On writing

“But how, if you are neither Zulu warrior nor Aztec maiden, do you prepare yourself, all alone, to enter an extraordinary state on an ordinary morning? — Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

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

"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.

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

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

“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

“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