Unformation

Pen vs. Keyboard?

2011-12-05T23:04:55Z

Thoughts on why a typist's writing changes when using a pen.

The quality of art

2011-11-20T12:19:20Z

Why, far from drowning us in mediocrity, the internet and access to creative tools will make art better.

Shootin' blanks

2011-09-16T23:28:54Z

Exploring the difference between amateur and professional artists. Why it is the act of shipping that makes all the difference.

Flesh out

2011-09-11T13:15:11Z

Following up "Bootstrap your book", explore how to develop emerging narrative elements into the raw material for your text.

Thoughts on the SVO method

2011-09-09T10:29:06Z

Dive a little deeper into the logic of developing a text by iteration. Write better words by taking advantage of the way your brain is tuned to the workings of a sentence.

Bootstrap your book

2011-07-30T07:47:49Z

How to take a spark of inspiration and turn it into epic text. This post explores the first part of this process by showing how you can maximise the amount of information that can come out of a flash of inspiration.

Dangerous nouns

2011-06-02T22:04:33Z

Why we should refocus our creativity away from the noun and onto the verb. Why obsessions over titles and roles inhibits our sharing of ideas and tools and how processes can be shared across people and professions.

The information

2011-04-26T20:59:49Z

James Gleick has explained the meme better than anyone since Dawkins. If you’re interested in information you need to buy this book.

Hyperpaper: The eBook

2011-04-26T19:59:57Z

Hyperpaper took me so bloody long to write that I figured it’d do it justice to make it available as a free eBook.

This unholy marriage of Helvetica and Maven Pro should look quite nice on a smartphone or a tablet.

Download it here.

Hyperpaper

2011-04-20T21:40:05Z

If you read for pleasure you might get a great idea randomly. If you read for enlightenment it’s deliberate. You’re very likely to want to do something with the information. Reading for enlightenment might also take the form of research for mastering a subject. Relevance is important.

Typing is war

2011-02-06T16:10:56Z

After my last post lauding Ommwriter I sent them a tweet suggesting they include heavy gunfire as one of their keyboard sound effects. Did that make more sense than I thought at that ungodly hour?

A bad ode to Ommwriter

2011-02-01T00:42:30Z

Using Ommwriter is a surreal experience. It sort of assumes that the writer works best in a zen-like state of concentration which I imagine is correct some of the time. Stream of consciousness stuff.

Much ado about noting

2011-01-22T16:15:03Z

Visual thinkers aren't so lucky as verbal thinkers. Verbal thinkers can read a book or listen to a conversation and recount it point for point. Great chunks of text in books and articles aren't always easy for visual thinkers to absorb.

Thresher and Hopper

2010-11-28T23:44:40Z

Creative output is rather like making bread. You can't go from wheat stems to buttered Panettone at one fell swoop.

DNA of a document

2010-10-23T10:53:44Z

Outlining is a powerful way to capture notes. When reading I think it's one of the most effective ways both to absorb a concept and to create one. It's also a great technique for everything from revision to planning.