Blowing rainbow bubbles Watching a family movie with a bag of chips in hand A sketchbook filled with drawings of wax crayons A box of trinkets Camera containing printer…
The world outside is filled with ideas…oodles and oodles of ideas. Ideas stem from great imagination and from infinite possibilities waiting to be explored.
But how many of these ideas truly stick in our heads? How many of these really catch and grasp our attention?
In this book, Made To Stick, the authors Chip Heath and Dan Heath explore what makes up a sticky idea and what are the main villians of a sticky idea.
One of the main villians of a sticky idea is the Curse of Knowledge. To explain this, the authors take the example of ‘Tappers and Listeners’.
During a research, some people were divided into two groups. The task of one group was to tap with their fingers some songs, and the task of the listener group was to identify these songs from the rhythms of the tapping fingers.
According to the research, the listeners were able to guess only 3 songs out of 120. This happened because the tappers were experiencing the Curse of Knowledge. When they were tapping the songs, the tune of the song was playing in their heads, but the same tune wasn’t playing in the heads of the listeners. Tappers thought that the same tune was playing in the listeners’ heads but it wasn’t so. The Curse of Knowledge is when you know something then you stop knowing what it is to not know something we know. This produces ideas that are unsticky and that don’t grasp our attention.
To combat the Curse of Knowledge, the authors provide a checklist (SUCCES) of what makes up a sticky idea. They write that a sticky idea is: • Simple • Unexpected • Concrete • Credible • Emotional • Story
In this review I share 11 ideas from the book about what makes an idea stick in our heads and what to do to generate an idea that sticks, based on the SUCCES checklist. Read on.
#1 FIND THE CORE OF AN IDEA Strip an idea down to its most critical essence. Simple messages are always core and compact
#2 ENGAGE PEOPLE’S CURIOSITY & CREATE CURIOSITY GAPS Curiosity happens when we feel a gap in our knowledge. The thirst to fill a knowledge gap can be more powerful than the the thirst for slides and jungle gyms. Point out the gap in people’s knowledge. Knowledge gaps create interest and cause people to pay attention to our idea.
#3 CREATE MYSTERIES OR PUZZLES Mystery is created not from an unexpected moment, but from an unexpected journey. We know where we’re headed, we want to solve the mystery but we don’t know how to get there. Tell mysteries or puzzles that are slowly solved over the course of the communication.
#4 TELL STORIES. Stories are like flight simulators for the brain. Mental simulations help us manage emotions and trigger physical respones in our system.
#5 BE CONCRETE. ABSTRACTION IS THE LUXURY OF THE EXPERT We are wired to feel things for people, not for abstractions.
What makes something concrete. If we can examine it using our five senses, it is termed as concrete. Novices crave concreteness. Concreteness helps us to understand. Trying to teach an abstract principle without a concrete foundation is like starting a house by building roof in the air.
#6 SPELL OUT THE BENEFIT OF THE BENEFIT. TRIGGER SELF-INTEREST. People want to know “what’s in it for me?” Trigger their self-interest by promising reasonable benefits that people can imagine themselves enjoying.
#7 ADD CREDIBILITY Use authorities (experts and celebrities) and antiauthorities (details and statistics) to add credibility to an idea.
#8 BREAK PEOPLE’S GUESSING MACHINE, THEN FIX IT Break a pattern, create interest and surprise. Surprise happens when people’s existing schemas fail. When our guessing machines fail, surprise grabs our attention. Although, be wary of surprise without any insight.
#9 TAP INTO THE THINGS PEOPLE CARE ABOUT A credible idea makes people believe, an emotional idea makes people care. If we want people to care about our idea, we must tap into the things they care about. Fill up people’s emotional tank. Use associations, appeal to their self-interest and appeal to their identity.
#10 USE GENERATIVE METAPHORS AND PROVERBS. BE COMPACT. Proverbs are short sentences drawn from long experience. Likewise, learn to pack a lot of meaning in a little bit of compactness. Tap the existing memory terrain of the audience. Use what’s already there.
Use analogies to trigger an existing schema in people’s memory, and use it to impart new information.
#11 LEARN TO SPOT STICKY IDEAS Learn to spot stories that have potential. Usually stories fall into the themes of challenge, connection and creativity. Put on the Core Idea Glasses to filter stories based on your perspective.
What is destiny? What is the nature of human mind? What does it mean to respond to life?
In this book, Sadhguru takes us into the detailed mechanism of how a human system is designed. From topics like responsibility to mystical dimensions of chakras and energy channels, he delves deep into the engineering of a well-designed human individual. With cutting insights and crisp pointers, he describes to the readers how to keep and maintain our individual human systems as well as sadhanas (tools) for meditation.
In this review, I share 43 insights that I learned from reading the book. Read on, get inspired and enjoy!
1. If you can use it when you want and put it aside when you don’t, the mind can be a fantastic tool. 2. The only solution for all the ills that plague humanity is self-transformation. 3. Self-transformation is not incremental self-improvement. Self-transformation is achieved not by morals or ethics or attitudinal or behavioral changes, but by experiencing the limitless nature of who we are. Self-transformation means nothing of the old remains. It is a dimensional shift in the way you perceive and experience life 4. The world is not "out there". 5. Language is no more than a conspiracy devised by human beings. If someone speaks, they are only making sounds, and we are making up the meanings. 6. if you really want to know spirituality, don’t look for anything. It is not the object of your search that is important; it is the faculty of looking. 7. Do it for the fun of it! 8. An extraordinary intelligence within each of us that is capable of transforming a piece of bread or an apple into the human body in a single afternoon. Not a small feat! 9. it is possible to be ecstatic in one’s adulthood as in one's childhood. It is possible for every human being because all we can ever experience happens from within us. 10. We are all seeking to become infinite. 11. Well-being is just a deep sense of pleasantness within. If your body feels pleasant, we call this health. If it becomes very pleasant, we call this pleasure. If your mind becomes pleasant, we call this peace. If it becomes very pleasant, we call this joy. If your emotions become pleasant, we call this love. If they become very pleasant, we call this compassion. If your life energies become pleasant, we call this bliss. If they become very pleasant, we call this ecstasy. This is all that you are seeking. 12. The human mechanism is the most sophisticated physical form on the planet. You are the greatest piece of technology, but the problem is you don’t know where the keyboard is. It’s like you’re handling a supercomputer with a pickaxe and a wrench! 13. All human experience is one hundred percent self-created. 14. Human life is longing for unlimited expansion, and that is the only thing that will settle you for good. 15. Enlightenment is not an attainment or an achievement. It is a homecoming. Your senses give you the impression that you are experiencing the outside, but you have never experienced the outside. When you realize that all that you experience is within, that absolute homecoming is enlightenment. 16. When it comes to our inner nature, there is only one governing principle: borderless unity. Our physical and social worlds are governed by boundaries. Our inner world needs none. 17. If you go outward, it is an endless journey. If you turn inward, it is just one moment. In that one moment, everything changes. In that one moment, you are not in pursuit of joy anymore. Instead, your life becomes an expression of your joyfulness. 