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    Cover of Uncreative writing

    Uncreative writing

    Kenneth Goldsmith, Robert C. Cottrell · 2011

    Writing & LanguageFiction & Literature
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    2recommend
    3mentions
    2people
    2014–2023years
    67% recommend33% neutral

    Mentions per year

    2014201520162017201820192020202120222023

    What Hacker News says

    1. martttJun 2019
      +1, This has been my favorite technique as well.

      Also, I would higly recommend experimental poet Kenneth Goldsmith's [1] book "Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age" for those struggling with writer's block. In the context of this discussion one could say that his entire art deals with issues of writer's block very closely (e.g. he has "Soliloquy", a 800-page book consisting of every word he spoke during a week, etc).

      A passage from "Uncreative Writing":

      "There’s one solution that each and every book on writer’s block offers: write five words. Any five words. Follow this advice, Mr. Ashbery, and you’ll never have writer’s block again."

      [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Goldsmith; see also Ubuweb, the massive avant-gart art catalogue he curates, at http://www.ubu.com.

      thread
    2. jaredmcdonaldOct 2014
      Kenny Goldsmith [0], the guy who teaches this class, has done a lot of thinking about internet-based poetics... highly recommend his book "Uncreative Writing"[1] for those interested

      [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Goldsmith

      [1] http://www.amazon.com/Uncreative-Writing-Managing-Language-D...

      thread
    3. martttJan 2023
      "There’s one solution that each and every book on writer’s block offers: write five words. Any five words. Follow this advice, Mr. Ashbery, and you’ll never have writer’s block again."

      (From "Uncreative writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age" by conceptual poet and "word processor" Kenneth Goldsmith)

      Edit: Oh, this historical paper is slightly different angle, but also relevant, helped me quite a bit:

      Upper, Dennis. "The unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of “writer's block”." Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 7.3 (1974): 497. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1311997/pdf/jab...

      thread

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