How to find your writing voice.
Recently I had breakfast with a young writer, and he asked me a question:
“How do I find my writing voice?”
My answer was simple:
Creativity
1 thing none of us get enough of these days.
For years, I’ve been carrying around a secret list in my head.
For decades, this list has been banging around in my heart causing all manner of chaos and shenanigans.
For, centuries … well I haven’t been alive for centuries but if I had that would have been a pretty dramatic third sentence.
What list am I talking about?
The “Doesn’t Count List” or DCL.
VIDEO: Kurt Vonnegut on the Shape of Stories.
Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers. He’s written a ridiculous amount of brilliant books and in this short video explains the shape of stories. If you’ve got 5 minutes today, watch this. Whether you ever want to write or not, this is a perfect example of how to communicate an idea. (Heads up, there’s one profanity.)
VIDEO: The first step of every successful idea.
Every successful idea goes through three different stages. The first stage is “Imagine,” and is the topic of this quick video I did. This was taken from a speech I gave to Alabama Power employees.
I’ll cover the other two stages, and Imagine in a lot more detail, at the Quitter Conference in a few weeks.
In the meantime, take a look at the clip!
Question:
As you work on your FinishYear goals, are you setting enough time aside for thinking?
#2 in 2011: Larry David & the 3 problems with critic’s math.
Larry David feels just like me and you when it comes to criticism.
You’d think he wouldn’t. He co-created Seinfeld, the most successful sitcom of all-time. His current show Curb Your Enthusiasm is a smash success. He’s on the cover of this month’s Rolling Stone magazine. And yet, he still does the same math you and I do when it comes to critics.
What’s critic’s math?
#3 in 2011: 3 letters that will radically improve every blog and tweet you ever write.
Last week, we had an influential musician over to our house for dinner. We’d never met before, but had bumped into each other on Twitter a few times and have a lot of mutual friends.
After he went home and my wife and I were getting ready to go to bed, I wrote a tweet that said, “Great day with @__________, an artist who inspires me to be a better me.”
Then I asked myself a three letter word that has the power to radically improve every blog and tweet you ever write:
How to fail on purpose.
I recently had the chance to interview Nancy Duarte. She’s the New York Times best-selling author of two amazing books about storytelling, Slide:ology and Resonate. She also runs a design firm and helps massive clients like Pepsi, Cisco and Twitter tell their stories.
During the interview, she said something about failure and creativity that was really powerful.
The biggest lie that keeps you from dreaming.
Chances are, you and I have never met. Maybe for a second at a tweetup or in the lobby of the Dave Ramsey building, but we haven’t had coffee. Or taken a long walk to talk about what we’re working on in our lives. Or built a tree house together.
But, despite that, I promise I know the biggest lie that keeps you from dreaming. I know which lie gets loud when you get quiet and the idea of chasing a dream pops into your head.
Want to know what it is?
VIDEO: The talent we have the hardest time recognizing is our own.
The talent we have the hardest time recognizing is our own.
That simple truth often keeps many of us divorced from what we’re really called to do in life.
Love your dream too much to hate somebody else’s.
When ever someone attacks me and the books I write, I always ask them a simple question: