photo courtesy of Flickr: Click on the image to see the photographer's page.

You are a writer, but do you sometimes find it hard to write?

One of my best friends is a chef. You wouldn’t believe how often he has a hard time deciding what’s for dinner.

This is normal. Whatever your occupation, you are subject to the same fatigue as anyone. Dentists get tired of looking at teeth, plumbers get tired of pipes and writers, well no matter how much you might love language, sometimes you’re probably going to get a bit tired of slinging words.

The amazing thing is, once you crash through that inertia, your brain will be there to delight and surprise you. There is nothing better for a writer trying to smash their writer’s block than to simply start writing. One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever read was simply, Give yourself permission to write a first draft.

Your first draft can be terrible and it doesn’t have to make sense. It’s primary function is to get your fingers and brain working together.

Once you start writing, magic happens.

This is the idea behind the Creative Copy Challenge, our six-week-old site that has been doing gangbusters in the community aspect. We would love to bring some of that creative energy to the Inkwell.

We plan on publishing one prompt per week to get our writers writing as well as helping us to know our community a little better. We did this a couple of times last year with interesting results. We don’t intend for this to replace Creative Copy Challenge, but to rather work in a slightly different manner, exercising different creative muscles.

Prompts will be either visual or written. Both David and I will contribute our own entries in the comment section.

Here is the first prompt:

“She placed the box on the sidewalk, looked over her shoulder, and then slowly walked away.”

We look forward to reading what each of you come up with. Write a short paragraph or a full fledged short story, whatever you want.

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photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyeliam/2551821542/

Yeah, Kanye got to me.

I admit it. The guy’s such a giant tool it’s unbelievable. I’ve already vented about the Taylor Swift, MTV fiasco over at Writer Dad, and asked children to express their thoughts on the topic over at Children Write the Future. Here at the Inkwell I would like to focus on Kanye’s creative merit.

About six weeks ago I had an idea for a post that ended up keeping about thirty-two thousand others company in a file marked “ideas for someday.” The thought was to compare the two versions of Kanye’s Heartless. I’m glad the day has given me reason to dig the idea up.

I find Kanye’s version rather vapid and lacking any real emotion or genuine soul. It is overproduced to the point of diminished perfection, trying way too hard to rinse the radio ready single of Kanye’s awkward style of rapping. Heartless is also the third or fourth song (I’ve lost count) where he has sung a set of vocals in place of the usual rhyme scheme, pushing him ever closer toward the category of Pop music where I believe he clearly belongs.

The single itself is sad, carrying a downbeat melody on the shoulders of a weary backbeat. Kanye sings about “the coldest story ever told” because of “a woman so heartless.” Throughout every synth echo, Kanye begs the question, “How could you be so heartless?”

This is a question asked throughout the history of music in every genre going back to when they were banging keys in the palaces of Vienna.

What makes this particular piece of music especially disposable, at least to me, is that I don’t believe a word. Kanye isn’t singing the song so much as he’s singing at it. It is Kanye’s delivery of the material I find most heartless of all.

I would have written the song off entirely, but then I heard the Fray’s version.

This version of Heartless done by the Fray feels raw, and rather remarkable. It somehow manages to twist a trite piece of commercial chart grabbing crap into something that resonates. The way the song is delivered in the quieter version, you feel the notes and understand the hurt. You are there while the feelings linger.

Anton Chekhov said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass…”

This is what the Fray have done and what Kanye doesn’t know how to do. Listen to each of the versions below and let me know what you think in the comments. Not just which is better, though I am curious to see the consensus, but I also wonder about the bigger question. Do the elements of the Fray’s version exist in Kanye’s? Would they be there if the Fray hadn’t been around to retrieve them from the dirt and dust them with their brush?

Let me know what you think.

If you head on over to Ghostwriter Dad I ask, “What can Kanye teach you about business?“

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Ah, it’s that time of year again where I abandon my springtime vows to “be more productive” and “watch less TV.”

Yes, the fall TV season is here. And even though Jay Leno is single-handedly destroying the 10 p.m. hour of NBC’s lineup, there are lots of things to look forward to in the coming months. And while this site is mostly about creativity and inspiration, I can’t write about creativity without mentioning some of the great shows out there which inspire me.

