On writing
by Lauren Crichton · updated 10h ago
On writing
by Lauren Crichton · updated 10h ago
“While we naturally understand that writing is a good way to share ideas with others, we under-appreciate just how much good writing helps us think about an idea ourselves. Writing is not only a means of communication, it enables us to practice reasoning.”
Farnam St blog
Lauren Crichton added 2mo ago
“I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning
... See moreLauren Crichton added 3mo ago
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
Lauren Crichton added 2mo ago
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.
Lauren Crichton added 1mo ago
“One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark.” — Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Lauren Crichton added 2mo ago
Lauren Crichton added 14d ago
“This is the game we play: The only thing you really know is what you can put into words.”
– Alan Watts
Lauren Crichton added 2mo ago
Lauren Crichton added 3mo ago
Lauren Crichton added 2mo ago
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
... See moreLauren Crichton added 2mo ago