If you’re an aspiring author, director, musician, startup founder, these long stretches of nothing are a huge reason why it’s important to pick something personally meaningful, something that you actually love to do. When external rewards and validation are nonexistent; when you suffer through bouts where of jealousy, wondering “How come so-and-so got signed/is successful/got a deal/etc?”; when every new development seems like a kick in the stomach, the love of what you are doing gives you something to hang onto.

Ang Lee

(via Elliot Rausch)

Source: anonymousmentor

An important read for anyone in publishing

Another article from an author who’s abandoned traditional publishing in favour of doing it herself. 

There’s lots of stories like this now, but this one’s an entertaining read. It also has two startling points in it:

  • Publishers get no information from Amazon about where their books are selling and who is buying them, so they’re effectively blind

I love too how she describes traditional publishing as “vanity” publishing and not self-publishing. How things change…

Isabella Rosselini dresses like a bee (and an old man) to explain how pollination works. There’s something very charming about this online video series.

(via @BrainPickings)

At the beginning of any writing project is the agonizing period in which nebulous ideas dance before the mind’s eye like memories of a dream, and vaporous vague shapes take on human form and begin to answer to their names.

Trying to will a world into existence, I circle around it, nibbling at the edges, writing notes about the social infrastructure and expounding to no one in particular about the theme of things.

James Cameron eloquently explains the scary Strange Days as ideas form. 

Not often I post music videos but this one’s worth a watch. Some nice visual tricks, and asks an interesting question about art and work summed up well by Scott Hansen:

“Is out work the true meaning? On your death bed will you praise yourself for the things you’ve achieved as an artist, be fulfilled because you followed your “dream”. Or will you be thankful for the relationships you’ve forged and the lives you’ve touched?”

Source: blog.iso50.com

This, I assume, is the result of TED founder Chris Anderson’s inspiring 2010 talk about online video and education.

TedEd, which is in beta, has got some fantastic ways to enable teachers to create lessons using TED talks but also any video on Youtube. 

Their aim: “to create a free and remarkable library of lessons worth sharing.” I think it’s got great potential.

A must-watch for anyone involved in storytelling on the web. Don’t just watch - take notes!

(@amyoleary is one of the contributors to Inside the Story, a fundraising ebook about digital storytelling, published today)

oiphilpot:

‘Surprise’ the only genuine requirement in narrative storytelling says Amy. I’m in total agreement however these themes, although relevant and important in todays connected world, are not new. Shakespeare was demonstrating exactly the same principle and his narrativer arc has been the basis for many a blockbuster.

Compelling cues have also been the rock of storytelling in all genre; news, drama, comedy etc but why should we drop them just because the web provides extra capability or interactivity. And why, if these elements are key to our experience do we perceive them as a lower form task i.e. a job for the ‘web monkey’

What’s really interesting here is the cue and the reward relationship and what makes people ‘care’. A brilliant watch.

dreamlectures:

Beyond the “Like” Button: Digitally Addictive Storytelling and the Brain

Her presentation discusses the brain and its relationship to immediate news. As a writer who crafts the online narrative of a story at the time the idea is conceived, she is uniquely skilled to speak to the power of social media in the news.

Source: dreamlectures

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