Electric Speed is a free newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. | View in browser | Sign up here A note from Jane The last time I bought a new car was in 2003. The process was rushed and not well-considered. This year, my husband and I began thinking about a new car purchase with no urgency attached. For me, it felt like an opportunity to do things right and not repeat 2003. After some weeks of test driving (it was hard to make a...
20 days ago • 6 min read
Electric Speed is a free newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. | View in browser | Sign up here A note from Jane “There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.” —Alain de Botton Some of my new business cards carry this quote on the reverse side. It addresses a frequent question I’m asked: how to balance writing, business, and the rest of life. Maybe I look like I have it all...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Electric Speed is a free newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. | View in browser | Sign up here A note from Jane What fills you with so much liveliness that you want to do the work yourself? James Clear posed this question recently in his newsletter, a question that particularly resonates with me as AI gets used as a shortcut, both good and bad, to getting work done. It’s a question I’m keeping in my back pocket when authors ask...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Electric Speed is a free newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. | View in browser | Sign up here A note from Jane Should you discuss politics on social media or in your newsletter? A year ago, I subscribed to a women’s health newsletter by a doctor who regularly offers comprehensive, educational posts about confusing and complicated health issues—plus analysis of new research, drugs, and supplements on the market. But when my...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Electric Speed is a free newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. | View in browser | Sign up here A note from Jane My mom has smoked all her life, and I’ve always hated the habit. As a kid I used to plead with her to stop and even hid her cigarettes on one occasion. (That did not end well.) Over time, I stopped begrudging her the habit. In fact, during those rare moments when she tried to stop, I felt anxious. She didn’t engage in...
3 months ago • 7 min read
Electric Speed is a free newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. | View in browser | Sign up here A note from Jane What changes in publishing have surprised me? And what hasn’t surprised me? That was one of several great questions asked at my book launch event at the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati last week. Like most people, I vividly remember what I get wrong. So it was easy to talk about that. In the early 2010s, I believed...
3 months ago • 7 min read
Electric Speed is a free newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. | View in browser | Sign up here A note from Jane For years I’ve hung onto the following quote from a Paul Graham essay: “If you do anything well enough, you’ll make it prestigious. Plenty of things we now consider prestigious were anything but at first. Jazz comes to mind—though almost any established art form would do. So just do what you like, and let prestige take...
3 months ago • 6 min read
Electric Speed is a free newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. | View in browser | Sign up here A note from Jane Recently I read an article about why friend breakups hurt so much. In a nutshell: They are a kind of unrecognized grief. That article has been on my mind after a sort-of-similar breakup: My husband and I left our personal trainer of three years to join another gym. It’s not a change we planned on. We weren’t looking for...
4 months ago • 6 min read
Electric Speed is a free newsletter that shares resources for creative people (since 2009!), brought to you by Jane Friedman. | View in browser | Sign up here A note from Jane Every time I make a significant change to my business, there will be someone who reaches out to tell me that I am making a mistake. They aren’t lodging a complaint, but rather expressing concern. It’s tempting to think there is a gendered aspect to this, and maybe there is, but what I see underneath is more interesting...
4 months ago • 6 min read