Here are the Top Five shows I’m looking forward to this season

5. Glee (FOX 9 p.m. Wednesdays 9/9/09) – Normally, I wouldn’t like a show like this. It’s an hour-long comedy that features high school kids singing and dancing, the stereotypical jocks, nerds, misfits, etc … Let’s face it, shows like this usually aim at the lowest common denominator and rarely appeal to both teens and adults. Centered around a fictional high school glee club, Glee manages to pull off the impossible, walking the fine line between wit, sentimentality and laugh-out-loud one liners. John Hughes would be proud to see what he helped inspire.

Matthew Morrison stars as earnest Spanish teacher Will Schuester, who is attempting to revive the school’s glee club to the glory days it once enjoyed when he sang in it as a student at the school. Married to a nagging wife who is looking to keep up with The Joneses, Will is a nice, but broken man. Add to that one case of secret longing for a co-worker who is right for him, and you have a budding romance worth watching.

The cast of misfits who make up the glee club read like the casting of Breakfast Club, and seems a bit unbelievable and clichéd, but somehow the show makes it work. Perhaps because it has a genuine heart beating beneath its cynical (though funny) veneer.

The real star of this show, though, is Jane Lynch, who is perfectly cast as the villain. As cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester, she loathes the attention that Glee is getting and will stop at nothing to shut it down. She is easily offended and quick to castigate. After the glee club performs a rather raunchy version of Salt-n-Pepa’s Push It, she suggests that the kids all be placed in foster homes. Her lines are scene stealers and her character is someone you love to hate.

4. FRINGE (FOX 9 p.m. Thursdays 9/17/09) – No, this isn’t a new show, but it is a return of last year’s surprise hit. Cool, creepy and complex, this X-Files-inspired drama created by J.J. (LOST) Abrams, had all the makings of a show too good for its own good. It doesn’t have a Big Name star, it isn’t easy to follow and it has been bounced around the schedule way too much for a freshman show. Yet, somehow, despite everything, it has found an audience and was picked up for a second season. Last season’s finale was about as awesome and jaw dropping as this kinda’ TV gets. This season, the show seems to be starting off in a perilous spot, opposite NBC’s The Office and Community (and then 30 Rock). Thank God for DVR’s and online viewing. So do yourself a favor and get caught up on season one and be there when season two starts this Thursday.

3. FlashForward (ABC Thursdays 8 p.m. 9/24/09) - ABC is hoping that LOST fans will get hooked early on this drama which centers around a mysterious worldwide event where the world’s population blacks out at the same time for a span of just more than two minutes. During the blackout, some people get glimpses of their future. The show focuses on what the people saw during the “flash forward” and their attempts to understand what happened. The pilot episode is said to have one of the best cliffhangers ever and any show that has an awesome cliffhanger is a show I will watch. While FlashForward has a lot of promise, I am a bit nervous. Typically, shows rich in back story, mystery or mythology (such as ABC’s Nine and NBC’s Journeyman) rarely do well or are given enough time on network TV to find their audiences. Here’s to hoping that LOST fans will tune in and keep it from getting axed.

2. LOST (ABC Thursdays starting in May 2010) - If you’re not already watching the best show on TV, then there’s nothing I can say here to convince you. However, I couldn’t create a top-5 list without including the final season, which should reveal most, though surely not all, of the mysteries surrounding the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.

1. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO Sundays 9/20/09) - If you’re a fan of Seinfeld, yet don’t have any clue what Curb Your Enthusiasm is, you are missing out on The Best Comedy Ever. Larry David, who co-created Seinfeld (and was also the inspiration for the character of George) has mastered the art of “uncomfortable comedy.” Curb captures the idiosyncrasies of people like no other show, save for maybe the UK version of The Office.

Larry plays an amped up neurotic, miserable version of himself and the show is essentially how he gets himself into situations that we all tend to get into from time to time. The mundane becomes sublime in episode after episode.

In Curb’s seventh season (yes, I said seven – do yourself a favor and go get the DVD’s and see what you’ve been missing) David reunites with the Seinfeld gang for a storyline about, what else, but a Seinfeld reunion, which will arc  across several episodes.

Here are some moments from the first six seasons. Warning: Language is not suitable for work, unless you’re a longshoreman or a cop.

Sample Abuser

The Doll

The ‘Stop and Chat‘

The Pants

The House Tour

How to Handle Annoying Bluetooth Guys

How to Prevent Someone From Renting the Office Next to Yours

The “N Word”

Honorable mentions

These are some shows I’m also excited about, but hey, I had to cut the list somewhere.

