Idea #14: Create a Writing Contest Even Though I Don't Run a Literary Journal

Description
The past couple years I've periodically submitted about a half dozen stories to a number of writing contests, paying submission fees that range from $2-20. And each time I wonder: what a great scheme! All these writers desperate for exposure, hoping to at least land on the Honorable Mention list, or even get a cash prize. Many of these contests also end up extending their deadlines, convincing more writers to submit their work - for a slightly raised fee.

Not that I think it's a scam. They do pay out the prizes, as far as I know. These fledgling literary journals or magazines need the cash flow - not  lot of people paying for thick books of short stories, poems, and essays these days. While there are more websites presenting magazines and journals in a more well-designed manner, like Issuu.com (looking through Writer's Market's list of publications, there's a lot of publications out there who haven't even updated their websites since the 1990's), but it's not certain that the Internet won't eventually destroy literary journals willing to pay writers for their work. The only ones that really provide exposure are the university-subsidized ones put out by the Creative Writing Department staff and students.

Would-be writers have always been suckers, though. Just desperate to get their name out there, they fork over a lot of money for books and seminars and webinars promising to make them good enough at the craft to be published the next day. Scroll through Writer's Market's website and look at the prices for some of these products - hundreds of dollars, many charging over $500, for something that could be learned in a library book.

I could probably run a contest, send each of the winners one of the ten copies I printed just for them and pocket the rest of the submission fees.

Steps
1) Create a slick literary website with a bunch of my own work under pseudonyms.
2) Hire a printer to produce a few copies for those who actually request one (and pay for it).
3) Start advertising a contest in Writer's Market or any of the other Writer's-whatever publications. Charge a modest fee a promise a cash prize for first and second place winners.
4) Wait for the submissions to roll in. Enjoy perusing peoples' work and select my favorites.
5) Announce the winners and send them a check along with a hard-copy of the publication. Although, it's not really necessary to send a hard-copy; this just adds to the legitimacy factor.

Enthusiasm: None. I actually don't care to do this. Sure I could, but it would probably only be a little less work than running and actual literary journal, with the added guilt of suckering would be writers like myself.

Practicality: As practical as creating a website and advertising on key writer's advice websites.

Difficulty: Technically speaking, not that difficult. Morally speaking - that depends on you.

Idea #13: Create a blog to write about the elusive nature of free will

Description
I started studying neuroscience as a hobby a few years ago, when I stumbled on an old textbook from 1996 while browsing through a thrift shop in some small town in Idaho on a roadtrip. Since I made my way through that, I've read up on a lot of the latest research in psychology, behavioral science, and neurology.

The more I learned about the way the brain and body respond to external stimuli, the more I learned that people have overestimated the role of "free will." Many people don't understand the extent to which humans' behavior is governed by automatic processes: subconscious processes, emotional reactions, stress-coping mechanisms, and learned habits.

"Lövheim cube of emotion" by Lyhord - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons -

There's been a wave of popular science books lately delving into these concepts, such as Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, Jonah Lehrer's similar pop-psychology books, and Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit. And while these books touch on the nature of neurology and free will, they still don't dive into the scientific nature of free will directly. I figure it could make a good blog - every week I could examine a new aspect of behavioral science and psychology, focusing on the quirks in the complex organic machinery known as the brain.

Steps
1) Write some essays, a series of five or six blog posts that lead into each other.
2) Create a new site, maybe with WordPress this time (sorry Blogger, but it's just easier to customize).
3) Start rolling out the posts on a weekly basis.

Enthusiasm: I've been thinking about this for a few weeks, developing the essay ideas in my head, and started drafting the first two today.

Practicality: Like any blog, not to hard to create, but sitting down and writing is hard. Now that my job has started to calm down after the summer I might have time to sit down and write.

Difficulty: Easy to start, hard to continue. Keeping up with a blog is hard! Maybe I could just submit the essays as nonfiction to literary journals. But with a blog I could develop a series.

Idea #4: Apprendre le Français en 15 Minutes Tous les Jours

Description
I studied German in high school, Russian in college and grad school, and Spanish off and on over the years with a few books here and a few classes there. What's one more language? Here's the idea for those who do not know enough French already to read the title of this post: learn French in 15 minutes a day.

Granted, I can't speak any of these languages fluently at the moment as I am out of practice (especially my German, which I've barely touched since senior year in '99). Not long ago I heard an interview on NPR with the author of Babel No More, Michael Erard, who talked about "hyperpolyglots" he wrote about - people who have learned dozens of languages. There was another author on the show who talked about people who picked up multiple musical instruments over their lifetimes - the similarity between musical instruments and languages being that there is an underlying structure to the sounds used. Erard talked about learners of multiple languages or instruments seeming to have "plasticity," or the flexibility and desire to focus on learning new things. I also remember hearing somewhere about a person who studied multiple languages at a time by only studying each language 15 minutes at a time, then moving on to something else for the rest of the day. It's sort of a tortoise vs. hare approach.

And some might think: It's not possible to learn a language without a teacher. Actually, many of the languages these polyglots picked up are self-taught. Now, the degree to which they actually could use the language may very, but a teacher is not required so long as their is practice and the ability to learn from mistakes. I learned that from reading the blog of Tim Ferriss, whose opinion is that classes are more like training wheels - the sooner they come off and you start practicing for reals, the better.

Diligently studying French in the Metro

So I thought, how about I just start learning French? I've always wanted to, so how about I start with a book on my 20 minute metro rides to work?


Steps
1) Purchase a decent book that teaches French.
2) Spend 15-30 minutes each day studying the underlying grammar, and most-needed vocabulary, listening to the CD that comes with the book for pronunciation.
3) Improve on the basic French ability: Read blogs or Twitter feeds from French speakers to get a beeter sense of common French usage. Watch TV shows and movies in French.
4) Practice: write sentences in French. Have short conversations with French speakers. 

Originality: Doesn't everyone say they want to learn a language? Buy a few tapes, go to some classes, and then before long it's dropped and the tapes and books collect dust on the shelf. In fact, I've got those for Mandarin Chinese and Philippines Tagalog on my shelf.

Enthusiam: So far I've kept it up for a couple months. But I've also been thinking of doing this for years - now is just when I seized the initiative.

Practicality:  The key here is that I also studied other languages. That means I have already learned three things that first-time language learners (or rather, first time second language learners) have to figure out:
1) How a language is structured; i.e. the basic grammatical concepts of any language;
2) How to go about learning a language: listening for proper pronunciation, common words to study, etc.; and
3) What works best for me: Flashcards, grammar books, writing practice sentences, and (when I can bring myself to) speaking with others.

Difficulty: Learning a lnaguage to any point of actual proficiency is hard - it takes a lot of time and practice. Sure I can learn French - the question is rather "how well?"