Better Writing
The significant story possesses more awareness than the writer writing it. The significant story is always greater than the writer writing it. This is the absurdity, the disorienting truth, the question that is not even a question, this is the koan of writing.
Joy Williams on Why Writers Write
Does apply to all books? Non fiction as well as fiction?
a good story, by definition, has to be smarter than the person who wrote it. Because if it’s less smart, that means the writer wasn’t writing a story but assembling a piece of Ikea furniture. Most of the masterpieces I’ve encountered were smarter than their creators, and often more decent and purely good than them, too.
Etgar Keret • So you think you can tell?
Feels right… but how do you write something smarter than you are? How’s it done?
Karlsson talks about using writing to “unfold” thoughts so that we can examine the path to the conclusions and look for areas where they do not hold up that can either be used to “patch” the mental model or signal it needs to be replaced.
To creatively insult without actually swearing, just use this Shakespearean Insult Kit. Combine one word from each column, & preface it with “Thou”, to create satisfyingly impolite abuse such as “Thou beslubbering, pottle-deep clotpole” https://t.co/qOzOQmsARQ https://t.co/y7XpOPusLs
