Oh, the strange notions we hold about talent and quality. As a kid—if you were lucky—you were encouraged to read a lot of junk. Every week, your parents would take you to the library to fetch a pile of slim paperbacks with shiny, eye-popping covers and curling, thumb-worn

Last week’s essay [http://mavengame.com/2017/02/write-much-much-more/] stoked a bit of an uproar. This reaction surprised me. For once, I didn’t intend to piss anyone off. The gist, if you’re new: quantity is the key contributing factor in commercial success for writers. Not quality, i.

I’ve come to terms with it: commercial success for authors boils down to quantity. That’s it. I wish I could say that talent plays a part, but it doesn’t, guys. It just doesn’t. The writer who wins is the writer who just kept writing. Here’s

(A quick note: The inimitable C.C. Chapman interviewed me about writing and editing for his new podcast, Why I Write—check it out [http://whyiwrite.us/episode-8-david-moldawer/].) I’m bummed, guys. Bummed about blogs. Blogs are dead. “RIP blogging,” for the umpteen millionth time. To be clear, I don’

> If a young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is—that’s advertising. If the young man tells his date she’s intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he’s saying the right things to the right person and that’s marketing. If

> Janine: I bet you like to read a lot, too. > Egon: Print is dead. > Janine: That’s very fascinating to me. I read a lot myself. Some people think I’m too intellectual. > —Ghostbusters (1984) Learn how to learn A quick recommendation: Learning How to Learn

> “Not in the mood? Mood’s a thing for cattle, and love-play, not fighting!” > —Gurney Halleck, Dune (1984) The real challenge is writing when you’re not on fire. Steven Pressfield calls doing this “turning pro.” I call it “time to fire up Netflix with a large bowl

In response to the last Maven Game [http://mavengame.com/2016/11/12/factiness-truthiness-and-baudrillard/] on “factiness,” Marina Krakovsky pointed me to Adam Gopnik’s essay collection Paris to the Moon. Gopnik explains the difference in how Americans and the French see facts. I found it relevant to The Situation. Not

> Luke: “Is the dark side stronger?” Yoda: “No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.” —The Empire Strikes Back (1980) In a post on his personal website about the election—this is not about the election—social media theorist Nathan Jurgenson coins a useful term: > On the right, they

Writing, we’re tapping directly into the unconscious. It’s weird: “you” are up here, above the water. What you need is down there, below the black and rippling surface. You have no idea what’s down there, but you want it anyway. As writers, we’re all just fishing,