V (ABC Tuesdays 11/3/09) - Yes, a remake of the 80’s miniseries about lizard-looking aliens who invade Earth. And yes, my inner 12-year old is geeking out in anticipation)

Dexter (Showtime Sundays 9/27/09) - After a hit-and-miss Season 2, Dexter returned to top form last year, in part, thanks to the role played by guest star Jimmy Smits. This show about a cop who is also a serial killer who kills bad guys, returns this month with the much-anticipated fourth season.

What shows are you looking forward to seeing this season?

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Do you find yourself envying some of the Big Name Bloggers with their pretty Web sites, zillions of followers and endless support from bloggers and advertisers alike? You might even find yourself tempted to copy those other blogs, trying to find the same success.

Don’t.

Let’s talk a bit about Jimmy Fallon.

For those that don’t know who Jimmy Fallon is, he’s the 34-year old former Saturday Night Live actor who landed the cushy gig at NBC’s Late Night show after Conan O’Brien inherited Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show. Fallon’s show started this spring with a lot going for it.

NBC pumped tons of money into Late Night and promoted it like crazy. Fallon stuck closely with the irreverent formula created by Conan O’Brien. The production value is top-notch and the guests are among some of today’s hottest actors and musicians. His house band is The Roots, which must have cost NBC some major cash and also ups the coolness ante.

By all reasonable expectations, Fallon should be owning the slot.

Yet, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon is unwatchable.

The problem is the way that Jimmy Fallon comes off onscreen. His delivery is awful, he is entirely too self conscious and he’s not very funny. Which, for a comedian, is kind of a bad thing. Watching Fallon is like watching the last third of hit and miss sketches on Saturday Night Live. Sometimes, it’s good and other times, you hate yourself in the morning.

In short, Fallon, in attempt to mimic Conan’s great show, has created a pale imitation at best.

Despite the big budget, the great lead-in (though that has slipped recently) and despite being the “it show”, Fallon is routinely beaten by CBS’s The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Ferguson, (47) isn’t hip, he doesn’t have eight zillion Twitter followers (hell, he seems to loathe much of the web culture), his budget at CBS is woeful at best – he has no house band and guests are not usually of the top shelf variety. Yet, night after night, he delivers some of the best late night television around.

Why?

Because Ferguson brings something to the table that Fallon, with all NBC’s money and buzz machinery can’t create – genuineness.

You can’t help but like Ferguson, even when his jokes fall flat or his sketches are corny. Why? Because he is original and funny in a way that isn‘t forced or awkward like Fallon’s. He is a natural comedian and at ease with himself, the show and his guests.

Things you can learn from Craig Ferguson to make your blog better

1) Be yourself. Ferguson is by far, the most comfortable talk show host I’ve ever seen on TV. His interviews aren’t filled with the standard formulaic questions that you see on every other show. When he is talking with a guest, it seems more like a genuine conversation, filled with stream-of-thought questions and playful banter. Take for instance, this two-part interview below with actress Zooey Deschanel.Write your posts with an authentic voice, let your personality through.

2) Throw out the cards. Ferguson starts every interview by ripping up his interview cards. Sure, it’s a gimmick, as he could easily have questions on a teleprompter. However, given the questions he asks, he could very well be improvising. Don’t be afraid to change the rules when blogging, deliver the content that other blogs aren’t giving their readers.

3) Turn your limitations into a strength. In addition to working with a limited budget, Ferguson’s hands were further tied in 2008, when producers required him to start each show with a cold open, a two minute segment prior to the monologue. This was done in order to compete with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. Rather than complain about having to find a way to fill two minutes, Ferguson has created what might be the best two minutes on television. When a viewer tunes in, they never know what they will get at the start of the show – a silly dance sketch featuring Ferguson and a leather-clad staffer, a monologue with puppets (yes, puppets) or interactions with the studio audience. We all have constraints, find a creative way to make the most of them.

4) Don’t take yourself too seriously. Perhaps one of the most endearing things about Ferguson is that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. Self effacing humor, done right, allows comedians to poke fun at others all the more convincingly. Don’t let your ego prevent you from being human, making and admitting to mistakes.

