s most famous advice may have been to have a room of one’s own in order to create, but her writing also contains a number of other suggestions on how to be a brave writer. Like this quote on breaking rules taken from The Leaning Tower:
“Let us bear in mind a piece of advice that an eminent Victorian who was also an eminent pedestrian once gave to walkers: ‘Whenever you see a board up with “Trespassers will be prosecuted,” trespass at once’ … Literature is no one’s private ground; literature is common ground.”
Or this advice on writing badly:
“Be silly, be sentimental, imitate Shelley… give the rein to every impulse; commit every fault of style, grammar, taste, and syntax; pour out; tumble over; loose anger, love, satire, in whatever words you can catch, coerce or create, in whatever metre, prose, poetry, or gibberish that comes to hand. Thus you will learn to write.”
Most importantly, for anyone trying to make a living doing freelance work while creating what matters Woolf asks:
“What could be easier than to write articles and to buy Persian cats with the profits?”
“Writing makes no noise, except groans, and it can be done everywhere, and it is done alone” – Ursula K. LeGuin
The fantasy and science fiction writer who was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2014 explains how the quickest way to becoming a better writer is to start reading more, and reading beyond your comfort level:
“Beginners’ failures are often the result of trying to work with strong feelings and ideas without having found the images to embody them, or without even knowing how to find the words and string them together. Ignorance of English vocabulary and grammar is a considerable liability to a writer of English. The best cure for it is, I believe, reading.
People who learned to talk at two or so and have been practicing talking ever since feel with some justification that they know their language; but what they know is their spoken language, and if they read little, or read schlock, and haven’t written much, their writing is going to be pretty much what their talking was when they were two.”
“Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives” – James Joyce
Joyce embodied the ideal of the reckless and adventurous novelist perfectly and it’s no surprise that some of his best advice on becoming a better writer revolves around taking risks.
In Conversations with James Joyce, which chronicles the Irish author’s relationship with his friend Arthur Power in the 1920s Joyce explains what it means to be a modern writer:
“The important thing is not what we write, but how we write, and in my opinion the modern writer must be an adventurer above all, willing to take every risk, and be prepared to founder in his effort if need be. In other words we must write dangerously.”
“If there is a special Hell for writers it would be in the forced contemplation of their own works” – John Dos Passos
While Dos Passos may not be as much of a household name as his fellow Lost Generation writers, his work is still recognized as some of the best English-language literature of the 20th century.
In an interview with the Paris Review in the Spring of 1969, Dos Passos defended the idea of being objective as a way to get past writer’s block:
“I’m often carried away by emotions and enthusiasms for various ideas at one time or another, but I think the desire to observe, to put down what you see as accurately as possible, is still paramount.”
“I really hate to write. I get no fun out of it because I can’t get up and say I’m working, close my door, have coffee brought to me, and sit there camping like a ‘man of letters’” – Jack Kerouac
Kerouac was the kind of guy who could sit down and write the final draft of a novel like On the Road in 20 days, yet he still spoke up about the hardships of the writer’s life.
However, he also regularly wrote and spoke about the joys of writing and put together his own list of 30 beliefs and techniques for modern prose. Here are my 5 favorites:
- “Something that you feel will find its own form”
- “Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition”
- “Dont think of words when you stop but to see picture better”
- “No fear or shame in the dignity of yr(sic) experience, language & knowledge”
- “You’re a Genius all the time”
Or in even more plain language: trust your gut, forget about the rules, be brave, and feel confident in your abilities. Sounds like pretty good advice for all of us.
Writing is a deeply personal affair and one that can’t be simply spurred on by tips or suggestions. All of these professionals have seen the darkness that an empty page can bring inside of us and gone on to write incredibly powerful prose.
We’re all in this together, and hopefully these small words of encouragement can help you get through your own dark days.
Photo credit: Thomas Lefebvre, , Ryan Lum, Shutterstock
This post first appeared on the Crew blog.
Enormous technological changes in medicine and healthcare are heading our way. These trends have a variety of stakeholders: patients, medical professionals, researchers, medical students, and consumers. They are important because of the impact they will likely have on all of us at one time or another.
