Lovely book animation by Type Books in Toronto.
Inspiration
As I try to get back on track with daily writing (after failing to complete 100 Days), I am inspired by the words of other writers whose work I admire.
Write all the time, hone your voice, and make sure that you have a way of saying something that is yours and yours alone. Find a way to stand out. Be funny and be different. Live a life that gives you lots of stories. Love and laugh and make friends and get your heart broken and have stuff be messy and weird and sometimes too extreme. But make sure you write about it. Figure out how you feel about it. Write constantly, and be brave with your words.
I think there is this fear of writing badly, something primal about it, like: “This bad stuff is coming out of me…” Forget it! Let it float away and the good stuff follows. For me, the bad beginning is just something to build on. It’s no big deal. You have to give yourself permission to do that because you can’t expect to write regularly and always write well. That’s when people get into the habit of waiting for the good moments, and that is where I think writer’s block comes from. Like: It’s not happening. Well, maybe good writing isn’t happening, but let some bad writing happen. Let it happen!
Writers are thieves. We steal moments and memories and now we steal minutes, too. We scramble for extra seconds and shove them in our pockets when no one is looking. If you want to write, you make it work. You make time. There’s really no other way.
Finding your voice, finding courage, finding time…these are common struggles for me. Where do you find inspiration for writing?
On mornings like this, when I struggle to shake off sleep, it helps to take a moment to just sit, slowly sip that first cup of hot coffee, and look at something beautiful. These lovely stop-motion videos by Ching-Wen Wu are a perfect start to the day.
Every cup of coffee contains its own soul, extracted from your feeling today. Every cup of coffee is like a magic show containing different journey and bringing the unending imagination and surprises. With a sip of coffee, you not only taste your own story, but also change your perspective of the world.
h/t @swissmiss
Taking a letterpress class is on my life to-do list.
via @designworklife
Behold the power of paper when combined with the talents of designer Kelli Anderson.
In the booklet-style invitation, a bit of paper-folding amplifies the sound of a sewing needle moving along the grooves of a flexidisc record. The hand-spun record yields a garbled, but scrutable listening of an original song by the couple.
Read all about the inspiration behind the project on Kelli’s blog. I also recommend checking out her portfolio, which is a clever and creative use of Google Maps.
Has it really already been almost a year since I first read Moby-Dick? It seems like just a short time ago I was wrapped up in Melville’s language and subsequently discovering Matt Kish’s illustration project, One Drawing for Every Page of Moby-Dick. Matt finished his whale of a project in January, and his artwork is being published this fall to coincide with the 160th anniversary of the novel’s publication.
Completely self-taught and refusing to set any boundaries for the kinds of images he would make, Kish used a wide variety of materials, including found paper, ballpoint pens, markers, paint, crayons, ink, and watercolors to create art inspired by lines from every single page of the 552-page Signet Classics paperback edition of Moby-Dick. A hallmark of the project has been his use of pages torn from old, discarded books. Layering images on top of existing words and images, Kish has crafted a work that aptly echoes the layers of meaning in Melville’s narrative. His approach is deliberately low-tech, a sort of counter-response to the increasing popularity of born-digital art and literature. Kish started the project in August 2009 and spent nearly every day for eighteen months toiling away in a small closet converted into an art studio.
Simply amazing. Wishlisted.
If I could bear to part with any of my Scrabble editions, I would try my hand at one of these creative and crafty projects. Until then, I’ll stick to creative ways to play Q and J.
Scrabble bulletin board via ReadyMade
Wooden Scrabble display racks via presentcorrect
What do you get when you combine typography and makeup? The stunning Font Face project.
Font Face is a project by Spanish design studio Atipo which pays tribute to 4 typographic legends and their creators. Represented in bold black and white makeup are: Carousel Medium, Clarendon Bold, Caslon Italic and of course Helvetica Bold.
via Nubbytwiglet
Matt Rogers’ kinetic typography of Stephen Fry’s “Language” podcast is brilliantly done.
via @brainpicker
National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner, and I’m super geeked. I’m not the only one:
Hello Wrimos.
Look at your novel, now back to mine, now back at your novel, now back to MINE.
Sadly, it isn’t mine, but if you started writing 1667 words a day it could be as long as mine.
Look down, back up, where are you? You’re at your computer WITH THE NOVEL YOUR NOVEL COULD LOOK LIKE.
What’s in your hand? Back at me. It’s the remains of your silenced inner editor.
Look again.
THE EDITOR IS NOW DIAMONDS!
Anything is possible with NaNoWriMo.
I’m on a forum.— Hero, via Something Magic
If you’re also NaNo-ing this year, feel free to add me. If you’re still debating whether or not to NaNo, stop. Hammer time. Sign up, it’s a month of fun, mad writing with people all over the world. In the meantime, let’s start working “the editor is now diamonds” into everyday conversations.
