What is Digg?40 Comments
- thewebguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21"you may remember me from other self-help titles such as, 'get confident, stupid!' and 'smoke yourself thin!'"
- bryxal, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13"How to defeat writer's block"
1) Read digg for an hour
2) Read slashdot for an hour or so
3) repeat
/* I'm trying to hold back writing 4)... 5) Profit but its too tempting */ - NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Writing is all about audience. Generally, you will write what you like to read... And believe it or not, though I am not among them, many people ENJOY that heart vomit crap.
- leobaby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I like how as soon as he makes the point "its fear of not writing well" he goes on to make keyboard errors. Or was that the point...
+digg - Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I'd think a fear of not writing well is a quite worthy reason to not subject the world to your crappy writing. "Raul ripped Loretta's bodice with his sturdy hands and whispered turgid words of amour in her heaving ear..." Oh, for the sweet surcease of writer's block!
- jkenneth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Now all we need is an article for getting over what Ernest Hemingway called "the artist's reward" that horrible feeling of uncertainty, that wondering if your work is any good.
But other than that, awesome article, anyone with chronic writer's block should heed his advice (especially the physical activity bit), it definitely is one of those things only in one's head. - frogpelt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Writer's block is the cure for writer's cramp.
- ProfessorRiffs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5No.
- NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Where do you propose to put something like this? It is related to at least mental health, since the block occurs only in your mind, and this article provides techniques to get around those mental blocks.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I recently read a book called 'Private Writing' that touted sitting each day for 10 minutes and writing anythng you want as fast as you can. As soon as you are done, you throw it away. You learn that no-one is ever going to read or criticize your writing (not even you!) so you work more freely.
Worked for me. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6No, I don't have a block because of fear, but because of a lack of direction or imagination. Fear doesn't come into it at all. It's not a matter of quality, or anything of that nature for me.
I really can't see the advice as helpful. - NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Did you RTFA? There are lots of techniques there that will help you write, regardless of the cause. It's not about conquering your fear, it's about getting started.
- NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well, you know, enough people dugg it to bring it to the front page, so apparently, digg users wanted to read it. You don't really HAVE to read it either. You can elect not to. That's the magic of choice.
- NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Lots of people who can't write well, or have no sense of the technical side of writing, still write. It doesn't necessarily make the CONTENT bad. It simply complicates the matter. I imagine both incarnations of "its/it's" appeared because he wasn't sure which to use, so he tossed both in there.
"Oooohh... If you want it to be possessive, it's just I T S, but if it's supposed to be a contraction, then it's I T Apostrophe S. Scalawag." - SickBoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This article is pretty useful. Anyone who writes day-in, day-out like I do has used some of his techniques to get over a hump. I particularly like his points that basically tell you to 'write something'. This can work wonders, even if you're writing crap. Crap can be massaged and molded into a work of art. Tossing down subheads on a page is also useful to help you envision how the article/story/report will run from beginning to end. Seeing that can be a big help.
- himthatwas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The "it's its" portion of that sentence could have been an attempt at non-gender specific denotation and he has a rather low opinion of the human race.
To go further though, if you spend any time on the internet what-so-ever you will find yourself innundated with a good deal of bad grammer.
Largely this is due to people not having writters block, not having the fear to write something bad before writing something good. Blogs don't often get more than a quick re-read and judging by the rest of the article I tend to lean towards the belief that these were typo's or just brief lapses where the brain is two or three words ahead of the fingers.
And if you want to get all grammar phsyco, "is likely, never to have, writer's block." could use some work itself.
I'm totally not going to proof this nor spell check it so that my errors of judgement and/or spelling may be preserved for all diggdom. - OneAndOnlySnob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Oh yeah, this is totally science and as such belongs in the science section of digg.
That said, I'm a musician and I do get writer's block. It's a poorly understood phenomenon. Sometimes, you have something very specific you are going for, a certain elusive mood. Sometimes, perhaps you almost wish to write a song by one of your heroes. So you get incredibly hung up and frustrated, because you immediately compare every note you write to what you want (the end result) and there's a huge gap between them! It becomes very hard to see how you could ever cobble all the right pieces together.
It is ALWAYS possible to write some other crap, and this is what you should do. But the fact that you can't write that ONE SONG is frustrating.
TIP: He suggests writing crap and that is exactly what you should do. Do it for like a week or two and forget about that ONE SONG. Just enjoy yourself and being creative. I often wonder if people like Beethoven had that ONE SONG that they never wrote. - inactive, on 09/08/2008, -0/+1The best mortgage rates, refinance, home loan, real estate, realty http://tophomemortgageloan.com
- josegutz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Hmm... let's see.... How to defeat writers block... Hmmmmm....
What to write...what to write.... I give up!! - splinechaser, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Uhm, how about the writing in the submission? I don't mean to be a dick here, but clearly bwoodall is likely, never to have, writer's block.
"it's its fear of not writing well"
"Certainly ever writer has moments..."
I'm just sayin'. - phoneboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This looks like a variation on the "write a ***** first draft" suggestion.
- samdu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How to overcome writer's block? Write. Anything. Every day. The saying is a cliche for a reason... Writers write.
- nycjap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's throat *warbler* mangrove, and it's spelled Raymond Luxury Yacht.
- Katen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Very true.
- tripm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I got blocked just this morning eating doughnuts.
- Veretax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think this boils down to a lack of understanding of the writing process. For most people I know writing was something we were always told to do in school and the process really never was taught before High School. So its no wonder writers block would come up
- erric, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There is a great book called ``FreePlay'' that talks about how to approach creativity. It's mostly centered around music as that is what the author knows, but I have found it applies equally well to other areas in my life too.
One of the most memorable passages talks about playing an improvised solo. The author reminds us that we are all good (more or less) at improvising and gives the example of conversation between two or more people. The conversation (unless we are watching a play) has not been rehersed and the participents are just listening and expressing as time flows and the conversation goes where it will. - jdarnbro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I wish some people would have writer's block forever.
- hackwrench, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I've been writing on Digg and Slashdot for awhile. Doesn't get me one step closer to writing more on various projects I've got going.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yes, I read the article. I found none of the advice or suggestions useful, and I especially found the conclusion as to why Writer's block happens to be faulty.
- Katen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Currently, there *is* no good place for it on Digg.
But I come to Digg for news about certain subjects that I might have missed other places, not advice on writing. I guess I just wish there were more filtering/categorization aspects to Digg, or that posters would keep to more relevant subjects. - duketime, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"He worked as a lead program manager on Microsoft Windows and MSN. His job titles have included usability engineer, program manager, lead program manager, and Training Manager."
Whatever it is this guy's trying to do, he should probably just give up. - lustre, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Are you kidding? He is one of the best writers on project management that there is out there. His "The Art of Project Management" is very good. My copy is highlighted, dogeared, coffee stained, well-thumbed and read repeatedly. I keep it next to my equally used McGee.
- wptrocks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Go read War of Art.
- SimonGray, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I could have appreciated like this while I was writing the shortest essay of my life 2 days ago
- Katen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1While I appreciate the article, why is it in the health section?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1So... get rid of the fear.
- Adenosine, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1sdftj
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