To get an overview of the trends in healthcare technology, we turned to Dr. Bertalan Meskó, medical futurist and author of The Guide to the Future of Medicine: Technology and the Human Touch. In it, he identifies several areas that he believes will shape the future of medicine and healthcare for decades to come.
Meskó’s predictions easily fall into two categories. The first group of trends, descried below, involve concepts already underway today, or those that will likely have an impact on us in the near future. (Part 2 of this article discusses a second group of tech trends that are still several years away or in much earlier stages of development).
Robot and human hands almost touching – 3D render. A modern take on the famous Michelangelo painting in the Sistine Chapel; titled, “The Creation of Adam”.
1. Gamifying health
Games are ubiquitous on our computers and phones, and increasing numbers of them are designed to have a positive impact beyond simply killing time. Combining fun and games into healthcare apps can motivate the patient and collect data needed to make informed decisions on daily activities that contribute to one’s health. “An estimated 50 percent of patients with chronic diseases do not follow the prescribed treatment,” says Meskó. “Gamified health tracking creates an environment that keeps the patient from straying from the appropriate therapy path.”
2. Empowered patients
Patients will become equal partners with their caregivers. Healthcare is moving beyond the hospital, and shifting towards patient self-knowledge and empowerment. The Internet has led to many people (for better or worse) researching their symptoms and diagnosing and treating themselves. While that extreme should be avoided whenever traditional healthcare providers are available, there’s no way to put the genie back in the bottle in terms of patients educating themselves.
Rather, healthcare professionals should embrace the change and guide patients in participating in their own care. New technologies will finally help medical professionals focus more on the patient as a human being instead of spending time hunting down pertinent information. They will be able to do what they do best – provide care with expertise. In turn, patients will get the chance to be equal partners in their healthcare. As Meskó puts it, “Healthcare cannot really advance without physicians letting their patients help themselves.”
3. Telemedicine and remote care
Home healthcare services and innovative technology will allow for doctor-patient connectivity where it had not been previously possible, saving both lives and money. Patient monitoring before, during, and after a procedure can now include autonomous robots, such as iRobot’s RP-VITA.
4. Re–thinking the medical curriculum
Medical schools will prepare future physicians for a world full of e-patients and dazzling technology. It takes many years to go from studying to practicing medicine. During that time, what students are learning is constantly changing in the real world.
The old-fashioned textbook is a static learning piece in a dynamic professional field with integrated, innovative technology. Digital classrooms will create new connections between students and healthcare professionals and allow for access to the most current information and resources.
5. Surgical and humanoid robots
Robotic-assisted surgery enhances the skill of the surgeon and allows for less invasive procedures. Advanced robots will be able to perform an operation from continents away, with precision beyond what a surgeon’s hand can do. Robots may never fully take over a surgical room due to their weak versatility and adaptability compared to humans, but they will become much more integrated into surgical teams.
6. Genomics and truly personalized medicine
DNA analysis will become a standard step when prescribing medicine or treatment, to ensure it is personalized and optimized for that particular patient’s metabolic background. This kind of specificity, according to Meskó, “will make it possible to define disease in terms similar to GPS coordinates.”
7. Body sensors
Technology is allowing us to measure critical health parameters in convenient and inexpensive ways. Tiny, wearable, sensors collect data without inferring with our daily lives in order to make better, more informed quantifiable decisions. Electronic clothing paired with sensors is one outlet used to collect such data.
8. Medical tricorders and portable diagnostics
The fictional medical tricorder from Star Trek is soon to be a reality. Diagnostic procedures are shifting towards devices that are portable and able to be performed from home. Medical mobile applications will be prescribed with patient customization. “The smartphone will be the hub of the future of medicine,” says Meskó, “serving as a health-medical dashboard.”
9. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) biotechnology
Cheaper technology and a DIY spirit are generating a new generation of scientists and engineers who see no limitations in research. Community biology labs are popping up around the world, connecting inventors, amateurs, and anyone curious to experiment with equipment and education. The resulting innovation in biotech has the potential for disruptive solutions that will further change the way medicine is practiced.
10. The 3D printing revolution
3D printers can manufacture medical equipment, prostheses, or even drugs. They will also play a vital role in regenerative medicine, to create tissues with blood vessels, bone, heart valves, ear cartilage, synthetic skin, and even organs. With its increasing affordability and open source engineering, the applications for 3D printing are incredibly vast and beneficial.
