Mindful attention to your task - Jeannine Ouelette lists techniques to pay attention to when crafting a manuscript. Deb Liu suggests how cutting cruft from your day can make more time for what matters.
Making better notes - Alejandro G. Iñárritu breaks down how he outlines each scene on a notecard. Clive Thompson shares how he collects notes when researching an article. Alma Katsu applies her past work as an intelligence analyst to researching for historical fiction.
Dismissing mental blocks - Austin Saylor talks through techniques to reduce anxiety while doing creative work. Neel Nanda encourages you to recast yourself as the person who actually does things.
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New year, new Write Sprint thread
Skip the crowds and the cold, because this year’s hottest New Year’s Eve bash is all about staying inside and writing —
Is what we might say if we only opened a new comment thread for this weekend. But our new Write Sprint thread stays open for a whole week, giving you time to celebrate and join other writers in starting your 2023 word count!
What’s a Write Sprint?
John wrote up an explanation, but here’s the short version: Set a timer for 60 minutes, close down all distractions, and do nothing but write until that timer goes off.
If you want to start a sprint, drop a comment in the thread saying:
What you’re working on (in whatever level of detail you’re comfortable with)
Your goal for your 60 minute write sprint
When you plan to start
You can also comment to sync up with someone else’s sprint, drop in on the thread to cheer other writers on, or meet new people!
Shout out this week to Sprinters Genie Leslie, Brian Matusz, Micah Sherman, and Andrew, who shared this after a sprint:
This was fun! Not many words written, but I got my head back into this project in a way I wouldn’t have without this sprint.
Reading the room
Previously on Inneresting…
In case you missed it, in last issue’s most clicked link Paul Jun looks at the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.
Other Inneresting Things…
Make yourself a hyper-specific soundtrack thanks to Abelardo Riojas and the Natural Language Playlist generator.
Jennifer Jenkins walks us through what works enter the public domain in 2023.
Erik Grankvist spent 3 years building a log cabin by himself, and he had a camera with him:
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
Inneresting is edited by Chris Csont, with contributions from readers like you and the entire Quote-Unquote team.
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🗣 Have ideas for future topics (or just want to say hello)? Reach out to Chris via email at inneresting@johnaugust.com, Twitter @ccsont, or Mastodon @ccsont@mastodon.art