18. To mold situations the way you want them you must first know who you are. Who you are is not the sum total of accumulations you have made. 19. Creating your own destiny does not mean you have to control every situation in the world. Creating your destiny is about steadily heading toward your well-being and your ultimate nature, no matter what the content of life is around you. It simply means making yourself in such a way that, whatever the events and situations around you, you don’t get crushed by them; you ride them 20. The physical and psychological dimensions belong to the realm of polarities—pain-pleasure, love-hate, masculine-feminine, and so on. If you have one, the other is bound to follow. But when you move into the fundamental dimension of who you are, you are beyond all polarities. You now become blissful by your own nature. You are the master of your own destiny 21. This ability to respond to the entire universe is already a physical reality. It is only your thoughts and emotions that need to become conscious of the fact. 22. Reactivity is enslavement. Responsibility is freedom. Responsibility is the ability to respond. The choice is always before you: to respond consciously to the present; or to react compulsively to it. 23. The wealth of life lies only in how you have allowed its experiences to enrich you. Filth can blossom into the fragrance of a flower. Manure can transform itself into the sweetness of a mango. No adversity is an impediment if you are in a state of conscious response 24. Every subatomic particle in your body is responding in a limitless way to the great dance of energies that is the cosmos. 25. Once your joy is on self-start rather than push-start, you have upgraded your technology. 26. The physical body is the first gift of which we are aware. It is also the ultimate machine. Every other machine on the planet has come out of this. 27. The very source of creation is functioning within you. 28. There are two basic forces within you. One is the instinct of self-preservation, which compels you to build walls around yourself to protect yourself. The other is the constant desire to expand, to become boundless. These two longings—to preserve and to expand—are not opposing forces, though they may seem to be. 29. The human body is capable of downloading the entire cosmos 30. If you observe the natural cycle of the body, you will find that there is something called a mandala. A mandala is a cycle of forty to forty-eight days that the human system goes through. In every cycle, there will be three days on which your body does not need food. 31. Your body is just a loan from this planet. What you call “death” is just Mother Earth reclaiming the loan that she offered to you. 32. Fear is not a natural part of their existence. Fear is a result of the incompleteness of your existence. 33. Only when you recognize your mortal nature do you want to know what more there is to life. It is then that the spiritual process opens up. 34. Death is not the end of life. Death is simply the end of the body. 35. If you tell yourself you don’t want to think a certain thought, that is precisely the first thing your mind will produce! That is the nature of the human mind. 36. You are, therefore you may think. 37. Learn to discern the real from the illusory, what is existentially true from what is psychologically true. 38. Avoiding something is not freedom from it. Such morality is based on exclusion. Spirituality, on the other hand, is born of inclusion 39. Spirituality does not mean moving away from life; it means becoming alive to the core, in the fullest possible way. With age, physical agility may diminish, but the level of joy and aliveness need not. If your level of joy and aliveness is declining, you are committing suicide in installments. 40. A well-established human mind is referred to as a kalpavriksha, or a wishing tree that grants any boon. 41. If you want to experience a mountain peak, you either elevate yourself to that level, or simply look up. 42. The most generous way to live is to set an example to the rest of the world by living life full-throttle and beyond all limitations. 43. Try this. Sit alone for five minutes and see what your life would be like if you were absolutely alone in this world. If there were nobody or nothing to compare yourself with, what would you truly long for? What would really matter to you if there were no external appreciation or critique?
How many times do we witness it happen, that even though the situation outside is terribly negative, we look at it with a positive attitude and it gets only better, whereas sometimes even though the situation is totally positive, we look at it with a negative attitude, and it gets only worse?
Well, this book Attitude Is Everything, as its name suggests, delves deep into the idea of attitude, what makes up a great attitude and what makes up for a terrible attitude, and how significant is one’s attitude in life…
The book is divided into 12 chapters. In this review, I share 20 pointers I extracted from these chapters.
So, let’s begin with these!
#1 ATTITUDE = WINDOW TO THE WORLD The book mentions that, think of your attitude as a mental filter through which you experience the world.
Your attitude is your window to the world.
#2 EVERYONE STARTS WITH A CLEAN MENTAL WINDOW According to the book, everyone starts out with a clean mental window, but there comes a time when life starts throwing dirt on this window in the form of criticism, ridicule, rejections, disappointments and doubts.
Even though the dirt keeps building up, most often we do nothing about it and carry on in our lives with a filthy window. Clean the dirt off your window.
#3 A human being has the choice to control one’s attitude irrespective of the circumstances.
#4 When we combine attitude with other success principles, we become unstoppable!
#5 We are human magnets We become what we think about. Our Dominant Thought determines who we become.
A positive belief system is the starting point for the achievement of any goal. When your dominant belief is that you can achieve your goal, you begin taking actions necessary to move in that direction.
Your mind hears every word you speak – and like a magnet, you’ll attract events and circumstances that correspond to your dominant beliefs.
#6 Repetition is the key When we hear the same things over and over, it becomes a part of us and we automatically move forward to improve our life.
We are constantly moving forward in the direction of our dominant thoughts.
#7 Picture Your Way. Rethink Your Mental Movies The pictures, or mental movies or visualizations that occupy our mind exert tremendous influence over our present actions. The author writes that we have control over what pictures we allow to occupy our mind. But unless we consciously do so, our mind looks in the mental archives and keeps replaying the same old pictures over and over again.
Even though we cannot deny or change the old pictures, we can alter our interpretation of how we view a particular picture.
#8 Commitment is Magical When you make a commitment and are willing to do whatever it takes, you begin to attract people and circumstances necessary to achieve your goal.
Doors will open. Obstacles will arise. You will suffer disappointments. Life will test your commitment by throwing setbacks in your way. But if you are committed to your path, you will eventually succeed.
#9 TURN YOUR PROBLEMS INTO OPPORTUNITIES A problem is often not a problem at all. It may actually be an opportunity. A problem may point out certain adjustments we need to make to improve certain conditions in our life. The road to success often travels through adversity.
Miseries are blessings in disguise. The positives are always there, if you look for them.
Adversity serves us by giving us perspective, teaching us to be grateful, bringing out our hidden potential, encouraging us to make changes, teaching us valuable lessons and opening new doors.
#10 When one door shuts, there is always a better one waiting to be opened
#11 WATCH YOUR WORDS It’s a matter of cause and effect. Our words determine our beliefs, our beliefs determine out actions and our actions determine our results.
The words we use and repeat are strongly connected to our accountaability and also to our emotions. Clearing up your language is an important first step!
#12 Our body hears the words we say or think Our body hears the words we use and responds to it. Our brain forms grooves out of the words we use consistently, and keeps playing the same tape over and over again.
Our words are the self-fulfilling prophesies.