5) But know when to be serious. While other late-night talk show hosts were bashing Britney Spears a couple of years ago, Ferguson took the high road and said that he wasn’t comfortable doing comedy which attacked the vulnerable. He then addressed his own alcoholism and thoughts of suicide in a powerful monologue that cuts to the bone.

6) Don’t be afraid to take a position. While Ferguson keeps his politics close to vest, he isn’t afraid to skewer the bullshit surrounding the political process in America and to alienate his audience by delivering the truth – many people are idiots. Blogs that don’t say something offensive (to someone) run the risk of saying nothing.

7) Most importantly, have something to say. When you watch Ferguson, you don’t just get jokes, you get something more meaningful. Take for example his recent monologue in which he attacked our culture which deifies youth. Even though he toned the commentary down with laughs, it still rings true. There’s no reason you can’t deliver content which not only tastes good but also sustains.

So even if you aren’t one of the Big Bloggers, you can still succeed by being yourself, playing to your strengths (and weaknesses) and by being creative. Best of luck!

What blogging tips have you picked up from unlikely sources?

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Does fear hold you back?

What is the one thing holding you back from finishing that book, opening that business or pursuing some creative idea you’ve been sitting on for far too long? If you said, fear, you’re not alone.

Most people are afraid of failing. So afraid, they never really start.

I lived much of my life in fear. I’ve written about some it before, but not really in the area of creativity or career.

During high school, I was miserable. I was fat and for the first two years, had horrible acne. These are two of the worst things you can have going for you during what is supposed to be one of the most social times of your life. I was made fun of and retreated into a cocoon of my own making – spending my time writing, reading and drawing fantastical worlds I one day planned to share with the world.

Soon, though, my real world came tumbling down.

While I did well enough in school, I couldn’t stand to be in classes where I was treated like an outcast. I started skipping several classes a day, electing to go only to those where I didn’t feel like a freak – namely, newspaper and radio. These were the arenas where I was recognized for my talents and not made fun of for being the fat kid.

One day, I got called into the dean’s office where he told me I had been marked absent a total of 60 days, as skipping any class during a day can count towards an absence if you get caught. He wasn’t sure how I was going to graduate, though it was conceivable I could, if I got my crap together. I was given one chance – straighten up or don’t bother returning. How could I tell him the reason I didn’t go to class was because I was fat? How could he possibly understand? More importantly, why should he care? It wasn’t his problem, it was my hurdle to jump.

By the end of the day, I decided to stick it out. After all, I was doing very well in the classes I loved – newspaper and radio. I could easily envision a career in either.

The last period of the day was radio class. I was informed that my teacher had been in a car accident and we would have a substitute for the remainder of the year, a guy who I didn’t know, but who had a reputation for being a jerk. He came up to me and handed me my report card for the semester, telling me that because my Grade Point Average had dipped so low, I would not be allowed to broadcast on the radio until the last semester – if I managed to raise my GPA.

I’d never heard of this ‘rule’ before and saw no reason I should be penalized for work in other classes. After all, I was exceptional at radio and unfailingly gave it my all. He didn’t care to hear my feelings on the matter, though. He told me, rather snidely, to enjoy my last day in the booth.

I was devastated.

I entered the booth and locked the door. I then proceeded to play the songs I wanted to play, tell jokes and essentially burn my bridges to ever being on the school’s station again. The teacher was angry, I didn’t care. I was going out in a blaze of glory.

I didn’t curse or do anything the FCC could fine me for or that would get the school in any trouble. I had more respect for the station than that. I just wanted to piss this guy off. And I succeeded.

When I left the booth, he told me I wouldn’t ever go on the air again. I smiled and said, “You’re right, because I quit.”

And I left school, just like that.

And I have regretted it ever since.

I got my GED, scored in the top one percent of the state, which made the people who knew me scratch their heads even more. They couldn’t understand why someone who was obviously smart enough to do well in school would choose to leave like I did. Nobody understood the fears which I allowed to hold me back.

And over the years, the fears escalated.

Only it wasn’t my weight so much that held me back, but rather my lack of college experience and the dead end job I wasted the next decade at. While I was able to do anything I set my mind to, I didn’t try because I was afraid of failure. I was afraid I would get in over my head.

It wasn’t until my late 20’s when I finally figured out that not trying is worse than failing.

