Category: Tutorials

Today’s dads seek better work-life balance

In honor of Father’s Day, this article takes a look at how the new fathers of the day are meeting the responsibilities of the role both at home and at work.

App demo: Round the Clock

The Unofficial Apple Weblog gives us a sneak peek at an app called Round the Clock.  What this productivity app for all of Apple’s line of mobile devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) does is present all of your calendar information as a pie chart – and that’s just for starters.  It’s kind of like having a digital Muji Chronotebook at the ready.  It may not be for everyone, but the video is worth a look.

Freelancer’s Wishlist – Father’s Day Edition

Dads aren’t the easiest to shop for – I know, I’m one of them.  But sister site FreelanceSwitch has thoughts on what could be a solid (or solid-state) gift for the “freelance father” in your life!

Manymoon: Free Social Productivity, Project Management & Task Management

Fan of Google’s web apps?  Then Manymoon has a productivity solution that could be what you’ve been looking for…and it’s free.  Definitely something to check out if you (and your team) rely on having stuff in the “cloud.”

Lemonade: The Movie

This movie touches on what we’ve talked about in terms of  “dream jobs” here at WorkAwesome, but it also takes it a step further.  What if you were given a chance for a clean slate because you found yourself without a job altogether?  A pretty inspirng film – and fairly short as it clocks in at just over half an hour.

So now that you have cool business cards, bet you can’t wait to use them. They’re just burning a hole in your shirt pocket. Who wants one? They’re free to the first 250 people you meet.

There’s a bunch of people eager to get their hands on your cards. You can find them at a local networking event. You know one of those stuffy Chamber of Commerce mixers. Or maybe a locally-organized Tweetup is more your style.

Networking events offer a great chance to get to know who’s in your community and introduce yourself. To do it right, you need more than just your cards and a firm handshake. Take a killer elevator pitch.

You know the theory. If you happen to share an elevator ride with a potential investor, client or employer, you only have the time it takes to get to their floor to make your sales pitch.

Probably the most important thing to remember is not to say what you do but what value your employer or clients get from you. Would you rather speak to someone who says “I sell business insurance” or “I help businesses prevent disasters.” Yes, it’s semantics peppered with hubris. Again I ask. Who is more likely to interest you?

Almost as important as what you bring is what you should check at the door. I’m talking about the traits and tendencies that will get in the way as you make your way around the room.  You want to stand out for all the right reasons.

Shyness

The great thing about being at a networking event is that everyone is there to network. They want to meet people like you because you want to meet people like them. Circular logic I know. But it works very well.

So relax. Just introduce yourself and give them your best elevator pitch.

An empty hand

Grab a drink. I’m not recommending alcohol. That’s your choice. It doesn’t affect everyone the same way. But a drink helps you two ways.

First, it gives you something to do with one hand. Makes you look more relaxed which will help you relax. That will make it easier for you to mix.

Second, you’re probably going to be talking more than usual. You’re mouth will get a bit dry. A little hydration will help you speak more naturally.

Awkward silence

So what do you do after you’ve exchanged elevator pitches and don’t seem to have much more to say? Try these five questions to keep the conversation rolling:

These questions are a great way to keep people talking and to learn something. If you find yourself going through all five questions without much input from yourself, they’re going to remember you as a great conversationalist.

Your sales pitch

After the event

Like I said, this is the start of a relationship so you’re not done networking once you leave the room.

• Review your cards: I tell my fiance about the people I meet and show her the cards I collect. This helps reinforce my memories of the meetings.
• Create a database of contacts: I enter their card information and link to their social media profiles in Gmail’s contacts. I can sync that up to the Contact app on my iPod Touch so I have the names with me. Choose the contact manager that works best for your organizational style.
• Put a face to their entry: If I find a social media profile – LinkedIn or Facebook – it’s very likely there’s a photo. Gmail lets me link from their photo to the Contacts entry. It helps me remember who they are.
• Follow through: You need to keep contact with the people you meet. Don’t rely on catching up with them at the next event. It’s probably impossible to do this for everyone who gives you a card. So contact only the people you create the strongest connections with. Or follow up with the people you meet for the second time at an event. Create a strategy you can maintain.
• Don’t spam: Yes, I said it’s important to database these introductions and keep in contact. That doesn’t mean they want your company newsletter or sales pitches. A business card is not an opt-in transaction. If you are going to follow up, be human.
• Repeat: Keep it up. These events become much easier the more times you do it. Mostly because you start recognizing people and you enjoy catching up with them. That familiarity will give you the confidence to keep meeting new people.