#13 How are You? Our answer to the question How are you? may seem like such a small thing but we must answer this question to ourselves not ten but as many as fifty times a day. Our responses to this question can be classified into 3 categories – negative, mediocre and positive.
However, how we feel is totally a subjective matter. We can change these feelings by changing the words we use to interpret them.
#14 Stop complaining One thing is experiencing pain and discomfort and another thing is talking about it. Talking about pain and discomfort only brings more of the same.
Complaining is a game that we should never participate in as it only escalates our suffering. Besides, complaining is not the answer to the challenges in our life. Complaining often stems from a lack of perspective in which we blow our problem way too much in high proportion.
#15 Make a Gratitude List If you feel tempted to talk about or complain about your problemss, pick up a pen and start making a list of things you’re grateful for. There are always some to if we look, and this sure beats complaining too!
#16 SPEND TIME WITH NOURISHING PEOPLE NOT NEGATIVE ONES Hang out with negative people and their attitude will wear and drain you down. Whatever you hear will be at the forefront of your consciousness. And ultimately, our mind can’t discriminate between the messages that are good for us and those which are not.
By selecting people we spend our time with, we are consciously selecting who we are becoming. At the same time, we should not allow ourselves to drag down at the level of people bearing a negative attitude.
#17 God helps those who help themselves
#18 Confront your fears, not back away from them Backing away from your fears is a momentary avoidance of anxiety, it only limits the possibility of our potential.
The moment we confront our fear, we become winners.
#19 COURAGE IS A MUSCLE Courage is a muscle that can be developed just like any other muscle. When we do an activity outside our comfort zone, a few times, this new activity becomes a part of our comfort zone.
#20 GET OUT THERE AND FAIL It can be uncomfortable to try something new, but if we take our eyes off the goal and see how others are viewing us, we are doing a grave disservice to the life inside us. Get out there and fail, but never give up!
In short, change your attitude and change your life. Attitude is everything!
Punctuated with hilarious examples, “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” is a quirky and witty book about punctuation. The book illustrates how meaning and punctuation are so closely related. It also mentions how a disorderly punctuation can pave havoc for a writer, from “satanic sprinkling of redundant apostrophes” to “peppering a paragraph with commas”. The book brings into view that people who care about punctuation are the best kind of people. The author Lynne Truss calls these people as the “sticklers” or the “7th sense people”. She writes,
Proper punctuation is both the sign and cause of clear thinking. If it goes, the degree of intellectual impoverishment we face, is unimaginable.
In this review, I share some of the pointers I marked from reading the book. So, let’s get started!
Analogies for punctuation o Punctuation is like stitching – it is the basting that holds the fabric of language in shape o Punctuation marks are traffic signals of language – they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop o Full stop and comma as invisible servants in fairy tales – the ones who bring glasses of water abd pillows, not storms of weather or love o Punctuation is a courtesy designed to help readers to understand a story without stumbling o Punctuation directs us how to read, in the way musical notation directs a musician how to play Apostrophe o The word in Greek means “turning away”, and hence ”omission” or “elision”. o In Shakespeare’s time, an apostrophe indicated omitted letters o It indicates a possessive in a singular noun – the boy’s hat o When possessor is plural but doesn’t end with “s”, the apostrophe similarly precedes the “s”. Ex: The children’s toys o But when the possessor is regular plural, the apostrophe follows the “s”. Ex: The buses’ signs. o It indicates time or quantity – in one week’s time – two weeks’ notice – four yards’ worth o It indicates omission of figures in dates – the summer of ‘68 o It indicates the omission of letters. Ex: She’d’ve had a box o’ red colour I s’pose. o It indicates the omission of letters in it’s (it is, or it has) o It indicates the plurals of letters. Ex: How many R’s are in winter? o It indicates plurals of words. Ex: What are the do’s and don’t’s?, What are the but’s and and’s? Comma A cat has claws at the ends of its paws. A comma’s a pause at the end of a clause. o The word in Greek means “a piece cut off” o Punctuation marks are traditionally either “separators” or “terminators” – the function of comma is as a separator o Is used for dividing items in a list – but are not required before the last ‘and’ – such a comma is called Oxford comma – Ex: The flag is orange, white and green o In a list of adjectives, comma is used where an ‘and’ would be appropriate, where the modifying words are modifying the same thing to the same degree – Ex: It was a dark, stormy night, He was a tall, bearded man. But not in “It was an endangered white rhino.” Here adjectives not intended as list o Used for joining, when two complete sentences are joined together using conjunctions such as and, but, while, yet etc. o Used for filling gaps – Ex: Anne had dark hair; Sally, fair. o Used before direct speech – The Queen said, “It’s my birthday!” o Used for setting off interjections – Stop, or i’ll scream. o Commas in pairs – John Keats, who wrote a poem, is liked by people. o The people in the queue who managed to get tickets were very satisfied. - The people in the queue, who managed to get tickets, were very satisfied. o Using a comma well announces that you have an ear for sense, sound and rhythm. Colon & Semicolon o Expectation is what these stops are all about; expectation and elastic energy. Like internal springs, they propel you forward in a sentence towards more information, and the essential difference between them is that while the semicolon lightly propels you in any direction related to the foregoing (Surprise!), the colon nudges you along lines already subtly laid down. o HW fowler said that the colon “delivers the goods that have been invoiced in the preceding words” o Colons introduce the part of a sentence that exemplifies, restates, elaborates, undermines, explains or balances the preceding part. – They start lists especially the lists with semicolons – they separate dramatic character from dialogue – they also start off long quotatons and introduce examples o The main place for putting a semicolon is between two related sentences where there is no conjunction such as “and” or “but”, and where a comma would be ungrammatical o The dash is less formal than the semicolon; it enhances the conversational tone. o Whereas a semicolon suggests a connection between two halves of a sentence, a dash is about when the connection is a lot less direct. o Linking words such as “however”, “nevertheless”, “also”, “consequently” and “hence” require a semicolon. Italics o Titles of books, newspapers, albums, films o Emphasis of certain words o Foreign words and phrases o Examples when writing about language Quotations • Double quotations for speech and single quotations for quotation within quotation • When a piece of dialogue is attributed at its end, conclude it with a comma inside inverted commas. Ex: “The flag was orange, white and green,” he said. • When a dialogue is attributed at the start, conclude with a full stop inside inverted commas. Ex: He said, “the flag was orange, white and green.” • When a dialogue stands on its own, the full stop comes inside inverted commas. Ex: “The flag was orange, white and green.” • When only a fragment of speech is being quoted, put punctuation outside the inverted commas. Ex: He was saying that the flag was “orange, white and green” in colour. • When the quotation is a question mark or exclamation, the terminal marks come inside the inverted commas. Ex: “Was the flag orange, white and green in colour?” Brackets • Round brackets – to add information, to clarify, to explain, to illustrate – Tom Jones (1790) was considered a good book. o For authorial asides – he was blamed for earthquakes (isn’t that interesting?) • Square brackets o Editor’s way of clarifying the meaning of a direct quote without actually changing any of the words – i’ve read that book [Tom Jones] quite a couple of times. ELLIPSIS • The ellipsis is the black hole of the punctuation universe o Used to indicate the words missing and to trail off in an intriguing manner. Hyphens o Many words require hyphens to avoid ambiguity: words such as co—respondent, re-formed, re-mark. o Used when spelling out numbers such as thirty-two, forty-three o Used when linking nouns with nouns or adjectives with adjectives. o Used for a linguistic condition called letter-collision – ex: shelllike – shell-like o Hesitation and stammering are indicated by hyphens – ex – w-ww—www-atering
Everyone is an artist. Everyone has some or the other form of art to create, craft and contribute to the burgeoning functioning of the universe.
