This is great. Aldous Huxley narrates his book A Brave New World as actors perform sections from the book to the music of Bernard Herrmann, the great composer who worked extensively with Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Scorsese and other great diretors.
This is a digital conversion of the original LP so there is a lot of noise, hisses, pops and scratches, but this is brilliant to listen to nonetheless.
Find the MP3s here.
Throughout my writing career I’ve written or some other creative writing off and on from music video treatments and screenplays to novels, short stories and poetry. Along the way, I’ve made about every mistake you can make, learned some great tricks, had great successes and a few white whales I can’t seem to conquer.
The most important thing to know as a writer is that you have to write, a lot. Write every day, every morning, write when you’re on a break at work, write before bed, write at lunch. Scribble the words on napkins, in journals and into your writing program of choice.
The one resource that I really love is The Lie That Tells A Truth by John Dufresne. No other books has had the impact this book has had on how I approach the craft of writing fiction. His book is full of great information, first-hand examples of how he tackles tough writing challenges and best of all the book makes for a great read. Dufresne’s style is funny and personal. He writes like he gives a damn. And, he knows what hell he’s talking about.
If you write, read this book. Of course, do it while writing. Read it in the nooks and crannies between putting ink to paper (or font to form?) and I think you’ll find that the insights will give you fuel, help you find certainty and just enough hubris to do the unthinkable: write a novel.
That’s my plan. I will write a novel this year. I’d hate to let John down.
November is National Novel Writing Month and to celebrate there is a yearly event affectionately called NaNoWriMo where writers from all over world participate in a mad dash toward writing a novel.
The idea is simple: starting November 1st, you write like a maniac for 30 days and before you know it you have a novel, or at least a draft, or at the very least a ton of words on paper from which to craft the shell of a novel, hopefully. But hope is critical in such endeavors.
Because the truth is writing a novel is damn tricky stuff. Completing one has eluded me and I’ve been writing for all of my adult life. I’ve written professionally for a long time, covered bands, written for music videos, TV shows, documentaries, advertising and I’ve even completed a pretty decent screenplay, but the novel. Ah, yes, the novel. Creatively speaking, this has been the one that has gotten away.
So maybe this year I’ll dive in, using November as the catalyst for finally pulling it off. I have ideas. A folder’s worth of them. I have the desire. But, it’s sticking it out when you hit that wall, that place where the story sputters or the plot gets thin, that is the part that gets most writers. You gotta see it through, hit it head first. You gotta be willing to be okay with the “shitty first draft” Hemingway wrote about. But most of all, you’ve got to have conviction that you will not stop. Reach the end. Tell a story.
Any takers? If so, today is the day to start. And what about me? Should I head once more into the breach? Who is with me?
I’ve had junior writers ask me over the years if I could give them some suggestions regarding the best books for young copywriters. I’m always torn on this one because ultimately becoming a better writer is about writing, studying effective writing and reading with a critical eye the words of others. However, there are books that have helped me. Mostly via inspiration or by influencing how I think about what I do.
Here are some of those books.
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Zinsser’s book is an absolute classic. No other book has better insight into writing clear, concise, fluid and forceful prose. Perhaps it’s best advice however is the section on the true secret of really great writing: self-editing.
A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
This amazing book by Daniel Pink is about ideas, creativity and the symphony of fusing design thinking, story and the over-arching notion of aesthetics to create a new model for collaboration. Great stuff.
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White
Strunk & White’s ubiquitous book is one of the true grammarian classics. A writer’s bookshelf seems unbalanced without a copy resting somewhere among the books and issues of Print and Creativity. Plus, it’ll help you write more precisely and can answer those pesky little grammar questions we all have from time to time.
A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets. Her style and command of language will dig deep into your soul. Give her a read and you’ll see. This book is just what it claims to be, but on a deeper level her deconstruction of great poems, her attention to the nuances of language and sound and the shape of words as they roll off the tongue will help any writer craft more impactful copy. Thing about the meter and rhythm of language. Thing about how this impacts a headline, tagline or any piece of copy and you’ll be all the better for it.
The Lie That Tells a Truth by John Dufresne
A great book on writing fiction by novelist and teacher John Dufresne. What really makes this book great is that it’s one of those writing books that doesn’t feel like a writing. The essays read more like inspirational mantras on the ins and outs, dos and don’ts of the craft of writing. Chapters are filled with great insights, wonderful quotes and tremendous tools for creating great prose. For the copywriters out there read this book for the perspective, the style and because it’s a really fun read.
So that’s my top 5. Ask any other writer and they’ll likely have five different choices as their favorites. The truth is, you can’t go wrong as long as you remain curious and never stop trying to be better at what you do.