Soon, you’re going to need to reorder those awesome business cards.

Life is pretty good here in Canada.  Things are generally pretty quiet, so much so that a lottery jackpot going unclaimed for three weeks in a row is newsworthy.  Very newsworthy.

LottoMax is a weekly lottery where you pick seven numbers, from 1 to 49, for your chance to win.  The pot starts at $10 million, and once it hits $50 million it goes into super-fancy “maxmillions” mode, with additional $1 million draws on top of the main jackpot.   The other night there was one draw for the $50 million prize, and an additional 45 – $1 million draws.  No one won the $50 million.

The odds of winning are 1 in 28 million, but considering that there are only 33 million people in Canada – it’s surprising that it hasn’t been won yet, but not that surprising that it’s featured prominently in the news.

So what does this have to do with WorkAwesome?  I’m sure I’m not the only one to play the “what if?” game:

“What would I do if I won the big jackpot?”

How much would you need to win in order to quit your job?  Or would you keep working where you are if you had an extra $50 million in the bank?  Would you move on to something else altogether – something you truly love?

What would you do if you won the big jackpot? 

In this second installment of The CV Toolkit, I’m going beyond the paper resumé and into something that’s emerging as a tool to find really awesome people and really awesome work.  I’m going to discuss the benefits of having a LinkedIn profile and keeping it updated.

What is LinkedIn?

“LinkedIn allows you to create a profile that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. You can then form enduring connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to a vast number of qualified professionals and experts.”

– LinkedIn’s  About page

You’re going to use LinkedIn to land the job you really want so make sure you put forth not only the energy, but qualifications that are pertinent.  Nothing really outside of what you’re looking for should be in your profile.

LinkedIn provides you with a measuring stick to get your profile to where it needs to be to get the best results (i.e. adding connections, a photo, bio, work history, etc.) and once you’ve filled that stick then you need to keep nurturing it.  There are several third-party apps that work well with the service, and if you line everything up right you end up with zero communication loss between you and your profile.

The service is all about connecting with, collaborating with and commending others.  There’s a lot that goes into it – more that can be (should be) covered on a weekend read.  But, since it is the weekend there’s no time like the present to get a profile started or reinvigorate the one you’ve already established.  Go to it.

I know, I know, I am a day late, but I have quite a good reason… Thank you all for the well wishes, and since I love our readers so much, I was able to finish up this week’s article just for you guys. It’s another roundup of some amazing works of typographical art, that I really think that you are gonna like! You might see that I included one from the comments of last week, so if you have something that you think is worthy… stick it in the comments!

---

Cricket (Motion Graphics) Brian Johnston Commentary

Top Dozen

10:10 Climate Change

M. Leonidov

Jay Z – “Hello Brooklyn”

OSF DOTS

Lawrence Weiner – Of the Moment

FX “Justified” Main Titles

The Armada Men- Source of Illusion – Typography Music Video

Opening Titles for AMD Conference 2009

The Big Lebowski: A Valued Rug

Mrs. Eaves

Messing With Typo

Inglourious Basterds: Killing Nazis

Wooshii.com 2

78RPM – MP3 | 70 Years of Revolutionary Protest Music

Motion Typography (Dumb and Dumber)

typography (picture theory)

generics (program content)

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM in typography / motion type

Starwars Typo – pub action

7 Billion People Can’t Be Wrong

I Love NY – Type in motion

Experimental Type in Motion

EGO

Duck and Cover

OYFMW Promo “Open Your Face and Make Words”

Quicksand

Countdown

Final Alphabet Collection – Using Google Earth

Why So Serious? The Dark Knight Typography

Monty Python – Kinectic Typography

terms&conditions

aviaT

natura

Kinetic Typography – Man on Wire

V For Vendetta Typography

governo do espírito santo

Short Attention Span – Fizzy Bangers

More Than Words

If you enjoyed this post, please give it a vote on Digg or a stumble to say thanks!

Talk to some artists or take a look at an online conversation about artwork and there’s a mighty good chance you’ll hear or read a mention of artistic style at some point. But for as often as it’s mentioned, style seems under-appreciated and misunderstood. So what exactly is behind a style? How does an artist develop a style and what does style mean to an artist? To find out, I spoke with eighteen highly-talented artists and I’ve conveniently assembled their responses for your edification and entertainment. This is the second part of a two-part series. What’s that? Missed the first part? Well check it out!