I realized I could do anything I wanted if I was willing to work at it. I landed a business job I was unqualified for on paper but excelled at once given the opportunity. In 2005, I would repeat the process, landing my dream job as a newspaper reporter and editorial cartoonist for my local paper.

Rather than hiding away feeling sorry for myself, I learned to embrace the things that make me different. I realized that while I am still fat, I’m nowhere near as huge as my high school mindset made me believe I was. I learned to cast away the negative filter through which I saw most things and began to see challenges for what they were, opportunities for growth.

I studied my ass off, learned from the best, and poured countless hours into improving my work. I wrote stories that mattered. Stories that people talked about. Stories that effected change.

When the newspaper laid off all its writers last summer, I was devastated. Again.

I allowed fear to creep back into my life and tell me what I could and couldn’t do. Until I met Sean, my partner here at Collective Inkwell.

Sean and I began working together and gelled perfectly. He convinced me to join him in jumping off the bridge and making a go at working together. He reminded me of the self discipline and strengths I’d discovered a few years ago.

My fears held me back from a commitment at first.

What if we can’t do this?

And then I thought about it. Well, I’m already NOT doing it. So, let’s turn the question around.

What if we CAN do this?

It’s taken some time, we busted our collective tails without anything to show for it for a long time. We slowly built up our profiles, learning from the best, bringing our individual strengths to our projects and I’m thrilled to say that this Collective Inkwell experiment is working better than I would have hoped. We have solid work booked with great clients who appreciate what we bring to the table. We are also working on other creative projects, including our first novel, Available Darkness.

Yes, I still feel fear, it’s natural. However, I no longer let it crush my creative spirit. Instead, I use fear to feed it.

How has fear affected your creativity? Your dreams?

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Happy August 20th!

I know, the day might not mean a whole lot to you. However, it was one year ago today when the seeds of possibility for Collective Inkwell were first planted when David and I met via email. We are now five months into our first joint web site and ready to shed the first skin so we can step into another.

Here is Collective Inkwell 2.0, a different focus and a new, lighter, cleaner look.

When we first started Collective Inkwell we had one certain goal: we craved an online space that could serve two masters; to plant a flag in our business while establishing an online workshop where the two of us could work in tandem. We work well together. Our strengths and weaknesses compliment one another’s perfectly, allowing us to work efficiently and creatively in ways it would take far longer to do solo.

At roughly the same time we started dipping our collective quills into the Inkwell, we were also establishing a different, business-minded domain over at Ghostwriter Dad. The two sites were each founded with an opposite approach, allowing us to experiment and run with the one which worked best. Ghostwriter Dad was built as a niche site, quietly bringing in business in the background, dependent on the strength of SEO alone. Collective Inkwell was less business-like, allowing us to reveal a more personal side of our creativity.

The overlords of optimization are a fickle brigade for sure, but at the time of this writing, Ghostwriter Dad shows up on the first page for the search term “ghostwriter.”

This has kept the two of us occupied with a desktop filled with a steady stream of direct response content creation. It makes perfect sense to send all our business there, thus clearing the clouds for a new sky here at the Inkwell.

We have tons of tremendous stuff planned for the site’s immediate future and already know what 3.0 will entail. In the meantime, the main thing we want from the site (for both ourselves and you, our valuable reader) is FUN.

Our calendar is inked with many surprises scheduled across the next couple of months, starting next week with a BIG announcement about the next phase of our overall plan for Available Darkness, as well as the release of a wonderful little piece of personal writing we’ve been working on a while.

If you are one of our readers interested in the business side of things, please subscribe to Ghostwriter Dad and keep in touch with us as our online content creation and marketing skills continue to evolve. If you care to see a sample of our content work, you can check out our potty training help site, Potty Training Power.

Together, we are responsible for 100% of the content, design, marketing and success of the site and its attached product.

Before we go, we’d love to ask you a small favor. Michael Stelzner has opened nominations for his fourth annual Best Writing Blog award. If you love the Inkwell and feel we are deserving of a nod, please head on over and drop your thoughts in the comments. We would really appreciate the support. : > )

While Writer Dad and Blogger Dad capture us as family men and Ghostwriter Dad is us at the office – pure professionals, Collective Inkwell is us as artists and friends, hanging around and talking about those things that inspire us most. And we’re glad to have you here to join us. It wouldn’t be the same without you.