The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen is one of the most beautiful cookbooks I’ve ever seen. The typography is beautiful, the colors exquisite, the food photography completely tantilizing.
And that’s just aesthetics. The recipes themselves are amazing. This book, along with Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet provide an incredible Vegan one-two punch of delicious, natural, earth and animal friendly cooking with flair, flavor and tons of taste.
In The Conscious Cook, we get to see what the new face of Vegan cuisine looks and tastes like. There are no bland, boring or dull dishes here, only rich, savory and satisfying dishes.
Before I became a vegetarian I had this fear that I’d get easily bored with the cuisine. I also had a sense that the faux meats where horrible. I was wrong on both. Granted, the psuedo-saugage, veggie burgers and other veg-meats have made great strides. So much so that I’ve dined at veggie restaurants where you’d never know you were eating chicken or beef if you weren’t paying attention.
This is a great cookbook. It’s full of photos, information and dynamic recipes. The layout is clean and fresh. Designwise, this is one of my favorite cookbooks ever.
I can not wait to see this movie. It’s frightening how much faith we put in the industrial food system. If we are in fact what we eat, then my question is: What are we allowing ourselves as a society to become?
Read this book. Digest it. Ingest it. Think about it. Internalize it and please, God please, use it if you’re a writer, designer, creative director, account executive or if you in any way work with products, services or anything that may enter the public sphere.
Neumeier and his company Neutron, LLC has brought some of the freshest and most insightful thinking to the brand / marketing / communications conversation. The Brand Gap is the first in a series of books that have created considerable dialogue within the industry and signaled a paradigm shift toward the power of differentiation and design centered thinking.
Yet, it’s still shocking how resistant some are companies are to going against the cliché and predictable bandwagon jumping that so often characterizes many marketing department strategies.
Note to everyone: Sameness is not a marketing strategy.
Let’s be bold. Let’s take chances and stand for something meaningful and relevant. Who knows, we might just collectively raise what has been a very low bar.
There is a great quote by William James at the beginning of Dark Lore, Volume 1 that reads,
“Round about the accredited and orderly facts of every science there ever floats a sort of dust-cloud of exceptional observations, of occurrences minute and irregular and seldom met with, which it always proves more easy to ignore than to attend to.”
As I finish up with Entangled Minds by Dean Radin and launch into In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky, I can’t help but feel the timeliness of this statement as it bears down on me.
There is so much we don’t, can’t and won’t understand, not in lifetimes. These questions aren’t answered by religions, or science or philosophers but can only be answered I believe from within. To quote Swami Vivekananda,
The goal of mankind is knowledge … Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man ‘knows’, should, in strict psychological language, be what he ‘discovers’ or ‘unveils’; what man ‘learns’ is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.
In other words, knowledge, knowing, learning is really a form of remembering.
This is about gnosis, knowledge of self and deep understanding that transcends books. The most important things we can learn, we already posses if we could all only remember where we left them.
If you want a bit of future focused brand insight, read The Designful Company by Marty Neumeier from Neutron, LLC. His previous book are must reads ( ZAG being my favorite) and his newest provides a swift kick in the operational jewels of corporate America.
Reading this book made me feel all dreamy and idealistic about the possibilities of a world where companies, marketing departments and even governments where run by designers, creative thinkers, conceptualists and other aesthetically minded leaders. Just imagine what kind of world this would be.
Pipe dreams aside, we are moving ever more quickly toward a designcentric world as the cultural creative class grows, consumers become more brand savvy and the last true differentiation point is the core notion of really great design. We’re headed there now. Take a look at brands like Apple and you’ll see that some are already there and have been as the rest scramble and staff to keep up or in some cases simply get started.
Don’t lag behind. Read The Designful Company and jump on board.
There’s a thought in the introductory essay of Eknath Easwaran’s translation of The Dhammapada, which is his commentary on the book, that we see the world not as it is, but rather as we are.
We impose a range of biases and past experiences on our present and future actions. Even with regard to our interactions with people, we don’t see others as they see themselves, but as we see them. Therefore, we experience each other and the world in very selfish ways and how the world is perceived will be different based on the mind and ego of the experiencer.
He retells a story that is relevant for today when he writes of two men who go to foreign lands to experience and report back what they find. One found the people basically good at heart and generous. The other, a bit jealous, found that the people he experienced were selfish, scheming and cruel. In turned out that both we describing the same land.
As Easwaran writes, ‘”We see as we are,’ and our foreign policy follows what we see.” When I apply this idea to my country, the whole concept becomes very troubling.
The ultimate idea here is that if we change ourselves, we change the world around us, even if in subtle ways. Because all change, like revolution, starts within. And true revolution, like true change, is about the heart of the individual.
Or, as Robert Anton Wilson always said, “What the thinker thinks, the prover proves.”
