…The diagram which is to affect thro’ the Eyes what we fail to convey to the public through their word-proof ears.
— Florence Nightingale
quotes
Miller on perspective
inspirationOne’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.
— Henry Miller
Aldrich on leadership
inspirationLeadership is the big skill of getting groups of people to complete the right work.
— Clark Aldrich
Habitual creativity: The writer’s vow of chastity
inspiration, writingAt SXSW I had the pleasure of sitting in on Andy Barr’s and Sarada Peri’s 37 Practical Tips to Help You Write & Speak Better. Much of these focused on simplicity of grammar and content, and reminded me of the writer’s vow of chastity my husband conceived back in 2007. Since then, my first drafts attempt to follow the below rules as much as possible. Only then do I go back and add anything more, trying to restrain myself to choices that add clarity.
So here it is.
Just as Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg wrote the film maker’s vow of chastity (also know as Dogme 95), so Bart has proposed a writer’s vow of chastity.
A draft of the rules as of August 4, 2007:
The writer’s vow of chastity
The writer will use no modifiers.
- No adverbs.
- No adjectives.
The writer should act as a behaviorist.
- No words describing emotion.
- The writer will not make the reader directly privy to a character’s thoughts (no interior dialogue or interior monologue).
The writer may break these rules only when it is unavoidable.
The above may be summarized as, “Not doing the reader’s work for them*.”
*The summary references advice from C.S. Lewis to his students:
Don’t say it was “delightful;” make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers “Please will you do the job for me.”
Barr and Peri also provided a page with the 37 tips, on which I took copious notes. Here it is—enjoy!
Barr and Peri’s writing tips, together with the notes I took. I’ve found them helpful, and hope you do, too.
Originally posted on alexfiles.com.
Aldrich on educational engagement (and PowerPoint)
inspirationSimulations are powerful when students need to be engaged more than they are. Clearly, this is an area in which distributed classrooms have suffered, as death by PowerPoint has not just been refined in many programs but almost weaponized to military specifications.
— Clark Aldrich
Shirky on purpose
design, design thinkingYou know you’ve got a good piece of software when people use it for purposes for which the designers never intended or designed.
— Clay Shirky
Hills on octopuses
funI’m convinced that octopuses are the next rulers of the world. They are freaky smart, they can change colors instantly, and they can squeeze their bodies through a teeny pipe. Even YOU only have one of those three going for you. Hail, our octopus overlords!
— Kurt Hills
Originally commented on LiveJournal.
Einstein on radio
funYou see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
— Albert Einstein