Here’s to clean pages yet to be filled…

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Back before Pixar was populating cinema screens with their unique brand of pixelated perfection, typical animation (including underground and Japanese) could be quite neatly divided between two eras –– before and after Disney. Though Toy Story wore the Disney brand when it splashed into theaters in 1995, it was Pixar who planted the flag in the gee whiz golly wow of an entirely new kind of animation, generated by computer but steeped in the sort of sincerity of spirit that soaks into the soul of any age.

Pixar has released ten films in total, each a massive hit with both critics and box office. Even the weakest (Cars in my opinion) is better than most animated movies intended for an audience with single digit birthdays could ever hope to be. I have loved Pixar since well before I had children, but it isn’t just the movies, it’s the company itself that fascinates me most.

Pixar is my favorite film studio, but they might be my favorite creators of all time. Pixar inspires me to do my best work, and it is easy to watch their films with fresh eyes, each time discovering new things –– like the crash of a symbol in the chorus of a song I’ve sung in my head a thousand times before. Pixar has crafted the perfect marriage of art and commerce to inspire anyone from artist to entrepreneur.

Here are 7 reasons Pixar has come parallel to perfection

1) The Pixar crew are constant learners. There seems to be a direct line between the speed of our emerging technology and our specie’s ability to listen. Sure, we can get email in our pocket, but in many ways it seems we’ve never been more willing to break the speed limit on the way to sudden solutions, instead of taking the time to evaluate our surroundings and realize our true potential. For over 25 years Pixar has constantly asked themselves, what? why? and (most importantly) why not? They have shattered boundaries with every film, leaping light years of learning at every level. Any business would be booming beneath a lucky star to see this sort of growth; any artist would be fortunate to find that sort of creative fuel.

2) Follow your heart. Pixar makes it look easy, but many of there successes should have never worked on paper. Yes, they make it look simple, natural and obvious, but the majority of Pixar deeds were done first by them. Pixar didn’t place near as much weight on practicality as they did on bowing to the grace of their muse. It is impossible to argue with their batting average. Ten for ten is enough to turn any artist, filmmaker or otherwise, ivy green with envy. But Pixar never did it by playing it safe, they did it by playing with fire.

3) Constant teamwork. Pixar takes the idea of teamwork and smuggles it across the border. Of course I have never been inside the Marin County compound, but from everything I’ve ever read or seen, it is easy to harbor the impression that Pixar is a close knit family of friends, neighbors, mentors and apprentices, all reaping the benefit from an environment of solid trust and bonding. There is zero turnover at Pixar.

4) Vision is everything. Pixar has always hacked the edges of new frontier. Each of their shorts built upon the previous until they had finally developed a skill set sharp enough to carve a film. Each film in turn has prodded possibility far past the predicted perimeter. You can look at the Pixar filmography and see a clear line, each film falling right into the next, not in tone or plot or character, but in the playful expectations of what is possible in ninety minutes or so of art in motion.

5) Story and character matter most. In a Pixar flick, story and character are the engines that drive all decisions. Unlike much of the worst Hollywood dreck, Pixar is in the business of building classics. They do not make movies to sell toys, they sell toys because they make brilliant movies. More than one of their films has been taken back to the drawing board and reanimated in service of a superior story, even at the cost of falling far behind schedule and the potential loss of millions of dollars. Perfection is part of Pixar’s key principles. One could perhaps cast an argument against Cars considering Walmart has an entire aisle devoted to their merchandise, well at least you could if the characters weren’t so impossibly charming.

6) Fun, fun, fun. Fun might be an endangered species in business, but not so at Pixar. Pixar loves what they do and it’s obvious in each and every frame they toss upon the screen. There is a reason children and adults can share similar smiles while swimming inside different perspectives. The Pixar team steadily taps into the magic of childhood from inside the mind of adult without ever being condescending. This is a tactic that is often tried in children’s film, but rarely done right. Pixar has rendered it to a science.

7) Overnight success exists only in legend. We all love a good overnight success story, but the truth is – they almost never truly exist. Research most any successful artist or business person and you will find a history flocked with trying times and long, difficult days. It took Pixar a decade to move from Wally B to Toy Story. Without the fervent belief and undying support of Steve Jobs, the fledgling company would have crumbled back when they were bleeding a million dollars a year for five years straight. The Pixar team never gave up, never lost heart, and never surrendered even a single sliver of their dream. They are now running up on three billion dollars in worldwide box office receipts, and that doesn’t even include their unrivaled success on DVD.