11. Iron Man: powered exoskeletons and prosthetics
Exoskeleton suits have enabled partially-paralyzed individuals to walk again. Increasing the precision of motor control and recreating natural sensation will eventually create real-time communication between the prosthetic and the brain. Until then, says Meskó, “The real challenge for companies is to design devices that can almost perfectly mimic the complex movements of hands and legs.”
Read Next: Rise of the ambulance drones
Image credit: Shutterstock
This post originally appeared on Forbes.
We reported this week that sections of the music industry are up in arms about Apple Music’s free, three-month trial for which it won’t pay royalties to artists. Taylor Swift has just summed up the musicians’ side of things perfectly with a short, eloquent piece on Tumblr.
A couple of choice quotes…
“I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company. ”
…
“But I say to Apple with all due respect, it’s not too late to change this policy and change the minds of those in the music industry who will be deeply and gravely affected by this. We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”
Most of Swift’s music will be on Apple Music at launch, but she says in her post that she’s echoing “the sentiments of every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much.”
Apple may have plenty of clout when it comes to making deals to launch new services, but it could well have lost the popular vote in this particular battle. Still, Apple told Recode last week that its royality payouts are “a few percentage points higher than the industry standard,” which helps make up for the long unpaid period.
Image credit: Featureflash / Shutterstock.com
Summer has unofficially begun here in the U.S. And I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing I love more than relaxing with a great book on the beach or laying in the grass at a park.
And if I can get better at my job in the process? That, my friends, is a win-win. Or double win, as I like to call it.
Since our previous reading lists (here and here) were so helpful for me personally as a reader, I want to pay it forward. So I caught up with some friends that have both great taste and mad skills – I figured they would have some great recommendations, and they didn’t disappoint.
And what’s great about this collection is the variety. We have books specifically for people at startups, a few specific to certain job functions, and a bunch that anyone working in the professional world can learn from.
Everybody Writes by Ann Handley
Suggested by: Brittany Berger, Content & PR Manager @ Mention
If you’re thinking, “but I’m not a writer – why do I need to read this,” then take a second look at the title.
Even if you’re not a writer, you write things. Because everybody writes. This book’s full of writing tips for anyone that uses written communication for their job. Aka, anyone in general.
I’ve read this book cover-to-cover twice already, and I don’t think I’ll stop until I have it memorized. It will help anyone become a better communicator. Yes, I’ve applied a ton of tips from the book to my writing (such as blog posts), but it’s also changed the way I write everyday communication such as emails.
The Product Hunt Manual by Kiki Schirr
Suggested by: Brittany Berger, Content & PR Manager @ Mention
I haven’t read this yet, but I bought it during my research for this post. As someone who’s still early on in their Product Hunt obsession, I haven’t really looked at PH much from the business side.
But Product Hunt is becoming an integral part of more and more startups’ launch strategies, so it’s obviously time I get familiar with how the site can be used.
Startup marketers like myself: definitely read this one as soon as possible (in fact, I’m making a promise to start it today). But it’s likely helpful and informative for anyone in the startup community, any Hunter, or just people like me who can’t wait for their PH daily email each morning.
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal & Ryan Hoover
Suggested by: Brittany Berger, Content & PR Manager @ Mention
This book is the how-to guide for startups who want to build great products. In other words, this is the how-to guide for all startups.
For a product to really catch on, it needs to be more than cool or helpful. It needs to become a part of the user’s life – a staple.
Hooked looks at the four-step model to build a product that will do just that. This book will show you how to build a product that encourages customer behavior and builds habits that will bring them back to you over and over.
There’s no one department of your startup that should read this one; it’s for all of us. Every team takes part in building a better company, and reading this book should help you get there.
The Year without Pants by Scott Berkun
Suggested by: Gilles Bertaux, Growth Marketer @ Mention
Aside from having an awesome name, this book looks at how a successful software company is built and run.
Which software company? Automattic. They built this blogging thingy you might’ve heard of:WordPress.
Like Remote (which we’ll talk about later), it covers building a team of remote workers successfully. But it also digs deep into company culture at large: fostering creativity, building leadership, and staying productive through it all.
