Comments for Whole words, whole sight

Comment on “Deliberate practice”: What works for golfers can work for writers by RAB

RAB — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:16:32 +0000

Sorry, I could have been more clear. By “deliberate practice” in this context, I mean interesting writing exercises of various sorts. For example, free-writing or fast writing, as espoused by Peter Elbow in “Writing With Power”; writing scenes from different perspectives or in different styles, as in some of John Gardner’s suggested exercises from “The Art of Fiction”; trying a new genre, for example a personal essay if you’ve never written one before; etc.

Comment on “Deliberate practice”: What works for golfers can work for writers by Dino

Dino — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:49:35 +0000

I’m finding it hard to understanding how to apply it to writing. Do you work on the same sentence a thousand times? same paragraph, same story? Some of my best works was when I finished it then the hard drive crashed (or whatever) and I had to do it again. But is that deliberate practice?

Comment on The importance of stupidity in scientific research (and in writing) by uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:55:19 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by DanFerber: The wisdom of stupidity–in science and in writing: http://bit.ly/48ig8R...

Comment on For writing memoirs - to be or not to be a camera? by brentrobison

brentrobison — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:32:40 +0000

Thanks for speaking truth about Augusten
Burroughs. A sharp wit plus a desperate desire for fame do not equal good writing, nor admirable character.

Comment on How to interview an expert: throw away your canned questions, ask for stories by RAB

RAB — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:17:06 +0000

Hi Mr. B! Nice to see you here.

What makes Klein’s idea provocative to me is his notion that very often we don’t explain what we know beyond our self-generated cliches - no matter how motivated we may be. And possibly the more accustomed an expert is to media situations, the worse rather than better they may be at this. In other words, they may be still more likely to “explain” themselves via well-rehearsed summaries which don’t touch what they actually know and actually do.

So if Klein is right, it’s not so much a matter of getting an expert source engaged, as asking the kinds of questions that will get them to examine their own experience in a new way. Example: One of Klein’s favorite questions for experts is to ask them how a novice might have handled the situation in question differently. This may have the effect of forcing them into a new frame of reference.

I won’t really know about this approach till I try it - but anything that gets away from “business as usual” in an interview sounds promising to me.

Comment on How to interview an expert: throw away your canned questions, ask for stories by Carl B

Carl B — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:23:14 +0000

It’s certainly true that most of us tend to talk too much and listen too little when interviewing. The key is to get the person you are interviewing to feel really motivated to take the time and make the effort to tell stories and explain thoughts. Pretty much everyone I am likely to interview is aware of the value of content, so there’s often a value exchange implicit in this. For example, Oprah’s fitness counselor no longer charges her for his insights — just the publicity he gets from the association makes it worthwhile for him. Similarly, most experts will appear on TV news shows as talking heads for free to help sell books/speaking gigs/consulting services and the like.