I could go on and on about Pixar. At home I often do. This post has me all hopped up and ready to write more. Perhaps I’ll rank my favorites from ten to one next time. Of course, that order seems to change all the time. For now I’m glad Pixar takes me to infinity and beyond.

Collective Inkwell Community Question: Do you have a favorite Pixar movie? Which one is it and why?

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Collaboration has been the highlight of my online experience thus far. Of course I love the actual writing, the meeting of new people, and the building of a new life minus the old limits. Yet none of it compares to the simple pleasures I’ve found in the back and forth of constant, consistent collaboration.

The Inkwell exists because of a ping in my inbox nearly a year ago.

When Dave first contacted me out of the wide blue whatever, it was to to grumble a bit about my having stolen his domain name. For the few of you who haven’t yet heard us ramble on about the story, Dave went to register Writer Dad, hedged, and in the odd synchronicity of a who knows how many minutes, the name fell into my server.

Actually, Dave’s grousing wasn’t grousing at all. Rather, it was the opening act to his compliment. Here’s an excerpt from that first email:

“However, this is not an email to tell you what a jerk you are. From what I’ve seen so far, you’re doing GREAT work on this blog! Your posts are at times touching and inspirational.
As for me, I was forced to find a name which actually might work better with the humorous aspects of the site. So, um… thank you.”

Our connection was instant and collaboration immediate. Dave and I have exchanged more words than I can count: emails, drafts, ideas, pictures, sentence fragments, poems, artwork, (horribly inappropriate punch lines), you name it and it’s been passed between us.

The best collaboration bears the sweetly ripened fruit of blended thought, where one idea falls into the next and takes the seam along with it. Collaboration has crowded our hard drives with ink stained ambition, moving us slow and steady, step by step toward the endlessly exciting unknown.

I am proud of my friendship with Dave and look forward to pulling the most we can from our mutual workspace. I love placing my thoughts against his, not merely because of the creative rewards it welcomes, but because of the potential it holds. As people, we are often imprisoned by the looping patterns of redundant thought. Even the best of us have a difficult time spotting the obvious circles in our reasoning until we are coupled with another and able to stare into the prism of their unique perspective.

Effective collaboration urges us to either color outside our lines or keep the tints tightly restrained within the borders of a different idea. Collaboration is a process not an event; a well of ideas drawn by two or more people combining thought until arriving at the intersection of common vision.

Creativity is stoked by discovery and in a true collaboration the role of leader is constantly in flux. Making a living online is difficult. Too many variables and too much uncertainty can make it even harder. I am thankful for my constant collaboration, where the conclusion of every project sees me with a sharpened skill set and a thicker bond.

Getting going online is hard, but it doesn’t have to be lonely.

The Collective Inkwell Community Question: Has online collaboration helped you achieve your goals or made you feel less lonely?

Sean

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Note: This post serves as a counterpoint to Sean’s Monday post, The Myth of the Tortured Writer.

“There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.” – Maya Angelou

“I am a great artist and I know it. The reason I am great is because of all the suffering I have done.” – Paul Gauguin

Unlike my partner Sean Platt, who practically farts sunshine, I am a bit old school in my writing, in that I wear my misery on my sleeve, dammit.

I am a tortured artist!

In other words, I am brooding, contemplative and insist on working in seclusion. If I didn’t think I’d look silly, I’d probably wear all black all the time because it would certainly match the mental cloud pressing down on me. It’s not that I sit and feel sorry for myself, cut myself while listening to emo music or have thoughts of suicide. It’s a different sort of torture — self torture.

It’s the never quite measuring up to the goals I have set for myself. Never being the writer I wish I could be. Not being able to tell a story to perfection.

And that falling short eats at my soul.

Sean says that writing is not a chore.

I beg to differ. Writing can be a damned difficult chore, though I will admit that it beats the hell out of busting your ass at manual labor or having a monsterous boss hovering over your shoulder berating you every weekday.

I will not say that writing is fun, though. It IS work. Though, when writing fiction, it IS fun in the early stages, when a story is still a blank canvas of possibilities. Oh, how the mind wanders over the expansive plains of fertile imagination! The feeling of turning thoughts into form is amazing, perhaps the closest thing to transcending our mortal limitations that I can imagine.