And it’s always interesting to see the behind-the-scenes of successful software startups.
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Suggested by: Guillaume Cabane, Head of Marketing @ Mention
In the blurb for this book, Ariely poses this question: “Why do our headaches persist after taking a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin?”
He goes on to ask a series of similar questions, all making you question how you make your own decisions. We like to think we’re rational beings, but are we really?
Predictably Irrational looks at how we make decisions – the different forces that drive us. And since that information is no good without action, the book also goes into how you can use these insights to make better decisions.
Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux
Suggested by: Kevan Lee, Content Crafter @ Buffer
“One of the most important books we’ve read as a Buffer team. It’s packed with incredible insights about the way we work best and the direction that organizations are headed – toward self-management, wholeness, and purpose.” – Kevan
This book has been on my radar even since Buffer announced they were experimenting with having no managers.
I felt like I read about their experiment with vested interest – personally, I could not imagine how a company could run with no managers. And for that very reason, I wanted to see Buffer make it work.
They did make it work, and are now a “no managers” company – this new structure is as ingrained in their culture as any of their other values. They even ask if you’ve read it when applying for a job.
(You can read more about their experiment here and here.)
Intercom on Product Management by Intercom
Suggested by: Kevan Lee, Content Crafter @ Buffer
“A fantastic guide to the ins and outs of product management, with great tips for beginners and deep thoughts for the pros. It’s a short (and free!) read that I found super helpful in wrapping my head around all the amazing considerations that go into building a great product.” – Kevan
When people highlight what makes startups great, they tend to focus on the culture. But at the heart of every successful startup, there was a great product. This book covers building the initial product all the way through to building new features and letting the product evolve.
Not only is this book a go-to guide for product managers, but it’s great for anyone outside the product team who’s looking to learn more about how things get built and shipped.
(Read Kevan’s favorite takeaways from the book here.)
The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer
Suggested by: Kevan Lee, Content Crafter @ Buffer
“Useful and important for understanding the importance of rest. It’s a short, easy read, based on a TED talk and part of the TED book series. Well worth an afternoon or evening to read this one through.” – Kevan
If I were to say that #startuplife is synonymous with a “go, go, go,” lifestyle, I doubt I’d be the first person to do so. I’ll be the first to admit I’m horrible at sitting still. Mentally, at least. It never rests in the same place for long without some external force.
In a book based on his 2013 TED talk, Pico Iyer muses about how the more connected we become, the more we need to disconnect and just…be still.
The Burned-Out Blogger’s Guide to PR by Jason Kincaid
Suggested by: Crystal Richard, Director of PR @ Onboardly Media
“My must-read book for Startup Folks this summer is former TechCrunch reporter, Jason Kincaid’s “PR For Burned Out Bloggers.” I’ll admit, I’ve never been one for reading business books, but after a colleague suggested I give this one I try, I ended up devouring it in one sitting.
As a PR Pro, it’s hard to find a book that gives you new advice, but Jason’s unique perspective as an actual former tech reporter gives you an inside look that you won’t find from PR books written by the pros. Grab a cold drink and check this one out this summer – I promise you’ll learn something new!” – Crystal
This one may not seem like a startup book on the surface, but let’s think about this: how many new startups have a dedicated PR person on staff? Nah, usually in the beginning, things like PR are done by the co-founders or whoever else has time. And that’s who the audience for this book is.
Remote by David Heinemeier Hansson & Jason Fried
Suggested by: Shannon Byrne, Chief Content Officer @ CloudPeeps
This one is from the founders of 37signals and speaks of their own experience building a remote company that’s responsible for such products such as Basecamp.
They’ve clearly figured out how to make remote work.
The book should be a must-read for any startup founder considering hiring remote employees, as well as anyone who works remotely.
It can also serve as a resource if you’re trying to make the argument for remote at your own company. One Goodreads review suggests that the book would have the most appeal for readers who are unfamiliar with successful remote work.
What’s on your Kindle?
This list is 10 books long. But let’s be real. With the right books, that really pull you in, that will only last you half the summer.
Read Next: Mark Zuckerberg’s year of books: Michael Suk-Young Chwe’s ‘Rational Ritual’ review
This post first appeared on Mention.