But most of us are artists in disguise waiting for the glasshouses of our minds to crack open so that we can perceive fresh possibilities out of the things we sense and interpret.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is a book on creativity, on writing, on what prevents and blocks us to express our true self, and how to take a leap by understanding what blocks us.
Different people call this block by different names. In this book, the author calls this blocking element by the name of ‘Resistance’.
The book is divided into three main parts. Part one deals with knowing the characteristics and tendencies of resistance. Part two deals with ways of combating resistance and part three deals with what lies beyond resistance.
In this review, I share useful and functionl pointers from the book. So, let’s begin with these.
A Secret That real writers know There is a secret that real writers know and wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is resistance.
The Unlived Life Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life. Between the two lives stands resistance.
What is Resistance? Every sun casts a shadow and a genius’ shadow is resistance.. Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet.
CHARACTERISTICS OF Resistance #1 Resistance is invisible #2 Resistance is internal #3 Resistance is insidious and always lying #4 Resistance is implacable, means that it cannot be reasoned with. It understands nothing but power. It is an engine of destruction, programmed from the factory with one object only, to prevent us from doing our work. #5 Resistance is impersonal. Resistance is not out to get you personally. Resistance is a force of nature and it acts objectively. #6 Resistance is infallible, which means that it will unfailingly point to the calling or action it most wants us to stop doing. The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we’ll feel towards pursuing it. #7 Resistance is universal. Everyone who has a body experiences resistance. #8 Resistance never sleeps. The battle must be fought anew every day. #9 Resistance is fueled by fear. Fear is an indicator of resistance. It has no strength of its own. If a calling meant nothing to us, we’d never feel resistance towards it. When we master th fear, we conquer resistance. #10 Resistance opposes and obstructs movement only from a lower sphere to the higher. #11 Resistance is most powerful at the finish line. #12 Resistance recruits allies – When the writer begins to overcome resistance, when she actually starts to write, she may find that those close to her began acting strange. They may become moody or sullen, they may get sick; they may accuse the awakening writer of changing of not being the person she was. #13 Procrastination is the most common manifestation of resistance. #14 Resistance leads to self-dramatization and victimhood. #15 Resistance feels like unhappiness #16 If you find yourself criticizing other people you are probably doing it out of resistance. Individuals who are realized in their own lives never criticize others. #17 Resistance can take the form of self-doubt, because self-doubt is an indicator of aspiration. #18 Sometimes we experience resistance because we are afraid of being isolated or alone. #19 Resistance can take the form of seeking healing. But the part of us who thinks that we need to heal before we can pursue our true calling is not the part from where need to create. It stems from a lower sphere of the self. In reality the more trouble we have got, the better and richer our work becomes. #20 Resistance can show up as Rationlization. Our minds can lie and make us believe in the seemingly rational justifications of why we shouldn’t do our work. #21 Resistance can be beaten. It is like giving birth to ourselves. #22 Resistance is a bullying critter that keeps coming.
Ways of Combating Resistance #1 The term of our life can be divided into two parts – before turning pro and after. Amateurs believe in resistance. Professional does not. A pro shows up every day, show up no matter what, stay on the job all day, committed over the long haul, do not overidentify with their jobs, master the technique of their jobs, accept praise or blame for their jobs and have a sense of humor about their jobs. #2 The more you love your art/calling/enterprise, the more important its accomplishment is to the evolution of your soul, the more you’ll fear it, and the more resistance you will experience facing it. #3 Patience – Resistance gets us to plunge into a project with an overambitious and unrealistic timetable for its completion. The professional is patient and understands delayed gratification. The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself from flaming out in each ndividual work. #4 A pro views her work as craft not art. She knows if she thinks about it too much, it will paralyze her, so she focusees on the technique. A professional dedicates himself to mastering technique #5 A professional accepts no excuses. A professional knows that resistance is like a telemarketer, if you say hello, you’re finished. #6 The professional conducts his business in the real world. Adversity, injustice, bad hops, rotten calls, even good breaks and lucky bounces, all comprise the ground over which the campaign must be waged. The field is heaven, the professional understands, only in heaven. #7 A professional is prepared each day to confront his own self-sabotage. He understands that the field alters every day. His goal is not victory but to handle himself, his insides, as sturdily and steadily as he can. #8 A professional distances herself from her instrument – her person, her body, her voice, her talent; the physical, mental, emotional and psychological being she uses in her work. She doesn’t identify with her instrument. It is simply what God gave her and what she has to work with. #9 A professional doesn’t take failure or success personally. A professional schools herself to stand apart from her performance, even as she gives herself to it heart and soul. #10 The professional self-validates. A professional cannot allow the actions of others to determine his reality. #11 A professional endures adversity by keeping his eye on the doughnut and not the hole. #12 A professional recognizes his limitations and brings in other pros and respects them. #13 A professional reinvents himself #14 A professional takes herself as a corporation. She can hire herself and fire herself. This reinforces he idea of professionalism because it separates the artist-doing-the-work to the will-and-consciousness-running the show. Besides, it gives her a healthy distance from herself. She’s less subjective and doesn’t take blows personally. #15 There is no mystery in turning pro. It is a decision brought about by the act of will. We make up our minds to view ourselves as pros and we do it. Simple as that.
