Comments on: Henry Miller’s Eleven Commandments

By: Texanne

Texanne — Sun, 13 May 2012 20:25:51 +0000

Rules 1, 10, and 11 are most pertinent to me because they are the ones I break. My friend Cat-Gerlach is a writing machine! Her philosophy of work is remarkably like Miller’s. So the plan still works.

Thanks for presenting this. TX

By: A.J.

A.J. — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:54:03 +0000

This first commandment saved me on so many levels. I was thinking of all the things I want to do, but are afraid of and was wondering how I was going to find the time to do it all. Upon reading this, I thought,” Thank God!” I’m so glad I found this site when I did!

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:14:15 +0000

This is too perfect. I have a devotee of Henry Miller since I got to page 6 of Tropic of Cancer and to learn of such a grounded method of creation is so so inspiring. Like you said, his program does not reflect in the work itself and is another nice reminder that beautiful romantic work can come from stable, reasonable artists.

By: Roger Ellman

Roger Ellman — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:56:22 +0000

Wonderful modus operandi. Thank you – this ia a good gift.

By: dagautier

dagautier — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:54:08 +0000

Thanks for these reminders.
focus focus, take a break and focus again. Day after day.

http://dagautier.tumblr.com/post/22281510622/eleven-commandments-to-entrepreneurs-by-henry-miller

By: John H

John H — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:36:43 +0000

What I want to know is how did Hemmingway work with all those cats? Mine get very jealous of the attention I give the keyboard rather than them. They walk over the keys, lie next to me and claw my sleeve and generally make me nervous by jumping up and down and feigning moves in my direction. I’ve been to his house in Key West (you can see it in the Bond movie ‘Licensed to kill’) and most of his cats had extra toes/ claws to paw with!
It’s a mystery.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:52:22 +0000

“Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.” Love this.

Thanks for another great Writing Wednesday! I look forward to them every week!

By: basilis

basilis — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:59:26 +0000

Everyone of us has lived (and most probably continues living) every commandment on his/her skin. I understand every single word of them because I’ve already seen their consequences in my life and writing work.

(Too bad there’s no recipe how to truly keep the correct balance of them when Resistance comes in game!)

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:24:50 +0000

His instruction to “cut the movies!” would be possible for me if I could just find a Betty Ford Clinic for Netflix addicts. There’s so many tv shows I’m hooked on also, but if I want to go pro…

Anyway, though, I like the commandments, especially:

“Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.”

and 5.) “When you can’t create you can work”, which to me would mean, if I can’t think of a new feature for a S/W app I’m working on, I can always “work” on creating scripts that automate my programming work, macros that make coding faster, etc.. and then “creating” could return the next day.

Thanks for another profound Wednesday post, Steven

By: Joe B

Joe B — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:16:22 +0000

Jim Collins calls this a SMaC recipe: A SMaC recipe is a set of durable operating practices that create a replicable and consistent success formula. SMaC stands for specific, methodical, and consistent. Several successful corporations have used SMaC recipes to remain at the top during good times and bad. Thanks for sharing-It works!