Continue reading “Eighteen Artists Share Their Opinions on Artistic Style – Part II”

Meet Laurens and Chantal the illustration duo working under the moniker Loulou & Tummie. These two designers met each other at Art Academy and now work and live together in Tilburg, Netherlands. They spend their days building an ever expanding empire of colorful graphics and characters that can be found in magazines, books, advertisements, plush, paper toys, interiors, t-shirts and shoes. They love happy things, cartoons, comics and toys, the influence of which can be found in their vector illustrations. Read more about these two cheerful designers at the jump.

Continue reading “Interview with LouLou and Tummie”

Digidesign’s Pro Tools is a powerful and popular digital audio workstation – a family of products ranging from software that suits the home hobbyist right up to full-scale commercial studios. In last week’s article we explored Pro Tools and its features. This week, we will learn how to use it.

This article was previously published on the AudioJungle blog, which has moved on to a new format in 2010. We’ll be bringing you an article from the AudioJungle archives each week.

Because of Pro Tool’s popularity, there are plenty of tutorials around the Internet. Two key places to find tutorials are Youtube and Audiotuts+. Here are 11 tutorials that introduce how Pro Tools 7 and 8 work, and take us further into the deeper parts of the program. The tutorials are by people who know the program well: producers, well-known musicians, and a Digidesign product specialist.

1. AES’08: Digidesign Pro Tools 8

Phil Jackson is a musician, producer, and vereran clinician. He is also Digidesign’s Technical Marketing Manager and product specialist. He showed Sound on Sound magazine around the new look and new features Pro Tools 8 at AES 08 in San Fransisco. He gives an excellent overview of the program.

2. Introduction to Digidesign Pro Tools- Part 1

Aaron Sternke is a Nashville producer, engineer, songwriter and frontliner who has worked closely in the studio with MercyMe (digital editing, engineering, background vocals), Third Day (engineering), Amy Grant (digital editing) and many others. He has received a Recording Arts degree from Full Sail in Orlando, FL.

Though this half-hour video is a couple of years old, it is still a very helpful basic introduction to Pro Tools. The video is also available from the Artistshouse Music website, but I had trouble streaming the video.

Part 1
Aaron explains the difference between Pro Tools HD and LE.

Part 2
Aaron looks at the available interfaces. When you buy the interface, you get the Pro Tools software, ensuring that hardware and software talk to each other flawlessly.

Part 3A
Aaron takes us through how to create a new session and new track in Pro Tools, and how to view inserts.

Part 3B
Aaron creates a click track, sets the session tempo, and creates a new track ready to record acoustic guitar.

Part 4
Aaron shows us how to record an acoustic guitar track.

If you found his introductory tutorial helpful, you may also like to watch Aaron’s intermediate and advanced tutorials.

3. Digidesign Pro Tools – Music Creation Template

This fast-moving tutorial from Digidesign’s product specialist, Phil Jackson, is more suited to those already familiar with audio recording.

Part 1
How to build a basic template, hide and show tracks, configure the click, and record drums using Expand.

Part 2
Creating more tracks with the Expand, Hybrid and Stylus plug-ins, using memory locators, and configuring reverb and delay.

Part 3
Changing grid and nudge values, options for viewing the track list and mixer, applying a template.

4. Pro Tools 8: Mike In The Studio

Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park gives us a brief look at what he likes about Pro Tools 8, and we see him using it in the studio.

5. Pro Tools 8 – MIDI Editor Window

Phil Jackson from Digidesign shows us around Pro Tools 7’s MIDI editor.

Part 1
The available tools, recording tracks, quantizing, copy and paste, deleting unwanted notes.

Part 2
Viewing, hiding and unhiding tracks in the MIDI editor to see only the tracks you are working on, soloing tracks, inserting notes, split panes, making the MIDI editor follow the edit window.

6. Steve Vai interview with Pro Tools Lessons

Listen to Steve Vai explain how he uses Pro Tools. Topics covered include snapping two tracks to the same timeframe using Beat Detector, crossfading, creating one region out of several by consolidating, using the Battery plug-in to create a MIDI track, and using hidden tracks so you don’t lose a take.

