THE GAP by Ira Glass from frohlocke on Vimeo.
From the Video Archives: If Everything Is Online, Why Come to the Library at All?
Chrystie Hill poses that question, and comes up with some very provocative answers, in her TedX talk: “Libraries Present & Future.”
Libraries aren’t just the place to check out books. They’re the heart and soul of the city in which they reside.
From the Video Archives: Lee Child’s Writing Advice to Writers Is to Ignore All Advice
“The best advice for a budding writer is to ignore all advice.”
Child has a lot of words of wisdom (I won’t call it advice or you might ignore it) packed in that short two minutes, but that was the line I agree with the most. I’ve certainly handed out my share of writing advice, but really, none of it amounts to much. You put one word in front of the other, and if you keep at it, and trust our own vision and your own voice, in the end you might have something good. And if not, it’s at least yours.
And while I’m a big believer in constantly trying to get better as a writer, I also think there are times when it’s best to stop taking writing workshops and stop reading how-to books and stop hanging out on writing-related forums and just do the work. This isn’t to say you never take another writing workshop again; it’s just to say that there are periods along the way when it’s best to get all the other voices out of your head and just follow your own path.
From the Video Archives: Seth Godin on Being Remarkable
“Being very good is one of the worst things you can possibly do.”
The above quote is probably the most controversial thing Seth Godin said in the video, and you really have to watch it to understand the context. The basic gist is that it’s not enough to be good in the modern world if you want your ideas to spread; you have to be good in an interesting and provocative way, creating something “worth remarking about.” Applying this to writing and publishing, the takeaway is that you need to take risks, but it’s not risks with the marketing (although that can certainly play a part). It’s risks in what you write. Yes, you have to write well, write with heart, and put out something of quality, but if you’re just chasing a trend because it’s selling well (i.e. writing vampire romances because that seems to be hot), you’re actually making the riskier bet in the long run.