However, there comes a point when the story becomes limited by the choices you have made, when it is less fluid and it stops being joyous and more like a difficult puzzle which must be solved. During these times, I find it impossible to put down the pen in my mind. While doing routine tasks or interacting with others, my mind is almost always churning, chipping away at the problem, eager to resolve it.

It is during these times that I find myself most craving solitude and least willing to suffer those who would stop my work.

I’ve had many a friend complain that I don’t hang out more. Truth is, I don’t have much time for friends. While I enjoy unplugging and just having fun from time to time, there is work to be done. Art takes time and given that we only have a finite number of years on this planet, I MUST be incredibly selfish with my allotment.

There is a biography about the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein subtitled The Duty of Genius which details Wittgenstein’s belief that those who are geniuses, and he included artists in this category, have a duty, an obligation, to share their gift with the world. That duty supersedes all of their own desires.

I might have subtitled the book The Burden of Genius as many, like Wittgenstein, pursue their duty to the exclusion of living normal lives. This burden has driven many artists to painful existences and could be why so many turn to drugs or other vices. There is an almost mythic romantic quality about the tortured artist which I can relate. In some way, the more an author has suffered for their work, the more their work is seeped with their hopes and dreams.

I’m not so egotistical as to believe I am a genius by any means, though. While I do feel some sense of duty of sharing these stories in me, mostly the motives are selfish.

I see my art, ironically enough, as a way to connect with others. In pushing away those closest to me, I am seeking to strengthen a connection with people I may never meet.

I don’t think that a writer HAS to suffer for their art.

Instead, I think that art attracts people who are antisocial, never quite fit in and feel a need to express themselves via other avenues. I know that’s the case with me, anyway. Perhaps this stems from a need for self validation to prove myself worthy. Perhaps it is the pleasure derived from knowing that my work extends beyond myself, making connections with people I will never know, perhaps even inspiring someone to dream up their own worlds.

So while I am miserable during half the process, there is an immense joy in achieving those connections, even if we never realize them in a tangible way. It is somewhat akin to the pains of raising a child versus the rewards.

So thank you to all those who suffer for their art. You do not suffer in vain.

Are you a tortured writer/artist? Weigh in with your thoughts on the matter in our comments below. Like this post? Please consider tweeting it.

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No, the title isn’t in reference to the criticism of religion but rather that glowing opiate of the masses, television.

I was once a TV junkie. A junkie with good taste, not one of those monosyllabic couch potatoes that considers Jerry Springer ‘Must See TV’. But I was an addict, nonetheless. I had favorite shows for every night, my DVR was packed with more programs than I could watch. My knowledge of the TV schedule was encyclopedic in scope.

Then last year we decided that spending $140 plus a month for internet and cable was too much. We canceled the cable, opting instead for the very minimum offered – local channels for about $15 a month.

And though I never would have suspected it, I hardly miss cable TV. I’ve learned to make do with local broadcast TV, coming to appreciate our local PBS offerings. Though daytime TV is still a barren wasteland all across the dial – especially on the weekends.

Then two weeks ago, something odd happened.

My sister-in-law and her four daughters visited. She is a bit strict in what she allows her kids to watch (in other words, none of the good shows). Since most of the networks are in repeats anyway, I didn’t mind. I simply turned the TV off. And it has hardly come on since.

Yes, I’ve gone nearly two weeks without any TV.

There are times I tuned in to catch Conan or Ferguson on the late night talk shows and I did watch the NBA finals (I am still a man!), but for the most part, my TV screen has been a blank gray square. DVDs I borrowed from the library have even gone unwatched. I’ve simply been busy doing other stuff. I’ve found more time to read and more importantly, more time to create.

You see, I’m usually most creative when I’m bored. For example, I must’ve written 2,000 stories during high school Algebra. Turning off the TV prompts me to fill the silence and void with my own creative energies.

Turning off the TV has:

• given me more time to do constructive things
• inspired my creative brain
• lightened my mood – a constant stream of negative news starts to wear on you after a while

Turning off the TV has been a very liberating experience creatively speaking. I’ll be interested in seeing if this air of newfound freedom continues to blow when the fall season and all my favorite shows return. I suspect that it will because I am enjoying the taste of freedom from the oppressive stream of media.

Community Question: What shackles are restricting your creative freedom? How will you break free?

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