Nature of the Higher Realm, Beyond Resistance #1 As resistance keeps us from who we were born to be, equal and opposite powers are poised against it. These are our allies and angels. Angels are the agents of evolution. The Kabbalah describes them as bundles of light, meaning intelligence, consciousness. #2 When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron fillings. Ideas and insights come to us. #3 The Muse is the daughter of Zeus,, the father of the gods, and Memory Mnemosyne. Before I sit down to work, I’ll take a minute and show respect to this unseen power who can make or break me. #4 The Magic of Making a Start – the moment one commits oneself, the providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would not otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events raising in one’s favour and material assistance would come his way. #5 Without our exerting effort or even thinking about it, some voice in our head pipes up to counsel us on how to do our work and live our lives. Whose voice is it? What software is grinding away, scanning gigabytes, while we, our mainstream selves, are otherwise, occupied? What exactly it is doing? It’s organizing. The principle of organizing is built into nature. Chaos itself is self-organizing. Out of primordial disorder, stars find their orbits, rivers make their way to the sea. #6 The Ego is the part of the psyche we think of as the “I”. Our conscious intelligence, our everyday brain that thinks, plans, and runs the show of our day-to-day life. The Self is a greater entity, which includes the Ego but also incorporates the Personal and Collective Unconscious. Dreams and intuitions come from the Self. The archetypes of unconscious dwell there. It is the sphere of the soul. #7 Angels make their home in the Self, while Resistance has its seat in the Ego. The fight is between the two. The Ego is the part of psyche that believes in material existence. Ego believes that Death is real, time & space are real, every individual is separate from every other, the predominant impulse of life is self-preservation and there is no god. The Ego doesn’t like us to evolive. It likes the things just the way they are.
As the name suggests, this book by Mr. Gary Provost outlines 100 ways to improve writing. These 100 ways are divided into crisp eleven chapters. The book is a handy treasury of ideas, interesting examples and functional pointers that may turn out to be super-useful for anyone seeking refinement of their writing, and accelerate the momentum of their writing process. In this review, I share 46 pointers that I curated upon reading the book.
For easy rememberance, I’ve divided the video into 3 parts – Quick Tips & Tricks, Lessons in the Craft of Writing & Common Errors and Mistakes To Avoid in Writing.
Let’s breeze through these!
QUICK TIPS & TRICKS #1 Get some reference books • Get some Reference Books such as a dictionary, encyclopedia and thesaurus. #2 Improve Your Spellings #3 Expand Your Vocabulary #4 Read • Read, and listen to what you read. Listen for the sound of the language, the music. Note the punctuation, the spelling, the logical progression of information. #5 Take a class #6 Research. Join a library. #7 Eavesdrop • Be nosy. Listen to conversations on the bus, in the elevator. Screen out the words sometimes and listen only to the music. Tune into teenagers’ conversations and you’ll pick latest slang. Find out what people are talking about, what they care about. All of this will help you to communicate more effectively through your writing. #8 Write in your head • If you have spent time writing in your head, you’ll have a head start when you actually sit down to write. #9 Copy Something • Copy quotes, sentences, paragraphs and writing from some popular or famous works. #10 Keep a journal • If you’ve some sort of notebook or diary that you return to often with your written thoughts, opinions, observations and various bits of wit, you’ll have a place in which to exercise your writing muscles. You’ll learn to write succinctly and clearly the events of your daily life. You’ll learn to pluck from each event just the details needed to create a sense of the whole. If you keep a journal, you’ll grow as a writer, and you’ll find that sooner or later, no matter what you’ve to write professionally, your personal experiences will play a part. #11 Do Writing Exercises #12 Organize Your material • Organizing will help you lock in the logic of what you say, and it’ll speed the writing process. Organizing will help to create an overall unity as well as several interior unities. #13 Make a list or a checklist. #14 Picture a reader • Write a letter to your imaginary reader. icture the reader to be in the room with you. #15 Steal • Be a literary pack-rat. • Brighten up your story with a metaphor you read in the Sunday paper. Make a point with an anecdote you heard at the barber shop. Let a character tell a joke you heard in a bar. But steal small, not big. Be wary of plagiarism. #16 use examples, quotations, quotes, facts and anecdotes in your writing #17 Colour your stories with your opinions • You don’t have to care whether the reader agrees with your opinion or not, the reader only has to respond to it. #18 Ask Yourself Why You’re Writing • What are your goals? Are you trying to make your readers laugh? Are you trying to persuade them to buy a product? Are you trying to advise them? Are you trying to inform them so you can make a decision? • You must know what you want done before you pick the tools to do it. LESSONS IN THE CRAFT OF WRITING #19 Find a Slant • Do not try to write everything about your subject. All subjects are inexhaustible. • Tie yourself to a specific idea about your subject. This idea is called slant. Ex: Glass windows – stained glass windows #20 Write a strong lead • The lead is whatever it takes to lead your readers so deeply into your story or article that they’ll not turn back unless you stray from the path you’ve put them on. • A good lead is the one that is provocative, energetic, of appropriate respective length and gives the readers something to care about. #21 How to Write Beginnings • Cross out every sentence in the initial drafts until you come to the one you cannot do without. • Set a tone and maintain it. #22 Use Pyramid Construction • Writing in pyramid style means getting to the point at the top, putting the “who, what, when, where and why” in the first paragraph and developing the supporting information under it. #23 Use topic Sentences • A topic sentence in a paragraph is a sentence containing the thought that is developed throughout the rest of the paragraph. #24 Write short paragraphs. #25 On Transitions In Writing • Use transitional phrases to make the transition between sentences quick, smooth, quiet, reliable and logical. • Use bridge words for transitions. • Don’t use transitions to conceal information. Ex: Don’t write “John went to the museum” if later you intend to show that John had an accident while going to the museum. • Explain, not acknowledge, the awkward transitions. #26 On STYLE • Style is the way an idea is expressed, not the idea itself. • Style is form, not content. • A reader usually picks up a story because to the content but too often puts it down because to style. • there is no subject that cannot be made fascinating by a well-informed and competent writer. #27 Writing is music • To write is to create music. The words you write create sounds and when these sounds are in harmony, the writing will work. • Listen to your writing. • Listen for the dissonance. Listen for the beat. Listen for the gaps. Listen for the sour notes. #28 Vary sentence length. • This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important. SO, write with a combination of short, medium and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ears. Don’t just write words. Write music. #29 Know how to use punctuation correctly • Don’t use punctuation as decoration. Avoid using unnecessary dashes, ellipses or quotation marks, the way drunks use whiskey. • Use Commas to add clarity to a sentence. Read it aloud. In a pause really needed for clarity? • Use a Semicolon when a comma would not give your sentence the sufficient pause. Also, to separate a word series that contain commas. For instance, He bought soda, potato chips, icecream and candy; several games; three record albums. • Colons are used to introduce lists, formal quotations and examples. • Use exclamation only when exclaiming and question marks only when asking questions. • Trust your sentences to reveal emotions. Don’t rely on punctuation to show how much feeling you bring to your writing. • All words taken directly from another’s speech or writing must be set off in quotation marks. Do not use quotation marks around the words that are not directly taken from a speech or writing. If a quote is contained within a quote, use a single quotation mark for the inner quote. Use quotation marks around word or phrase you intend to explain. #30 Respect the rules of grammar • The rules of grammar organize the language just as the rules of arithmetic organize the world of numbers. • Grammatical rules about tense, gender, number, person and case provide us with a literary currency that we can spend wherever english is spoken or read. #31 Prefer Good writing to Good grammar • Keep in mind that good grammar, even perfect grammar, doesn’t guarantee good writing any more than a good referee guarantees a good basketball game. #32 Create a strong title • a good title is short. • a good title will make the reader curious • a good title reveals information, not hide it • a good title suggests the slant of the story #33 On Writing Complete & Incomplete Sentences • “The cat jumped off the roof” is a complete sentence. “The cat jumped” is also a complete sentence. ‘The cat” however, is not a complete sentence. • Write complete sentences 99% of the time. But every now and then, if a partial sentence sounds right to you, that’s what you should write. Period. #34 Show don’t tell. • Trust the reader to understand what you’re showing through your writing. #35 Use parallel construction • Just as the steady beat of a drum can often enrich a melody, the repetition of a sound can often improve the music of your writing. This is called parallel construction. • Fish gotta swim and flying is something that birds should do. – Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly. #36 Use words that are short, dense & familiar • Instead of once a month, use monthly. • Instead of something new, use novel, etc. #37 Use strong verbs. Use active verbs. • Verbs, words of action are primary source of energy in your sentence. Active verbs do something. Inactive verbs are something. Set your sentence in motion by using strong & active verbs. • Ex: The clock was in the corner of the wall. – The clock towered in the corner of the wall. • Turn look into stare, gaze, peek, etc. • Be suspicious of adverbs. #38 Be specific • Picture a box. Picture a black box. Picture a black box with silver hinges. • Be specific in your writing without being too wordy. #39 Don’t force a personal style • Style is not something you can put into your writing like a new set of clothes. Style is your writing. It is inexorably knotted to the content of your words and the nature of you. So do not pour the clay of your thoughts into the hard mold of some personal writing style that you’re determined to have. Do not create in your head some witty, erudite, exciting persona and try to capture him or her on paper. Strive instead to write without self-consciousness. Then your style will emerge.
