After Game of Thrones sounded the full depths of its creative nadir [https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a27522397/game-of-thrones-finale-plot-holes-twitter-reactions/] in May, society collectively scrambled for its next narrative diversion from the crushing daily grind of surviving the Darkest Timeline [https://community-sitcom.fandom.com/wiki/Darkest_Timeline], i.e. everything

A couple weeks back [https://mavengame.com/2019/05/when-mastery-is-all-the-rage/], I wrote: > Just because we don’t have an obsessive devotion to writing—or any other area of expertise—doesn’t mean we can’t get pretty darn good at doing our jobs. You don’t have to be

Over at Nautilus—which, happily, has secured funding to continue its print edition from a group of well-heeled superfans—Heather Berlin writes about time and the flow state [http://nautil.us/issue/61/coordinates/what-time-feels-like-when-youre-improvising] : > When our minds are under-stimulated, time often feels like it is moving in slow

If you’re looking for the ticket to mastery, I can’t help you. Plenty of books promise to show you how it’s done, but I don’t think mastery is something you can choose. That said, I might have a viable alternative. In Making Things Right: The Simple

I’ve written before about the coffee situation [https://mavengame.com/2019/02/the-coffee-situation/], the notion that, while you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can judge a book publisher by its coffee. Specifically, its availability. Are we here to work or not? These details matter as

First, something quick: If you’re an author, editor, or literary agent, you’ll love this. My friend Mo Bunnell tracks how he spends his time. As a result, he knows exactly how long it took to write and publish his book, soup to nuts. I was involved and I

Why the title? According to Mark Forsyth in The Elements of Eloquence, “adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order.” So, for example, a “lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife” is OK, but move one word out of place and watch out: a bevy of

In At Home, Bill Bryson examines many aspects of domestic life we usually take for granted: > [P]laying idly with the salt and pepper shakers, it occurred to me that I had absolutely no idea why, out of all the spices in the world, we have such an abiding

> Repetition is the only form of permanence that Nature can achieve.George Santayana It’s two in the afternoon on a Thursday as I sit down to write this thing. (Fancying myself a bit of a Montaigne, I call these “essays” but I accept that anything longer than a

The other day, I mentioned a problem to an acquaintance. For the purposes of this story, let’s call my acquaintance Sesquipedalian, “characterized by long words; long-winded.” Pleasingly euphonic, incontrovertibly gender-fluid, and entirely appropriate for the Maven Game. “I can relate,” said Sesquipedalian. “Have you heard of the such-and-such technique?