Zach's PEN #30: Good Signs

2021 Week 7: Writing wrongly, good signs and big news at work, and some more snowbabies...

Dear PENpals,

Shout-outs to all our family and friends in Texas and environs. It's pretty grim down there with people in line for water and I have friends whose families' homes were destroyed, as in, completely destroyed. So devastating.

Love, thoughts, prayers to you all.

This was a great week, because it was a very bad week. Louisa had a wicked fever, there were unexpected snow days, work was jam-packed and stressful… So why was it a great week? Because even in this very bad week, I still continued with all my healthy habits. It has now been more than 60 days straight of writing and exercising, in this case specifically riding the spin bike. I seem to have stumbled upon methods that are working for me, and I don't feel stretched at all. In fact, I feel an increased capacity. The celebration of this if and when I hit 100 days straight will likely be to double-down, not "take a break."

Short Order Update: Customers are officially showing up again. A lot of them. It's been a no good, very bad year for production, and we're wildly lucky to be where we are.

Markee Update: I don't think I ever let the PENpals know, but we closed our fundraising round. We raised $600,000! Our team is kicking ass and it's a real dream to be part of building a software product that I truly believe can make a difference in the world. Our interface redesign and new brand is about to launch and I'm going to be talking a lot about it in the weeks and months to come.

This Week's Posts

I discussed something I wrote wrongly a couple weeks ago and that offended some people I care about.

https://little.zachphillips.blog/2021/02/20/writing-exactly-wrong.html

Zach Phillips @zachphillips

I offended some people I care about with this post from last week. I'm sad because the way they read it was exactly the opposite of how it was intended. This means I wrote it exactly wrong. This may be a problem with publishing every single day that needs adjustment. 👇

Zach Phillips @zachphillips

I’ve spent my life incredulous of people who can state “how they feel” with confidence. I realize now it’s because I never learned to trust, or even pay attention to, my own sensations: physical, emotional, otherwise. MOST PEOPLE I’m feeling XXXXX ME But how do you KNOW? 👇

I wrote about how platforms like Twitter and Facebook not providing the means to italicize writing leads to a less civil world.

https://little.zachphillips.blog/2021/02/19/italics-for-world.html

Zach Phillips @zachphillips

Creative constraints are helpful, but for platforms like Twitter or Facebook not to have italics is constraint run amok. In fact, I think this lack of italics has substantially contributed to the toxic social media environment. No italics leaves you only ONE OPTION. 👇

I wrote about writing a poem for Allison instead of flowers and why I have difficulty with rote rituals (even though I love rituals).

https://little.zachphillips.blog/2021/02/14/poems-and-flowers.html

Zach Phillips @zachphillips

I don’t do enough special things for my wife. I know this isn’t a rare problem, particularly when children are small, but now that I’ve proven to myself that I can write lots of words every day, I can surely at the very least write a poem for her on Valentine’s Day. 👇

I wrote about the problematic lack of constraints that come with being your own client.

https://little.zachphillips.blog/2021/02/15/being-my-own.html

Zach Phillips @zachphillips

I've written thousands of pages of messaging for clients, fighting for what I think will be best for them and finding a place where we're both happy in a reasonable amount of time. Writing messaging for my own thing is so much harder, precisely because it's less constrained. 👇

I wrote about the first ingredient we measure in the Original Recipe™ process, a way that we craft and measure story ideas at Short Order.

https://little.zachphillips.blog/2021/02/16/the-original-recipe.html

Zach Phillips @zachphillips

Today I'll be going into some more detail on the first ingredient of story we measure in the Original Recipe™ process: Purpose You might be surprised how many marketing/video/storytelling endeavors begin without a clear Purpose. 👇

Zach Phillips @zachphillips

Here's how the Original Recipe™ process works: As you evaluate ideas (some do this during brainstorming, most wait until after), assign a number from 1 to 10 for each of these five "Core Ingredients" of effective story: - Purpose - Authenticity - Conflict - Spectacle - Novelty

I wrote about a word that was lost and ruined before it became useful: "multimedia"

https://little.zachphillips.blog/2021/02/17/lost-words-multimedia.html

Zach Phillips @zachphillips

There are many examples of words that are ruined long before they actually become useful to describe something. Today, let's talk about "Multimedia"!!!!! 📽️✍️🎙️🌈..... 👇

I wrote some thinking about how to approach writing characters differently from the way I think about writing the other elements of a story.

https://little.zachphillips.blog/2021/02/18/character-craft.html

Zach Phillips @zachphillips

When writing stories, at least for me (and maybe I'm doing it wrong), I'm usually thinking about concept/theme first, not characters. While the strength of the characters is the most important thing, it's usually not the first thing and this can be tricky to navigate. 👇

Filmmaking in Public

Jason and I got together on Zoom while a few bugs are worked out in Storyboarder's virtual reality environment to discuss the story of our (now) zombie series pilot I mentioned recently.

Spoilers abound. We're literally writing the story.

We mostly discussed main characters and we have a working title for the moment. We're currently using a copout of simply naming the series after the town it takes place in: Junction (a made up town in southern Delaware).

Kiddos in the Snow

Not as pretty as the first one from the big snowstorm, but if it's gonna keep snowing in Philadelphia, I'll probably keep shooting babies in the snow.

Much love PENpals,

Zach