7. Top 20 New Features in Pro Tools 8 & How to Use Them

Mar 27th in Pro Tools, Recording by Bryan McAnulty

The upgrade to Pro Tools 8 includes many exciting enhancements, new features and plug-ins that add up to make music production easier than ever. Let’s take a look at the power behind some of the best new features. Continue Reading

8. 8 Easy Steps To Better EQ

Dec 3rd in Mixing & Mastering, Pro Tools by Mark Garrison

Knowing how to use an equalizer is a fundamental skill for anyone working with audio, yet it is one of the most abused. Here are some tips and tricks for using your EQ more effectively. You’ll notice there are more don’ts than dos on this list; that’s because EQ is best when used in moderation.

Continue Reading

9. The Beginner’s Guide to Compression

Dec 8th in Mixing & Mastering, Pro Tools by Sean Vincent

Compression is one of those studio processes that is all too often taken for granted and not used to its full potential. Today’s producers think nothing of inserting compressors on every single channel of their DAW when mixing, but old school engineers had to learn to make the most of only a few units of compression—and this made us learn them inside out.

Continue Reading

10. How to Quantize Audio in Pro Tools Using Beat Detective and Elastic Audio

Oct 7th in Mixing & Mastering, Pro Tools by Bryan McAnulty

Have you ever wondered how modern rock bands get that really tight sound? The rhythms sometimes sound too perfect for even the best musicians to pull off. With today’s technology it is possible to easily quantize your audio tracks. This tutorial will teach you how to start correcting your timing by using beat detective and elastic audio in Digidesign’s Pro Tools software.

Continue Reading

11. Using Rewire to Expand Your Audio Toolset

Jun 8th in Ableton Live, Cubase, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Mixing & Mastering, Pro Tools by Mo Volans

As producing completely ‘in the box’ fast becomes the norm, it’s essential we maximize the potential of our computer set up. Of course, improving our computer hardware and investing in new sample libraries is one way to do this—but another is to seamlessly wire together our applications using Rewire.

Rewire is often underestimated and in many cases goes unused. Using Rewire correctly can actually expand your sound palette, avoid unnecessary rendering and even add extra processing tools to your DAW. Let’s take a look at how Rewire works, some of its history and a few situations we can use it in.

Continue Reading

At Audiotuts+ we irregularly put up a reader track for workshopping and critique (find out how to submit a track). This is how it works: you upload your song, and every week or so we’ll publish one here and step away from the podium. The floor is yours to talk about the track and how the artist can fix problems in and improve upon the mix and the song.

This track has been submitted for your friendly, constructive criticism. They have put their track (and their heart and soul) in your hands to learn and get useful feedback.

• Do you enjoy the song or track itself? Does it have potential?
• Can the arrangement be improved?
• How did you find the mix? What would you do differently?
• What do you enjoy about the rhythm track? What can be done to improve it?
• Is the choice of instruments relevant and effective for the style/song?
• Are the lyrics (if any) effective? Does the style, arrangement and genre of the song suit them?
• Can you suggest any specific techniques that might improve the track?
• Do you have any other constructive feedback?

---

The Singular of Multiplicity by Digi-Tall

Description of the track:

Artist’s website: www.digi-tall.us

Electronic/Industrial

Download audio file (01TheSingularOfMultiplicity.mp3)

Terms of Use: This track is available for download.

Have a listen to the track and offer your constructive criticism for this Workshop in the comments section.

---

Submit Your Tracks for Workshopping

Need constructive criticism on your own tracks? Submit them using this form.

David Waters a talented artist currently residing in Moscow, Idaho. He is a freelance designer with an extensive clientele and is in his final year attending the University of Idaho for graphic design; David is also part of the DepthCore collective. In our interview we break down a few of David’s best pieces, and the readers get some interesting and valuable advice from a seasoned designer. So lets get into another great interview.

Hello Emil, thanks for having me!  My name is David Waters.  I’m 23 years old and currently living in Moscow, Idaho, attending the University of Idaho for Graphic Design.  I started using Photoshop around 2001 creating web designs.  This led to more of an interest in graphic design and print work and eventually I moved more into digital illustration. 

You can certainly learn all of the technical knowledge of the programs and processes outside of school, but what has been beneficial to me is the relationships you form and how one matures and grows in a University setting.  Who knows what will inspire you, but I find most of my inspiration lately has come from the people I have met and the area I am living in.  

I have been introduced to a lot of new film and music, much of it local, and that has been most inspiring for me.  Overall my experience with school has been humbling.  In addition to the critiques from professors and students, I’ve also been able to attend portfolio reviews with professionals through the AIGA chapter at the University of Idaho and this has provided me with valuable insight to my work. 

