Do You Love Me Like I Love You? – my Nick Cave DVD contribution

O children, lift up your voice

I’m delighted to have received confirmation that I’m to appear on the DVD accompanying the reissue of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus album.

I was interviewed by Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth in August 2008, as I blogged here and here. During the interview I spoke about the wonderful O Children – a track that still gives me tingles. Also on the DVD are artists such as Martyn Casey, Dave Gahan, Mick Harvey, Beth Orton, and broadcaster Colin Murray. Having had a preview of the interviews, it’s clear that I’ve lost weight and had a haircut since filming!

The three films that complete the extensive Do You Love Me Like I Love You? series will be premiered at the East End Film Festival on Sunday 1 July, with Nocturama at 3pm, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus at 4pm and Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! at 5pm – all screenings are free and take place at the Vibe Bar at the Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London E1. There’s more info here.

To say I’m chuffed at being able to make a contribution to this DVD is an understatement: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have produced some of my favourite music. The reissue is provisionally scheduled for release on July 31st.

Click on “Nick Cave” in the tag cloud for more Cave-related posts.

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Breathing space – a blog about creativity

Inspiration is unpredictable.

This morning I was leaning into a wardrobe to hang up an item of clothing when an idea popped into my head. I had to dash to the computer to tap out this little gem before it faded. Good job, too, because it’s transformed the short story I’m working on. It wasn’t exactly a bolt from the blue, rather a distillation of several ideas and possibilities I’ve been mulling over. But it certainly highlights something about the creative process.

I used to believe that if I wasn’t sitting down at a computer or with a notepad, staring at the screen with my fingers poised above the keyboard or chewing the top of a pencil, then I wasn’t working. And being the kind of guy I am, I tend to feel guilty when I’m not working. Yet it’s often when I’m not consciously thinking about a project that the most important developments occur, when the subconscious mind has space to do its stuff.

This is something I’ve only recently come to fully appreciate and accept; and it’s a realisation that makes my creative endeavours somewhat less stressful. Sitting down with a pencil and paper/laptop/iPad/[insert your weapon of choice here] and staring through the window are undeniably important aspects of the game, but most good things need time to mature.

So if you’re struggling, just relax. Watch television, play a video game, go for a walk or a bike ride* – and don’t feel guilty. But carry a pencil and a scrap of paper with you. Just in case.

* Both forms of exercise which stimulate blood flow and oxygen intake – just right for boosting creativity.

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Workflow – a blog on effective file management

There are three different aspects to my working life: report editing for my client in London, fiction writing, and blogging. Although the latter two are related, they are distinct in my mind.

For a long time I was unsatisfied with my filing system, which felt somewhat clunky and ineffective. As a result I looked for a solution, something more streamlined and logical.

Diversity

I’ve had a satisfactory workflow in place for some time with regard to the work I do for my London client: emails come in with attachments; I save these files to my Downloads folder; when I’m ready to work on them the files are moved to my Current folder. It’s a simple, linear system.

My own work is different, however. I have a variety of projects in various stages of development at any one time: novels, short stories, radio scripts and blog posts. I also have a lot of material related to my published work, such as manuscripts, PDFs, cover art images, interviews and various other bits and pieces.

Generally this older material is not the problem as I don’t need to access it regularly. As a result this resides only on my iMac’s hard drive and backup disks rather than in Dropbox.

It’s the current work that’s the real issue – pieces I’m actively working on at any given time, at whatever stage. These need to be available on either my iMac or my MacBook Pro, my iPad or phone, and be up to date. I also need to be able to access fiction ideas and blog drafts to consider or tinker with whenever the fancy takes me.

The problem I had was organising these various items in a way that was consistent and came naturally to me. I needed a system that was so intuitive that I didn’t find myself either trying to remember where I’d put a file, or trying to work out where to put it.

