This is proving to be a great read so far.
An insightful journey through the world of Ed Catmull and Pixar.
While I’m not into design as much as I am writing, I feel that it’s important to understand creativity as a whole.
Plus, some of the insights involving Steve Jobs are fascinating.
I’ll post a review once I’ve to finished.
I saw this on a train yesterday, and I couldn’t help but be impressed.
Simplistic font, no images to distract, first headline draws you in and the rest of the copy keeps you reading.
Great honesty too.
So Ashley didn’t write today because he’s off on a wine tasting tour. As I type this he’s pouring wine, and if he’s anything like me while on tour he’ll be befriending the people at the cheese stand and swapping Syrah for Cornish stilton.
But I’m not like Ashley, and it doesn’t take quite as much wine or whimsy for me not to write.
“She wants to write, really write someday. But she is not fully formed. So she does not write. Not really. Unless attempting to live is a form of attempting to write.”
That’s a quote by author Kate Zambreno, from her novel Green Girl.
It’s also a pretty accurate description of my own approach to writing. I didn’t write today because I didn’t feel confident enough to do proper job.
Impostor syndrome was coined by clinical psychologists Dr Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978. It almost exclusively affects women (although non-binary people and men who are marginalised experience it too, thanks patriarchy) and can be defined as one’s inability to internalise their accomplishments, paired with a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. It’s the crippling belief that our successes are the product of luck rather than talent.
I didn’t write today because the voice in my head told me I’m too amateur to even try (a voice echoed by decades of internalised inferiority courtesy of our mainstream media and, you guessed it, the bloody patriarchy). But I realise this is a blog about empowering creatives, recognising the hypocrisies that undermine us, and overcoming the things that squelch us.
The reasons we feel like impostors doomed to mediocrity are deeply embedded in society and probably won’t change overnight (but if they did I’m sure it wouldn’t be me who did it and would be somebody much cleverer and more successful…). Sod it! Write anyway. Write because you need to.
Even the undeniably talented Maya Angelou once said “I have written eleven books, but each time I think, Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.”
You’re clearly not alone, so get on with it. Just imagine if Maya Angelou had waited until she felt adequate – we’d all be worse off because she’s fab and a gift to the world.
Which brings me to my final point really – support one another in our endeavours to live creative lives. If you read something wonderful, don’t let your first thoughts be “I could never be as talented/insightful/witty/successful”. Appreciate the art, let it move you, be inspired, and that inner voice will quieten. Do your very best not to let self doubt be the reason you don’t write today.
Nobody really knows what they’re doing anyway.
So, I won’t be writing for a few days as I’m off on a tour with my day job.
Keep your eyes peeled for guest posts from my girlfriend tomorrow and Thursday!
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. ”
Steve Jobs
Have you seen the film ‘The Pursuit of Happyness‘?
If you haven’t, I highly recommend it. Will Smith stars as struggling salesman, who’s trying to make ends meet for his wife and young son.
Luck doesn’t go his way, and he falls into a downward spiral – which hits a climax when he winds up homeless.
Things get so bad that he ends up sleeping in a public toilet cubicle one night. His young son lying beside him.
But, rather than feel sorry for himself (I wouldn’t blame him if he was), he looks for opportunity and clinches an internship as a broker in the city. It’s not a paid gig sadly, and it’s so competitive that only one person will end up with a full-time role.
What I like about Will Smith’s character in the film is that he continually visualises success. He knows that, given the right moment and chance, he can do it. It’s his belief that wins the audience over, and ultimately wins his employers over.
And I ask you, as an aspiring creative…how often do you visualise the success you want?
Whether you want to be the next Stephen King, the next Picasso or just a cool designer who has an office that overlooks a city skyline.
Whatever you’re doing right now, take a moment to visualise the success you want. I know it sounds cheesy, but if you don’t know what your destination looks like…how can you get there? How can you know that you’re making progress if your path is murky and blurred?
I once heard about a guy who visualises success so much that when he’s driving he pretends that he’s being interviewed about his novels and speaks about them as if he’s talking to an interviewer.
Ahem…I promise you that guy isn’t me…
by Ashley Brown 2017
I’m a fan of Banksy’s works, and it makes me sad to see how the media are hellbent on finding out his identity.
Some mysteries just don’t need to be solved. As long as a fellow creative isn’t doing evil by being anonymous, I think we should let them have their secrecy. In fact, in my opinion, he’s doing a lot of good as he is.
Have I ever wondered who he is?
Yeah, sure I have.
But, that doesn’t mean I have to know. I think sometimes, as a society, we’re so keen on getting what we want we don’t stop to think ‘do I actually need to do this?’.
Let’s save our newspaper pages for reporting the real hard-hitting facts about the things we do need to know. And by that I do mean facts, no fake news.
I was listening to a podcast today and amongst all the great content included, there was one snippet of a story that stuck with me.
It was about a pre-teen boy who was, for whatever reason, wearing a dress. Someone else in his class stopped him and said:
“You can’t wear that. You’re not a princess”.
His reply?
“I can. I’m a King in a dress”.
If that’s not a perfect example of using creativity to change someone’s perspective, I don’t know what else is.
And, as writers, many of us have messages to deliver, as well as stories. Whether they be social, ethical or everything in-between.
Your creativity is a great tool, and it empowers you – giving you the ability to present things in a way that others can understand and empathise with. Use it wisely.
If you’re interested the podcast was ‘Guilty Feminist’ – which I highly recommend.
“I’ve never had a movie that got great reviews. I’ve had movies that got different levels of good and bad reviews, but you can more or less count on plenty of bad reviews.”
Wes Anderson
The internet. It seems like such an all-powerful thing doesn’t it? A 24/7 access to everything around us, available at the touch of a fingertip.
A way to socialise, to work, to sell and to find information. A digital land of happiness, cat memes and dark, evil corners.
When I think of the internet, the first image that comes to mind is a giant cyber brain. That’s constantly pulsating and growing. Growing bigger and bigger by the day.
It’s a complicated thing. Few of us really understand it, and even though we take it as part of our day-to-day it’s still an awe-inspiring thing.
Let me take you now to the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi. A place of cobblestones and art Noveau buildings, among many other things.
One day, not so long ago, a 75 year old woman was out digging for scrap metal. She was just on the outskirts of the city and had been working really hard that day – the more scrap she got, the more money she’d head home with.
As she was digging her spade accidentally ripped through a cable. Naturally this worried her, but after a quick look around all seemed okay and there was no one around to notice. So she continued her day’s work, set the memory of the cable aside and as dusk fell across the city she headed home.
Meanwhile, web-users in neighbouring Armenia were having a tough day. No matter how hard they tried they just couldn’t get online. It took five hours for them to realise that something had gone wrong in Georgia, the country that provided 95% of their internet.
You’ve probably guessed what happened.
The cable that the old lady had damaged was a fibre-optic one that provided Armenia with their internet.
Sure they fixed it soon enough, once they’d realised.
But, it just goes to show that even though the cyber world around us is so advanced and complex, it isn’t invincible.
Something as simple as the spade can conquer the internet.
It’s the same with life. As intense and complicated as it may well be, we need to make time for the simple things and look out for the simple problems – as they could very soon evolve into much bigger problems.
whyididntwritetoday.com 