On writing

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

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

“One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark.” — Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

“Writing is a tool to reach beyond consensus. Write and write and write until you transcend the cliches and step into undiscovered territory”
— Ava via Sari

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

“I’ve never done morning pages, or speedily written a shitty first draft. I edit my sentences as I write them, like a coward!”
— Haley Nahman, Beyond routines

“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

Anne Lamott, on using writing to open a door:

"There is a door we all want to walk through, and writing can help you find it and open it. Writing can give you what having a baby can give you: it can get you to start paying attention, can help you soften, can wake you up. But publishing won’t do any of those things; you’ll never get in that way."

So

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