This is a Tech Talk I gave at Big Nerd Ranch on 11/8/13. It's about the issues we all face as writers, artists and developers when faced with the blank canvas. See a full article and video of my presentation here: http://atlantajones.com/blog/blank-page-syndrome

1. BLANK PAGE
SYNDROME
and
HOW TO DEAL WITH IT

2. WHAT ARE YOU
AFRAID OF?

9. BLANK PAGE
SYNDROME:
The inability to begin a
new project due to one
or more barriers, real
or imagined.
These barriers usually
manifest themselves as
an irrational fear of
some kind.

10. WHO DOES IT AFFECT?
WRITERS
ARTISTS
DEVELOPERS
and...
anyone who has ever wanted
to create anything, ever.

11. LET’S TALK ABOUT FEAR
Fear of failure
Fear of success
(yes, this is a thing)
Fear of imperfection
Fear of not being as good as “so-and-so”
Fear of infinite choices
Impostor syndrome
Someone else has already
done it better

12. FEAR OF FAILURE
Failure is normal and,
in fact, necessary
“
“
I have not failed. I've just
found 10,000 ways that
won't work.”
— Thomas Edison
Failure is the
condiment that gives
success its flavor.”
— Truman Capote

13. FEAR OF IMPERFECTION
“I know this won’t turn out perfectly, so why bother?”
“
Creativity is allowing yourself
to make mistakes. Art is
knowing which ones to keep.”
“
— Scott Adams
Have no fear of
perfection -- you'll
never reach it.”
— Salvador Dalí

14. I’LL NEVER BE AS GOOD
insert name here
AS ____________
Never compare your
inside with someone
else’s outside.
“
Comparison is the
death of joy.”
— Mark Twain

15. FEAR OF INFINITE CHOICES

16. SO HOW DO WE
DEAL WITH IT?

17. GENERAL TIPS & TRICKS
Get a change of scenery.
Don’t get hung up on tools, apps, etc.
Set a timer for short, productive bursts.
Apply pressure (deadlines).
Participate in challenges.
Outline and/or mind map.

18. GENERAL TIPS & TRICKS
My mind-map of
this Tech Talk
http://literatureandlatte.com/
scapple.php

19. GENERAL TIPS & TRICKS
Work undistracted
for 25-minute
intervals with
5-minute breaks
in between.
http://pomodorotechnique.com/

20. GENERAL TIPS & TRICKS
my writing nook
Change your location.

21. FOR WRITERS
Start in the middle.
Write the ending first.
Write longhand.
Keep an ongoing list of ideas.
Set attainable daily word count goals.
Commit to something publicly
(ie, finish a short story this month, NaNoWriMo, etc)
READ.

22. FOR WRITERS
Keep a list of ideas
handy. Apps are
great, but index
cards work fine.
http://literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

23. BLOGGER’S BLOCK?
Find a way to put a new spin on a subject.
Solved a hard problem? Blog about it.
Made a huge mistake? Write about
what you learned from it.
Break from predictable formats.

24. FOR ARTISTS & DESIGNERS
Study artists you admire.
Replicate art you love to learn technique.
Participate
(art challenges, drink & draws)
Create for yourself first, not social media.
(DeviantArt, Dribbble, Instagram, Twitter)
Find examples of your hero’s early works
(They once sucked, too)

25. FOR ARTISTS & DESIGNERS
First Penny Arcade comic, 1998

26. FOR ARTISTS & DESIGNERS
Penny Arcade, 2013

27. FOR DEVELOPERS
Don’t get paralyzed over what tools to use.
(Boostrap, Foundation, Backbone, Ember, Angular, Yeoman, Grunt,
Bower, Node, Rails, Django, blah, blah blah)
Don’t agonize over structure.
Code gets cleaned up and optimized over time.
Work on small, short side projects.
“Perfect” is the enemy of “working”
Compartmentalize functionality
(Look at small chunks, not the entire project)

28. ON MOTIVATION
Set attainable daily goals, word counts, etc
Commit to some goal publicly.
Hook up with like-minded creators. Build a network.
Develop a routine.
Remove distractions.
“
This is how you do it:
you sit down at the
keyboard and you put
one word after another
until its done. It's that
easy, and that hard.”
— Neil Gaiman

29. SMALL WINS == LARGER SUCCESS
Write short stories (or blogs) and collect into a
self-published book at the end of the year.
Create proof-of-concepts on Codepen.
Build small plugins and share on Github.
Blog about dev issues you’ve faced
and your solutions.
Sketch every few days and
publish a yearly sketch book collection.

30. SMALL WINS == LARGER SUCCESS
“
Write a short story
every week. It's not
possible to write
52 bad short
stories in a row.”
— Ray Bradbury

31. SO GO MAKE SOMETHING

32. THANK YOU!
ANDREW JONES
aj@bignerdranch.com
@AtlantaJones