For science, that may still be a puzzle. Nevertheless, our understanding of the human mind leads the way to the insight which streams in the backdrop while we’re immersed in a story and our mind is processing, forming connections, feeling emotions, rewiring neural pathways and churning information presented to us through the story.
The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall takes us through an immersive wordscape that is peppered with oodles of metaphors, pointers, insights, and lessons, pertaining mostly, to the topic of storytelling. The book features an interesting embroidery woven together with the intricate threads of researches related to evolutionary psychology, neuroscience and various other sciences.
Encapsulating several stories-within-stories and pop-modern terminology, the book delves deep into some of the fundamental concepts and quintessential elements that make up the overall idea of storytelling. In this review, I’m going to share with you, 18 interesting pointers that I learned and curated after reading the book. Basically, my primary takeaways from the book…
So, let’s get started with these!
#1 The Origin of Storytelling Storytelling is not some new-age science. But rather, it is as old as the existence of life itself on earth. Mr. Jonathan says that human beings are creatures of an imaginative realm called as Neverland. He also says that the primate version of human was not merely Homo Sapiens but also Homo Fictus that is, the great ape with the storytelling mind! "And long before any of these primates thought of writing Hamlet or Harlequins or Harry Potter stories – long before these primates could envision writing at all – they thronged around hearth fires, trading wild lies about brave tricksters, and young lovers, selfless heroes and shrewd hunters, sad chiefs and wise crones, the origin of the sun and the stars, the nature of God and spirit and all the rest of it." – Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal
#2 ON SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF FICTION The book describes how bringing science into fiction is not the best suited thing to do. We should not do intellectual dissection of fiction, as Wordsworth also said, "To dissect is to murder".
However, this doesn’t at all mean that fiction is by any means in conflict with science. Fiction, as a matter of fact, is deeply rooted in science. It enables the reader to envision new and creative ideas by requiring their willing suspension of disbelief.
The main thing, Mr. Jonathan writes, is to pry away the veneer of familiarity and to accept the bizarreness and strangeness of the story worlds, as they really are.
"Fictions, fantasies, dreams – these are to the humanistic imagination, a kind of sacred preserve. They’re the last bastion of magic. They’re the one place where science cannot – should not – penetrate, reducing ancient mysteries to electrochemical storms in the brain or the timeless warfare among selfish genes." - The Storytelling Animal
#3 Humans are Addicted to stories We, as human species, are addicted to stories. Of all, there are three main reasons to that.
First, we can’t resist the gravity of the alternate worlds. Secondly, our mind is addicted to patterns. The human mind is tuned to detect patterns. The same mental software that makes us very alert, to human faces and figures, causes us to see animals in clouds or jesus in griddle marks. This is part of the “mind design” that helps us perceive meaningful patterns in our environment.
"Our hunger for meaningful patterns translates into our hunger for stories." - The Storytelling Animal
Thirdly, humans conjure gods, spirits and sprites to fill the explanatory voids.
What we don’t understand, that’s a story!
#4 Reader’s imagination is the catalyst for the storyteller Writers and storytellers merely create storyscapes. But it’s the reader’s imagination that acts as a catalyst, churning the received information into an experience.
#5 Writing IS ANALOGOUS TO painting "Each word is a daub of paint. Word by word – brushstroke by brushstroke – the writer creates images that have all the depth and crispness of real life. But writers are merely drawing, not painting. Our minds supply most of the information in the scene – most of the colour, shading and texture." - The Storytelling Animal
#6 Children are natural storytellers Kids & children – what do they do? Mr. Jonathan writes that they do story mostly. The world of make-believe and pretend play is spontaneous and natural to children – they don’t need to be taught how to create stories. They are natural storytellers.
And even though we may grow up into full-fledged adults, but this inner child prevails within us. "We are all more like Peter Pan than we know. We may leave the nursery, with the toy-trucks and dress-up clothes, but we never stop pretending. We just change how we do it. Novels, dreams, films and fantasies, are provinces of Neverland." - The Storytelling Animal
But at the same time, this doesn’t mean that the worlds of make-believe are all rainbows and sunshine. Actually, they are far from this. Explaining this, Mr. Jonathan says, "Grown-ups have a tendency to remember the land of make-believe as a heavenly, sun-kissed bunny land. But the land of make-believe is less like heaven and more like hell. Children’s play is not escapist. It confronts the problem of the human condition, head on. Pretend play is deadly serious fun. Every day children enter a world where they must confront dark forces, fleeing and fighting for their lives... This play is the work of children." - The Storytelling Animal
#7 Stories DOMINATE OUR LIFE Story’s role in human life extends far beyond conventional novels or films. Story, and a variety of storylike activities, dominates human life. From the skills we learn to the conversations we have with people, stories dominate nearly every aspect of our life. And its not only the writers and the storytellers and the filmmakers who tell stories but everybody including archaeologists, business executives, political commentators, and all.
