Subjective Blog | Useful. The New Black.

I recently piqued the interest of a friend of mine into taking a look at Ruby on Rails, and I wanted to pass on some useful resources to help him get started.

Your First 3 Stops

If you’re looking for a quick introduction, any of these three links will provide you with what you need, in different ways.

Learn Ruby on Rails: the Ultimate Beginner’s Tutorial

Creating a weblog in 15 minutes with Rails 2

Guides

Official Resources

Creating a weblog in 15 minutes with Rails 2

Guides

API Reference

Screencasts

Railscasts

Peepcode

Blogs & Sites

The Buck Blogs Here

Ryan Daigle / Edge Rails

Rail Spikes

Rails for PHP Developers

Articles

Learn Ruby on Rails: the Ultimate Beginner’s Tutorial

Rapid RESTful Rails Apps — No, Really!

Books

Just to let you know, I will get a kick back from Amazon if you buy these books through these links. That said, they’re still great books.

Simply Rails 2

Advanced Rails Recipes

Head First Rails: A learner’s companion to Ruby on Rails

Your disposition is of penultimate importance.

Writing is a craft, like any other. Simply because you can read and write does not in fact make you a writer. Practice, diligence, and respect for the craft will. I’m not suggesting that you need to be as stuffy as the English professors in your head, rather, I’m suggesting that you care about what you say and not spill words upon a page for the sake of it.

Attitude is your most powerful tool. After all, you’re aiming to elicit an attitude adjustment in your readers, so you must set your own attitude accordingly.

“Play it again. This time with feeling!”

Balance

The most important thing to remember though is that you are not your writing. This is a lesson I picked up from Writing Down the Bones, a great resource that my wife introduced me to. It’s easy to become attached to your writing because you put so much care into your words. This is sadly the cause of most creative blocks as well. You’re so hell bent on creating a work of art that you’re incapable of producing anything less, and thus create nothing at all. The truth is, 99% of what you write is going to be worth throwing out, as evidenced by the following quotes:

“Genius is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”
Thomas Alva Edison

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”
Blaise Pascal

Brilliant men of staggering accomplishment agree. Write it, then rewrite it and throw out what you don’t need. If you find yourself in one of those unfortunate blocks, write the shittiest piece of prose you’ve ever conceived. The only cure for constipation is diarrhea.

Overcoming Creative Blocks

One of my friends suffered a enormous creative block that lasted for a long and painful year. He had written a poem that resonated with him in a way that none of his work had before — I read it, it’s that good — and he became crippled any time he tried to write after that. I listened to him tell me his tale of woe, and I told him exactly what I thought: “You’re afraid that you’re not going to live up to your own work.” He agreed, and I suggested that he not try to, and instead, he ought to write terribly on purpose. When I saw him again a while later, he told me that he wrote three poems that week after I gave him my advice.

In the end, what saved him was realizing that he was above his work, his work was not above him. This is true of all creative disciplines, and I’ve used that tactic — create terrible work — to overcome many blocks whether I’m writing or designing.

As a writer your attitude has to be one of diligence in order to persevere through the trials, and tyranny to cull the herd — there is no other way to care about your words.