It’s really hard to say and it varies from piece to piece. These two pieces are very heavy on detail and for these I understood when I was finished when the details started to become a bit overwhelming.  With these pieces in particular I was working mostly while zoomed in and I’ve come to realize that you need to step back often and analyze how your pieces are developing as a whole.  

The advantages of working freelance are that you are essentially your own boss, but along with this comes a lot of responsibility.  You have to be disciplined to work on your own and establish your own hours as well as maintain a level of professionalism and organization.

Working freelance can be a very enjoyable experience, but you have to remain confident in yourself and your ability.  The income and flow of work can be discouraging because there will be months when not much work is coming in and then there are times when you feel overwhelmed.  You really must maintain a balance and have a clear understanding of your strengths and weaknesses.

‘We Tigers’ was mostly an exploration of a new style of work for me.  Before I was working mostly with photographs and stock images and lately it has been very liberating to get away from that for a while.  I purchased a digital tablet a few years ago and with each new piece I’ve been trying to use it more and more and rely less on images.  My more recent work is becoming almost entirely illustration, but I feel this is how I work best.  The final image has a lot of incorporated texture and colors, but the core of the image was illustrated with my tablet in Photoshop and I used photographs for reference.

It’s important to realize that with graphic design communication is everything.  With design the most important quality is communicating a clear and strong message and this is in no way correlates with details or effects.  When I was first starting I would tend to get lost in the details and if these details don’t enhance the message then it just becomes clutter.

It’s cliché, but never give up.  It’s easy to get discouraged by critique and opinions, but what is hard is to use this insight constructively and become a better designer.  Take everything with grain of salt and don’t lose site of what you enjoy and what motivates you.

Thanks again for this opportunity! I hope that my insights may be helpful for others!  

Where to find David on the Web

• David’s Portfolio
• David’s DeviantArt Portfolio
• David’s Behance Portfolio

Being in the CG realm of creativity, I know a lot of you are probably really into games, and probably even have worked on a few of them. I decided to make a nice list of a lot of the games mentioned or announced this past week at the E3 conference, so you can stay up to date, whether or not you followed it.

Need For Speed Hot Pursuit

Developed by EA, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit will be available November 16, 2010 and is available for pre-order. You can find the official site and the E3 reveal trailer is after the jump.

Dead Space 2

By EA AND Visceral Games, Dead Space 2 has an awesome trailer after the jump at the official site, and is due out January 25, 2011.

Medal of Honor

Check out the official site of EA’s Medal of Honor and look at all the different trailers. You can play the multiplayer beta June 21, and the full version comes out October 12, 2010

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam

There is a very short trailer for this on the Battlefield blog, but the game is out now for you to pick up!

EA Gun Club

Gun Club is a new site and feature with EA Games where you can join and get early access to beta releases, guns, codes and things like that… Check out the trailer here.

EA Sports MMA

This is one of the coolest fight games to hit in a long time from EA Sports. It is due out October 19, 2010 and it is coming with a feature called Live Broadcast (below).

EA Sports LIVE Broadcast

Live Broadcast is actually a new thing that EA is going to be doing which lets you compete against other gamers, win prizes, and even have real commentators call fights! Right now, it is only being used for MMA, but who knows for the future?

EA Active 2

The sequel to the popular Wii game, Active 2 will be available for wii as well as the new Microsoft Kinect. It will be available on November 11, 2010. Check out the press conference segment here

Madden NFL 11

The Sims 3

Crysis 2

Call of Duty Black Ops

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Halo Reach

Fable III

Crackdown 2

Gears of War 3

Codename: Kingdoms

Microsoft Kinect for XBOX 360

Bulletstorm

Star Wars The Old Republic

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Shaun White Skateboarding

Battle Tag

Innergy

Rayman Origins

Motion Sports

Raving Rabbids Travel in Time

Ghost Recon Future Soldier

Driver San Francisco

Project DUST

Mania Planet

Scott Pilgrim VS The World

Child of Eden

Grease The Game

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Mario Sports Mix

Wii Party

Just Dance 2

Golden Sun Dark Dawn

Goldeneye 007

Disney Epic Mickey

Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Metroid Other M

Donkey Kong Country Returns

Nintendo 3DS

Kid Icarus Uprising

Dragonquest 9

Killzone 3

Playstation Move

Sorcery

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11

Heroes on the Move

Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker

God of War Ghost of Sparta

Little Big Planet 2

Portal 2

Final Fantasy XIV

Mafia II

Gran Tursimo 5

Infamous 2

Twisted Metal

The Conduit 2

APB: All Points Bulletin

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2

Motorstorm Apocalypse

Star Wars The Force Unleashed II

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Rage

If you enjoyed this post, please give it a vote on Digg or a stumble to say thanks!

