Before Cinderella lost the glass shoe, Ye Xian lost a golden slipper. The Chinese fairytale is considered the precursor to the modern telling. It features a number of similar elements, including a horrible stepmother, an ugly stepsister, and a royal suitor.
Hey, Perfectionist, Remember You’re Human
I sometimes think I’ve kicked perfectionism to the curb. It proves me wrong time and time again. An assumption is made; a miscommunication occurs; a cataclysm ensues—at least, it seems that way.
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Make Good Tables
What the Church should be telling [the carpenter] is this: that the very first demand his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. — Dorothy Sayers, “Why Work”
How to Be a Better Writer: Give Yourself Rewards
If you want to be a better writer, i.e., a writer who writes for a lifetime and not merely a month, you should give yourself rewards. They don’t have to be big-ticket items. After all, you’re not likely to make much money as a writer unless you’re dead.
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Good Writing Takes Sweat
(and maybe some blood and tears)
It’s surprising how many parallels exist between high-grade athletics and top-level creative work. There are strategies that will help optimize, improve, cultivate…but the main ingredients are always the same.
The effort — focused positively and generously — is what matters. The time. The energy. The willingness to try — over and over again.
The readiness to exert, to sweat.
— Death to the Stock Photo, “Sweat”
If the Word Fits, It Sits
The right word looks like a cat with a box. If it fits, it sits—even if it oozes over the sides. It gives no thought to the box. It’s the right word, and the right word sits where and when it likes.