"We are soaked to the bone in story. Human mind was shaped for story, so that it could be shaped by story." - The Storytelling Animal
The reason for this, could be, that stories universally focus on the great predicaments of human condition. Story is where people go to practice the key skills of human social life. They help us with real-world problem solving. And "Like a flight simulator, fiction projects us into simulations of problems that run parallel to those we face in reality. And like a flight simulator the main virtue of fiction is that we have a rich experience and don’t die at the end.We get to simulate what it’d be like to confront a dangerous man or seduce someone’s spouse, for instance, and the hero of the story dies in our stead." - The Storytelling Animal
"Story = Character + Predicament + Attempted Extrication" - The Storytelling Animal
#8 Stories & REPETITION Repetition of fictional problem solving enhances the skill of real life problem solving too.
#9 Hell is story-friendly Mr. Jonathan points out a brilliant insight pertaining to stories. That is, there is a huge difference in desirability between what we desire in real life and what is desired in stories.
He writes, "There is a yawning canyon between what is desirable in life (an uneventful trip to the grocery store) and what is desirable in fiction (a catastrophic trip). In this gap, I believe, lies an important clue to the evolutionary riddle of fiction." - The Storytelling Animal
While in real world, we may not like to face conflicts and dilemmas and troubles, in the matter of storytelling, conflicts, dilemmas & troubles make the bread-and-jam of stories.
"In life, conflict often carries a negative connotation. yet in fiction, be it comic or tragic, dramatic conflict is fundamental because in literature, only trouble is interesting. Only trouble is interesting. This is not so in life. As Charles Baxter puts it in another book of fiction, 'Hell is story-friendly'." - The Storytelling Animal
However, this doesn’t at all imply that fiction is absolutely an escapist entertainment. An escapist entertainment is meant to be pleasant, on the flip side, a good fiction is far than pleasant. Instead, it is webbed with the tentacles of conflict and drama.
"If fiction offers an escape, it is a bizarre form of escape. Our various fictional worlds, are, on the whole – horrorscapes. Fiction may temporarily free us from our troubles, but it does so by ensnaring us in new sets of troubles – in imaginary worlds of struggle and stress and mortal woe." - The Storytelling Animal "Stories of pure wish fulfillment don’t tempt us but what about stories that show us life as it is actually lived?" - The Storytelling Animal "Trouble is the fat red thread that ties together the fantasies of pretend play, fiction and dreams, and trouble provides a possible clue to a function they all share: giving us practice in dealing with the big dilemmas of human life." - The Storytelling Animal . #10 Practical People, Story people & The Riddle of Fiction The book mentions the metaphor of two groups of people - Practical People and Story People.
Story people fill their leisure time with rest, gossip and stories but practical people don’t waste their time on stories – they keep on working for their bellies – the story people prevail more often than the practical people – and this is the great riddle of fiction.
#11 Even Music Tells stories! "Of course, not all music tells a story. There are also symphonies, fugues and avant-garde soundscapes blending wind chimes and bunny screams. But the most popular brand of music tells stories about protagonists struggling to get what they want – most often a boy or a girl. Singers might work in meter & rhyme, and alongside guitarists & drummers, but that doesn’t alter the fact that the singer is telling a story, it only disguises it." - The Storytelling Animal
#12 Daydreaming, Fantasies & Imagination – The Witchery of Life "Daydreams are hard to study, scientically, but if you tune into your stream of consciousness, you’ll discover that daydreaming is mind’s default state." - The Storytelling Animal "We spend half of our waking hours – one-third of our lives on earth – spinning fantasies. We daydream about the past: things we should have said or done, working through our victories and failures. We daydream about mundane stuff such as different ways of handling conflict at work. But we also daydream in a much more intense, storylike way. We screen films with happy endings – in our minds, where all our wishes – vain, aggressive, dirty – come true. And we screen little horror films, too, in which our worst fears are realized. Imagination is an awesome mental tool. While our bodies are always locked in a specific here and now, our imagination frees us to roam space-time. Like powerful sorcerers, all humans can see the future – not a clear & determined future, but a murky, probabilistic one." - The Storytelling Animal
#13 CHARACTER CREATION IS A NATURAL TALENT Good fiction means skillfully-crafted characters. Mr. Jonathan writes that, character creation is an innate process that we begin learning while we are still a kiddo.
"2-year olds begin learning how to develop a character. When playing the king, they pitch their voices differently than when they’re playing the queen or the meowing cat." - The Storytelling Animal
#14 STORY STRUCTURE IS THE BONY SKELETON & THE UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR Mr. Jonathan says in the book that stories, nearly all stories, follow a pattern of structures. Every story is confined to this structural pattern.
"Think of this structure as a bony skeleton that we rarely notice beneath its padding of flesh and colorful garments. This skeleton is somewhat cartilaginous – there is a flex in it. But the flex is limited and the skeleton dictates that stories can be told in a limited number of ways." - The Storytelling Animal
This, however, at first, may appear to be a limitation in the way of a writer or storyteller, but these structural constraints actually free the writer or the storyteller to tell their stories more expressively.
"The idea that stories slavishly obey deep structural patterns seems at first vaguely depressing. But it shouldn’t be. Think of the human face. The fact that all faces are very much alike doesn’t make the face boring or mean that particular faces can’t startle in with their beauty or distinctiveness. As William James wrote, “There is a very little difference between one man and another, but what little there is, it is very important. The same is true for stories." - The Storytelling Animal
Patterns of complications, crisis & resolution, a universal grammar, a deep pattern...
#15 Human Brain AND fiction How does the human brain respond to the stimulus of fiction? Well, to understand this, we’d need to understand the basics of the mind design. How our brain is designed? There are neurons firing information and linking with each other to form connections. Then, there are certain type of neurons called as the mirror neurons.
When we read or watch a work of fiction, these mirror neurons cause our brain to respond to it as if the fiction was happening in real life.
"Knowing that fiction is fiction doesn’t stop our emotional brain from processing it as real. When we see something scary or dangerous in a film, our brain lights up as though that thing were happening to us, not just to a cinematic figment." - The Storytelling Animal
We feel what the protagonist is feeling.
And that is stupendous, isn’t it?
Well, moving on…
#16 DREAMS – NIGHT STORIES & Alternate Dimension of Reality Driven by the rule of fight or flight, the dreaming consciousness is a form of nature’s storytelling. In the book, Mr. Jonathan writes that dreams are the night stories with their own plot, setting, scenes, point of view, characters, perspective and theme. Dreams are encrypted messages from the spirit or in Freudian terms, from the Id.
"While the body lies dormant, the restless brain improvises original drama in the theater of our minds." - The Storytelling Animal
#17 Ink People – they change the world Using the metaphor of Ink People for storytellers, Mr. Jonathan says in the book,
"The characters in fiction are just wiggles of ink on paper. They are ink people. They live in ink houses inside ink towns. They work at ink jobs. They have inky problems. They sweat ink and they cry ink and when they’re cut, they bleed ink. And yet ink people press effortlessly through the porous membrane separating their inky worlds from ours. They move through our flesh-and-blood world and wield real power to it. They shape our behaviours and our customs, and in doing so, they transform societies and histories." - The Storytelling Animal
#18 Story is the glue of the world "Story is the grease and glue of society. Story is the center without which the rest cannot hold." - The Storytelling Animal
Taking the example of a movie, Mr. Jonathan explains that if the movie is good, people watch it as a single organism. They laugh together. They gasp together. They react to the movie together as if, in a psychic unity. And this way, story ends up binding people together.