Don’t miss more CG tutorials and guides, published daily – subscribe to Cgtuts+ by RSS.

It’s happened to all of us. You’re in the shower, at an event or reading a book when an insight strikes. A brilliant insight, at that. Quick, you must inform the Internet immediately!

So you settle in at your computer to peck out your brilliance in the form of a blog post that will surely be read by thousands of people, retweeted dozens of times and lead to your book deal. That’s how it works, right?  I mean, that’s what your English degree is for…isn’t it?

Yet what begins as a quick and steady flow of typing soon slows to a trickle. Your hands feel leaden, your mind bound. What you do type is either deleted moments later or left on the page to fester. When you re-read what you’ve written, your points feel weak and unsupported. You begin to panic. This blog post might not come to fruition after all.

Believe it or not, that may be the best thing that could happen to your brilliant idea.

Think about consumer goods. How often does a product rushed to market fail? Fairly regularly. And what is often the cause of said failures? A lack of testing or forethought. The same goes for a blog post. Don’t rush a quality idea to market simply because you can. You shouldn’t be afraid of leaving a blog post in draft mode for as long as necessary, and here’s why.

Feeling a Draft

After you write, you have to read, review, revise and read again. If something in your stomach still doesn’t sit right, save the post as a draft. Come back to it in an hour or the next day. Maybe everything will click in a week, or maybe never. Maybe that idea can’t stand on its own, but a thread of it can be woven into a future post on a related topic. If all else fails, don’t be afraid of letting it sit there indefinitely. Don’t forget—content is a commodity, and consumers can smell a fake a mile away.

Don’t let that shiny, blue button in WordPress – which represents the ability to publish whatever we want, whenever we want – make you feel like you are failing if you don’t press it, even if you’re not fully comfortable with what you’d be publishing. The button is not the publisher; you are.

Avoiding Trial by Fire

When you offer an opinion in conversation (“I think the new ‘A-Team’ movie is contrived,” “I think the new U2 album is a return to form”) and someone asks, “What do you mean?” that’s the moment your opinion is put to the mettle. Can you support your pithy conversational nugget with a well-reasoned argument?

If you’re trying to blog and you’re not there just yet, that’s OK—sleep on it and try it again tomorrow. But if you publish prematurely, just imagine that chilling moment in a conversation where you realize you’ve uttered BS and someone has just called you on it.

Idea Laboratory

The best ideas are often the ones that seem craziest at their outset. But the path between a crazy idea and success is lined with patience. Will your insight stand the test of time? Will it make as much sense tomorrow as it does today in the glow of its conception?

Often, unpublished blog posts end up being testing grounds for new ideas. Those ideas may not yet be fully formed, which is probably why they aren’t coming out right on the page. But the act of trying to write them out in a cogent manner is helping you think through them, even if it’s not apparent at the time. It can be a frustrating process, certainly. We know we’ve got something good, and we may fault ourselves for not being able to bring it to fruition. But writing is about patience. Sure, we’re living in the era of the real-time web, but while the act of publishing and distribution is instantaneous, the creative process is not.

Writing Exercise

In the push-button era of blogging, we sometimes forget about the value of the free write. There is something about simply getting your thoughts down on paper (or screen, as it were), no matter how jumbled or incomplete.

Blogging not only therapeutic, but the act of putting your thoughts into words helps you think about them more. Perhaps it’s the physical act of typing or writing that loosens up some previously dormant brain cells. Whatever it is, blog writing need not always lead to publication. It can—and often should—be its own end.

Inspiration Station

Draft posts are always good to go back to when you’re short on ideas or simply in the mood to write. I have a decent number of draft blog posts that are no more than just a thought or a phrase that crossed my mind and might merit further exploration at some point. Some of those sparks may eventually become fully fleshed out analyses. Some may never catch aflame. But that’s OK. At least I hooked the idea to the line at the time it came to me.

I also have a few comprehensive posts in draft, some of which I literally spent hours on. While it might be tempting to kick myself for wasting my time, it’s important to realize that any time spent writing—even if the words never see the light of day—is educational time well spent.