Showing posts with label Warren Ellis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warren Ellis. Show all posts

Monday, April 03, 2017

Stop Second Guessing Yourself And Do


If you aren't subscribing to Warren Ellis' newsletter, you should be even if you aren't a comics fan.

In the latest issue he drops a bit of wisdom that I think is of use to anyone creative:
Someone on Tumblr asked me the following question:
Once you've figured out that you're secretly always telling the same story, in one shape or another - how do you get around that? When you get tired of your own moves, however hermetically sealed they might look to a reader outside your head?
And here's my answer:
I’m sure any number of reviewers will tell you that in my case it’s not much of a secret
You’re spending too much time thinking about what other people might think and too much time second-guessing yourself. Go where your energy is, and when you come to a point where you need to make a story choice, go with the less comfortable one. It’s only time and paper.  Ride the wrong way for a while and see what happens.
 Don't second guess yourself, just create.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Getting Some Privacy Online


This comes from Warren Ellis, in the latest issue of his newsletter Orbital Operations, a couple of suggestions for privatizing your online persona in the coming years.
If you have access to a Windows machine, there's an excellent Twitter archive eraser called Twitter Archive Eraser, haha.  All you have to do is request your archive from Twitter, install Eraser and feed your archive to the machine. I mean, if you don't want to delete your Twitter account entirely, which I totally understand, but.
(You may want to do something with your LinkedIn account for similar reasons.)
Also, iMessage and WhatsApp are okay, but get Signal. If you're going to organise, try to form IRL spaces and try not to use Facebook right now.
Keep an eye on Safecast - as they build out their systems, their open environmental data may prove very useful in the coming years.
You may want to consider private newsletters - Tinyletter is a very good free option if you intend to speak to less than a few thousand people - and, despite being Facebook-owned, a private Instagram account may be better for you than a public one right now.
To the fine human beings whose politics lean to the right - do not assume these are suggestions purely for the weeping lefties, or that I believe they only apply now that the UK and US are under far-right governments. They applied before. I used many of them before.
If you are a fan of Ellis' work and you aren't a subscriber to his newsletter, give it a chance.

And remember, having a measure of privacy is always a good thing, no matter what sort of politics that you hold. The idea that having anonymous accounts means privacy isn't a good idea.


Sunday, January 31, 2016

Warren Ellis' Recommended Podcast List


The one who writes comics and novels.

I'm not one for podcasts myself, I should probably give them another try...but I'm just built for them apparently. I always see people who are looking for new podcasts, however, so here are some on a variety of subjects.

I copy/pasted this from his mailing list, so the links look wonky because of that.

The annotations on "type" are by Warren Ellis, not myself. I don't know what you will find at the other ends of these links.

All of these are reasonably current, as I recently swept out the podcasts that appeared to be dead.  I use the Downcast app for iOS to manage my podcasts.  The app can sync between different instances - I have Downcast on my iPhone and my iPad, and each instance will update to reflect what's been listened to on either device.