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Work Habits: Thomas Edison, Power Napper
Thomas Edison bragged about only needing a few hours sleep at night, but frequently napped and had cots all over his lab, including one in his office. He judged people harshly for sleeping (and...
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Green Means Go: Color Linked to Creativity
German researchers found that when people glanced at the color green, specifically plant green, for two seconds before doing a creative task, it boosted their creative output compared to briefly...
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Happiness is a Warm Desk: How Your Work Area Affects Your Productivity
Some writers put way too much attention into their working environment – and then don’t actually get much work done. Many others (like me) pay barely any attention at all into the setting. I found...
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7 Tools for Critical Thinking (from Philosopher Daniel Dennett)
As I say in my book, “How To Be A Writer Who Writes”, (a phrase I love saying and really should say more), different phases of the writing process call for different kinds of writing. In Phases 1...
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The Case for Not Rushing It: Where Good Ideas (and Good Book Trailers) Come From
“The Latin verb cogito for ‘to think’ etymologically means ‘to shake together.’” Writers are often at their least creative when it comes to beating themselves up for not working, or not working hard...
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Color Coding: The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding (as it may...
Don’t believe pseudo-science that says red always means excitement (and other color fallacies). It’s not that simple. See this interesting article by Gregory Ciotti for details. Filed under: Science...
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A Smaller Piece of the Pie: Gender Imbalance in Magazine Publishing and Book...
It’s not just your imagination, there’s still a major gender imbalance in magazines, especially book reviews and coverage of books. Keep your fingers crossed that things might have gotten a little...
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Managed Fantasy
Fantasy is important – especially for writers. But maybe we should try to fantasize more about simply finishing the project, not the wild success we’ll enjoy after it’s written. Here’s an excerpt from...
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Which 2014 Best Picture Nominees Pass the Bechdel Test: A New Yorker Quiz
American Hustle Captain Phillips Dallas Buyers Club Gravity Her Nebraska Philomena 12 Years a Slave The Wolf of Wall Street The Bechdel Test, created in 1985 by the cartoonist and graphic novelist...
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The Top 10 “Common Elements” in Best-Seller Novels (via J.T. Velikovsky)
Stieg Larsson, Stephanie Meyer, J K Rowling, James Patterson and Dan Brown… What `Top 10 Things’ do their best-selling fiction novels all have in common? 1) ALL ARE IN THE SAME GENRE… All are in the...
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Track Publishing Trends (or anything – or anyone – else!) in Published Books
Meet Ngram, an intriguing data-mining device from Google that charts the relative citation of any words or phrases in all books published (that are in the Google database). Enter your own words &...
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6 Formulas for Formula Fiction (by Jim Denney via Michael Moorcock)
1. Length formula: 60,000 words, divided into four sections of 15,000 words, six chapters in each section, no chapter longer than 2,500 words. Each chapter is required to contain elements … Continue...
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Credible Gunplay: Does my 16 year-old nephew know more about firearms than you?
My nephew recently begged me to get Hollywood to include more realistic gunplay in action movies and TV shows. He points out that the sound of a gun going off … Continue reading →
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Miller’s Compendium: Timeless Tools for the Modern Writer
The first comprehensive fully-clickable reference book for writers. - 100s of articles - 1000s of links Timeless wisdom - vintage graphics - modern technology! http://wp.me/p2XeDk-r4
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