Reading log: You have the right stuff

Reading log

Reading log is a weekly series of recommended reading. The list will be eclectic, but will generally include longreads, media criticism and freelancing advice.

Since I’m just starting to blog and log my reading, a lot of this might be motivational and just me talking to myself. I hope those reads help you as well.

This series of tweets from Havrilesky, who writes New York Magazine’s Ask Polly column, is a pep talk I think everyone needs to hear once in a while. Her recent podcast with Longform was great too and I definitely want to read more of her work.

And that’s the important thing — move forward. I know too many people who have gone out on a limb and said to the world, “Here, I made this thing” and then gotten really negative feedback and just quit.

  • Sports Illustrated profile of San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard

“He wants the greatness badly. He doesn’t give a damn about the stardom.”

And there has been a lot of good writing about sex work floating around lately. I’ve read more than this, but here are two great pieces.

Doing the verb

General Update

I registered this domain name two years ago.

I revisit it every few months to tweak the appearance of the website but have never put anything substantial on it. I’ve always wanted to get the blog started, but never have. I always get stuck in a planning loop and spend more time trying to optimize the idea of having a blog instead of just putting in the time and writing something.

Researching the work of other journalists, I find myself on their personal pages often. Just having a place to read about their work and experiences, regardless of what it looks like, has been a great resource for me. My favorite personal websites don’t have anything profound in them, just the experiences of someone keeping their head down and doing good work.

noun-vs-verb-color-e1437592660335I recently came across a blog post from Austin Kleon, one my favorite artists who writes about the creative process. He often has good, blunt pieces of advice for people who are stuck and this post has always stuck out to me.

Let go of the thing that you’re trying to be (the noun), and focus on the actual work you need to be doing (the verb).

Doing the verb will take you someplace further and far more interesting than just wanting the noun.

Over the past year or so, I’ve found myself drained from my 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. work and haven’t been doing my 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. work. But from here on out, I’m making a commitment to working on projects that matter to me, even it’s not my paying real job.

On this blog, I’ll share what I’m working on, researching and reading as I learn to become a better journalist. Let’s see what happens.