Software

I tried several different methods and applications – Things, Evernote, Simplenote, among others – but I seemed to end up with duplicates of files like ideas for short stories: I might make a note of a story idea in Simplenote, then add it to Evernote, then change it in one and forget to remove the other. This is not fault of the applications in question, but really more due to my flawed way of working.

I really thought Evernote would be the answer, with its desktop and iOS apps and online syncing, but the app never really worked for me. Perhaps this is because I operate almost exclusively in text, whether writing or consuming. The app is also rather more complicated than a lightweight text editor.

Old school

I began to think about how I would physically work with documents and projects. It occurred to me that I would not have one large folder into which I put everything: that’s just not the kind of person I am. Instead, I’d have a separate folder for each project.

I was also drawn to the concept of text files, their simplicity and longevity, being compatible with just about every Word processor out there. Think of a text file as a sheet of paper: if I have different ideas, notes, things to think about, I don’t want all of these on a single sheet – I want separate sheets for each so that I can edit, expand and develop in a more effective way, as and when I want to.

Yet while I like my files to be organised, I don’t like to have too many folders: putting items in folders is like putting them away, and if a project or document is “active”, whether I’m actually working on it or it’s simply being considered, I want it to be available at a glance. This makes it convenient, and also acts as a reminder that it’s something I need to think about.

Less is more

After some trial and error I think I’ve found a streamlined solution that works for me:

• General notes, snippets of information and ideas, recipes, miscellaneous stuff like that, I create quickly and easily using nvALT, which syncs the notes as text files to a folder within my WriteRoom folder on Dropbox. I can access these items via nvALT on my Macs, with the application’s fast search function, and via WriteRoom on my iPad and phone. For organisation, if the text in question is an idea for a blog post I’ll name it something like Blog – workflow; if it’s an idea for a story it’ll begin with Development; a note of the process to reset the SMC on my computer, for example, is prepended with Mac. This way, related items are grouped together in a logical and clearly visible way.

• Posts such as this I draft in iA Writer on my Mac or iPad. I then finalise markdown and hyperlinks in Byword for export to HTML, which I then paste into WordPress.

• Fiction ideas are mulled over in WriteRoom, developed in iA Writer, then moved to Scrivener when they become the current work in progress. Until the iOS version of Scrivener is available I can also sync my projects between devices using the “sync with external folder” feature. As well as in Scrivener itself, these files can then be edited or reviewed in WriteRoom or Writer on my iOS devices.

WriteRoom could easily be used on its own for the above processes, but I’m a fan of Writer’s interface and its iCloud syncing. Creation of and searching for text notes in nvALT is quick and easy, and there is a clear chain of development for fiction texts.

This is all far simpler and consistent than my previous attempts at file organisation, increases differentiation, and is much more intuitive for me.

Bingo.

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UPDATE – 27/06/12: I’m now using Brett Terpstra‘s Marked to preview files in Markdown. Marked has a great many output options, including the ability to export to PDF – a feature I’ve already found useful in, for example, creating a cheat sheet for my Keyboard Maestro shortcuts.

Superfluous Software

A recent post by a friend of mine led me to think about those apps on my Mac which are absolutely essential, those I simply could not do without. I had a look through the 70+ applications installed on my system, and came up with the following list:

• Scrivener
• Mail
• Safari
• Word
• Excel
• Dropbox

That’s it. Everything else is a luxury, simply adds convenience, or could be replaced by one of the above or a physical alternative. And much as I hate the appalling Microsoft programs, I have to use them for my day job. Give me an opportunity to ditch them and I will.

There are a few apps that I‘d be reluctant to give up:

• Keyboard Maestro
• iA Writer
• nvALT/Notational Velocity/Simplenote
• Freedom

But while these are useful, they’re by no means essential.

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iA Writer addendum

Writer’s iCloud syncing works even when my Mac’s disconnected from the Internet – something I find rather magical and impressive. Presumably the app syncs to devices on the home network or something.