On writing

"That for which we find words is something that is already dead in our hearts. There is always a kind of contempt in the act of speaking."
— Nietzche

I disagree with this.

“I want to do a different thing. I want to actually improve over time. I want to develop my own takes. I want to understand everything. And this is how the podcast improves over the long run too - by me becoming smarter and learning more shit. That is the underlying beta. Everything else is a temporary benefit at best (and more often, a total

Every time I cut something, I'll never delete it. I just copy and paste it under a line at the bottom of the document. That's how I know I'm making progress – the graveyard gets larger and larger and the only things that are left alive are the things I didn't think I should kill.

— Adam Mastroianni

Write it down

"Most good material is forgotten. Write down the funniest or most interesting thing that happens to you each day. Most days will be boring, but if you write something each day, then you'll have 5 to 10 entertaining stories within a year or two. People are sitting on more funny stories than they realize because they do not have a habit

Why essays spread

“Every article has thrust and drag. The thrust of a piece is what motivates readers to invest the energy necessary to extract its meaning. It is the reason they click. Drag is everything that makes the reader’s task harder, such as meandering intros, convoluted sentences, abstruse locution and even little things like a missing Oxfo

Ellen Fishbein consulting Matt Lerner on his manuscript:

“Matt, you’re a good writer, but this is not a good book.”

Ouch.
 

“It doesn’t have a thesis.”

A thesis?

“Every great nonfiction book,” she explained, “presents a focused thesis.” For example: 

The Black Swan - Individual outlier events are rare, but collectively, they occur oft

“This is the game we play: The only thing you really know is what you can put into words.”

– Alan Watts

“After writing and recording an album, I allow myself a large and ever-increasingly long exhale. But leading up to the process, I tend to get consumed by a theme that carries me through to the writing - I know when it’s happening now because it feels like picking up breadcrumbs; one book leads to another, or I feel called to travel or learn somethi

Peanut Butter

By Eileen Myles

I am always hungry

& wanting to have

sex. This is a fact.

If you get right

down to it the new

unprocessed peanut

butter is no damn

good & you should

buy it in a jar as

always in the

largest supermarket

you know. And

I am an enemy

of change, as

you know. All

the things I

embrace as new

are in

fact old things,

re-released: swimming,

t

Alicia Kennedy on writing for speaking instead of reading:

“This voice, simply put, is a bit more leaden than my writing-for-reading voice. I don’t have access to all my tools: Sentences need to be short and to the point, as opposed to my usual long, somewhat convoluted (but hopefully artful), highly punctuated tendencies. (I did recently receive an