"Fiction writers mix the powder of a message with the sugary jam of storytelling. People bolt down the sweet jam of storytelling and don't even notice the undertaste of the powder." - The Storytelling Animal
In a nutshell, whether you are a writer or a storyteller or just an avid reader, I hope that you love stories. Because, I do and you should too!
Embellished with photographs and snippets of blackout poetry, the square paperback is a crisp guide offering tips and tricks that are not only interesting but quite practical & relevant to follow through.
In this review, I am sharing nineteen clear-cut and key pointers from the book. Read on!
#1 In order to be found, you have to be findable In simple words, be online. If you have a skill that you can share or teach, or if you have a work that you do, then put this skill or bits of your work out there for people to see.
#2 Send out a Daily Dispatch Consistently post bits & pieces of your work. Share something small every day. Take it one day at a time, and it gradually compounds over months and years. Find the time to do this, each day, between tasks, just as you find spare change in nooks and crannies of your house
#3 You don’t have to be a Genius. Be a scenius. Lone genius is a myth. He says, that great ideas are often birthed by a group or a community of creative people. So, to share your work you don’t have to be a genius. You can consider being part of a scene of people who do the work similar to you or take interest in the work you do.
#4 Be an Amateur Mr. Kleon writes that raw enthusiasm is contagious. While you do your work, be an amateur. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In an expert’s mind, there are a few. Every time you think you’re getting too comfortable or stale in your work, change your instrument. Try something new, something you’ve never tried before.
#5 Find Your Voice & Shout It From The Rooftops First things first, you can’t find your voice if you don’t use it. Share what you love and the people who love the same things will find you. Secondly, as you find your voice, shout it from the rooftops and keep doing it until the people that are looking for you, find you.
#6 Ask Questions For a new Tool While employing a new tool for your work, ask these three questions to make the most efficient use of this tool. What was it made for? – How are others using it? – What purpose does it serve for me?
#7 Read Obituaries Mr. Kleon writes in the book that, thinking about death every morning, makes him want to live his life to the fullest. Thereupon, he suggests reading obituaries every day for inspiration and for reminding ourselves that each passing day, we’re moving closer to our death.
#8 Think Process Not Product Take people ‘Behind the Scenes’. Don’t believe surface appearances. Process is always messy, even for the glossiest of products.
In the book, Austin Kleon writes that one should focus on art work (process) more than the artwork (product); focus on the verb painting (process) more than the noun painting (product).
Become a documentation of what you do. Start a work journal. Jot down your thoughts in a notebook or record in an audio recorder. Keep a scrapbook of your work process. Record various phases of your work process.
#9 Turn your flow into stock Stock & flow is a concept of economy. But here, in the book, it is used as a metaphor pertaining to the work process.
If you work on something a little bit everyday, you end up with something that is massive. This is referred to as the ‘stock’ of your work’s ‘flow’.
The magic formula is to maintain your flow while working on your stock in the background. When the stock reaches a considerable size, flip back through it. Notice patterns in your work flow.
#10 Open up your cabinet of curiosities. But don’t be a hoarder or a spammer. All of us have our own collections brimming with bits, pieces and snippets of others work. Share your collections however, at the same time be aware of the thin line between sharing and oversharing. Don’t turn into human spam. When its time to listen, listen. When its time to share, share. Use the Hoarder–Contributor-Spammer scale to measure what you should do.
#11 Discover yourself from the work of others Mr. Kleon writes that in the first few years, our work is not that good, but the taste is still killer. Meanwhile what we can do is, we can discover our taste, our voice, through the work of others; drawing inspiration from others’ work.
Where do you draw your inspiration from? Whose work you like? What element specifically you like or take interest in, in their work. Dig deeper and discover for yourself.
#12 Work doesn’t speak for itself. Tell good stories. “Everybody loves a good story but a good storytelling doesn’t come easy to everybody. It’s a skill that takes a lifetime to master. So study the great stories and then go find some of your own. Your stories will get better the more you tell.” Adding to this, Mr. Kleon says that pictures can say what we want them to say. And hence, become a good storyteller. Understand what good storytelling is.
‘The cat sat on a mat’ is not a good story. ‘The cat sat on the dog’s mat’ is a story. – John le Carre
Structure is everything. Understand the structures of stories. Once you understand story structures, you can start filling in the gaps with characters, settings and circumstances for your own story.
#13 Teach what you know. Share your trade secrets. Suggesting that one can share knowledge of their work, Mr. Kleon writes, “When you share bits of your work and knowledge with others, you receive an education in return. Think about what you can share from your work process. Where did you learn your craft? What techniques you employ in your work? What are the tools & materials you are skilled at using? What kind of knowledge comes along with your job?”
#14 Focus on hearts not eyeballs If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested first. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice first. Don’t go by the number of your followers. Rather, seek to enhance the essence of your work.
#15 The Vampire Test One upon a time there was a painter. He had a characteristic of draining people just the way he squashed the tubes of oil paints. Whenever people met or interacted with him, they felt drained of their energies in the aftermath. Sharing this story, Mr. Kleon offers us the idea of ‘the vampire test’. Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it. Be with people who excite you and not drain you. Simple!
#16 Learn to take punches While engaged in a creative work, or any work for that matter, critiques and their criticism is inevitable a thing. Mr. Kleon says that the more criticism you take, the more you know that it can’t hurt you.
Do not take critiques and criticism too personally. The trick is not caring what everybody thinks of you and just caring what the right people think of you. He writes.
Also he suggests that, although one should protect one’s vulnerable self, but shouldn’t go into avoidance of their vulnerability. Keep the balance of what criticism to take and what to avoid.
Adding to which, he writes, “Don’t feed the trolls”. “Keep a mental firewall against these trolls. And don’t forget that the worst troll is the one that lives in our head.”
#17 Keep Jealousy & Greed Out of your Way Don’t be jealous of other people’s successes. Don’t be greedy to make money too soon and too early either. Saying this, Mr. Kleon shares this quote from Walt Disney.
“We don’t make movies to make money. We make money to make more movies.” – Walt Disney
#18 Stick around. Don’t quit your show. If you want a happy ending, it depends on where you end the story. Every little step in your work contributes to a chain reaction, each subject leads to the next.
#19 Keep moving forward & Take Sabbaticals. Take daily-weekly-monthly sabbaticals in order to separate your work from the rest of your life.
Once you’re done with something, begin again. Rethink things completely. Keep old work aside to make space for new work. Move on to the next pipe dream.
For inspiration & wrapping this up, here’s a quote from the book!
Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it. – Milton Glaser
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath
