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Howdy,

Happy Friday! A huge thank you is in order.

Thank you NASA for the greatest wallpaper images. My computer and phone have never looked better.

Now onto the best of the creative internet...

- Anthony


If this is your first time reading, you're welcome or I'm sorry -- Sign up here if you'll put up with this in your inbox every Friday :)

🎁 What's Inside:


🤳 TikTok Changes
👮‍♀️ Twitter Taking Musk to Court
🏀 Job Opportunity of a Lifetime
⏳  How to Write 30+ Tweets in an Hour
📝 10 Unconventional Tips to Break Writer's Block


And More!
Noteworthy News

TikTok Giving You More Control Over Your For You Page

Will you miss the absolute roller-coaster of emotions it gives you now?

TikTok is rolling out new features to let you filter out hashtags, words and topics you don't want on your For You Page or your Following page.

 The announcement gives 2 examples of use cases:
  • When you finish an at home project, and no longer want DIY advice in your feed.
  • Or when you switch to a plant-based diet and no longer want recipes with meat included.
They also mentioned incoming changes to content with "mature themes" - specifically putting a "maturity rating" on them to help keep them from showing up in younger users feeds.

My Takeaway

The use cases provided are good examples, but of course it reaches further than that into topics that are legitimately harmful to a users experience of the app.

While there's a lot of talk about TikTok being a search engine, and how they are dominating the content landscape. It's still mainly mindless entertainment for most. And giving us more controls to make that experience more enjoyable is always a good thing.

Twitter Taking Elon to Court

You can shitpost your way into a mess, but can you shitpost your way out of a mess?

Elon Musk officially rescinded his $44 Billion offer to buy Twitter.

But Twitter has called no-takesies-backsies on the man whose eyes were bigger than his stock value.

They have sued Elon Musk in the Court of Chancery where they are going to try and force this deal to happen - or at the very least, make him pay the $1 Billion cancellation fee.

This article from NPR provides a good overview of what the Court of Chancery actually is if you were wondering like I was.

My Takeaway

I don't see this going well for Musk. It's fairly clear that him rescinding the offer is due to financials and not just the lack of information Twitter provided on bot accounts.

When this situation was getting started, and Elon was playing his cards it was pretty clear he was going in for a hostile takeover. And that's going to come back to bite him. Some of his Tweets were even included in the lawsuit.
Sticky Notes
Stick these to your monitor. They're worth checking out.
  • The NBA has a job listing up for a TikTok Creator [A DREAM JOB]
  • The Twitter Card Validator makes sure your link previews will look good shared on Twitter [TRY IT]
  • How Alex Llull Writes 30+ Tweets in an Hour [THREAD]
  • A Chrome/Firefox plugin for better bookmarks [TOBY]
Tweet of the Week 👑
Follow Alice
Note to Self...

In Case of Writer's Block, Break Glass

Or try these 10 tricks I use...

A fresh coffee sits on your desk. You close all your extra Chrome tabs, open a Lowfi stream, and then a fresh Google Doc.

Finally amidst hectic schedules, full-time jobs, and families - a quiet moment to write.

But that fresh Google Doc isn't as welcoming as you expected. You stare at it feeling lost. The cursor taunting you, blinking like it's going to disappear forever.

Writer's Block.

No matter what type of content you create, we can almost all relate to the dreadful weight of writer's block. A bad enough bout with it can stick a lot of negativity into a creator's mind.

  • Maybe I'm not as creative as I thought.
  • Maybe I don't have anything valuable to say.
Deep down, you know it's not true. You know you're a great writer. You do have valuable things to say. But that blinking cursor can still feel more like a curse. So how do you break the curse?

There's a ton of advice online about breaking writer's block. Most of it boils down to "Just write." - which is technically good advice. But not very actionable to somebody in the middle of a thought-drought.

More often than not, we're not actually "blocked" - we're simply trying too hard to write something great. When you're stuck you have to release your expectations and lean into exploration. You have to just write, and see where the words take you. You can make it great later.

So here's some actionable steps I use to make "Just write" achievable:

1) Step Away
The first step is the opposite of just write. Take a break. Sleep on it. Sometimes that's all it takes.

2) Ask Questions
If you have a topic in mind, but don't have anything to say about it - ask questions instead. It'll get the gears turning and point you in the right direction, which could be more research.

3) Abandon Full Sentences
Use bullet points and just get the ideas down. Connect the dots later.
Stop expecting soliloquies and paragraphs when you're struggling to even get a word.

4) Make it Stupid
Just be silly and write in a style you would never publish. Loosen up your minds expectation of what your writing is.

5) Copy Something
Literally, find some great writing that you love and copy by hand with pen and paper. Syncing you with what good writing feels like.

6) Write Nonsense Poetry
Remember word webs? Where you start with a word and you make associations into different bubbles. I do that, but in Poetry form. Just stringing words together into nonsense. Sometimes seeing different terms and descriptors together is enough to spark real sentences later.

7) Start With a Memory
Write about the first memory you can think of. Go as long as you can, and enjoy reminiscing about the memory. Include joy in your writing process and it will always feel better.

8) Use Your Voice
Ditch the Google Doc for now, and speak into an app like Otter which will transcribe it. Our mouths work faster than our hands so we can let ideas flow a lot faster verbally.

9) Write A Letter to a Friend
If you have no topic, write a letter to your friend saying hello. If you have a topic you should be writing about, make it a letter to them explaining the topic to them.

10) Draw It
This might just be a me thing. But sometimes when I'm stuck on a piece, I'll sketch what the final version will look like. I do it the most with this very newsletter. Sketch out the headings, bolded text, writing flow - none of the ideas need to be there, but seeing a version of it can almost feel inspiring.

If you save these ideas for a rainy day, they could come in handy. If you feel stuck today, pick one out of the list and give it a shot. Have fun with it.

But if you're dealing with writer's block, the most important piece of advice is to go easy on yourself and be patient.

If you try any of these, message me on Twitter and let me know if they help you as much as they do me!

~ Anthony

Enough InTake. Time to Create.

Use what you learned here, and go create something spectacular.

Find me on Twitter and share your thoughts on this week's issue - or even share your favorite creator tools!

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