the art of writing
advice from writers, and more on writing
Brie Wolfson and
the art of writing
You might experience this as a writer, where it’s doing you instead of you doing it. That’s the sweet spot, isn’t it? […] You’ve got to let the ego just go sit on the bench, and just hear what wants to be done through you…. See what wants to be born…. You’re not doing it, it’s doing you.”
Jeff Bridges is digging it.
In my experience, there is no such thing as “clerical work” in writing: the donkey work is crucial to the process, as is having to sort through the mess of the draft — that’s the art of self-editing, and it’s the art of finding what you didn’t know you were looking for
'In my experience,' he told me, 'if you run away from a thing just because you don't like it, you don't like what you find either. Now, running to a thing, that's a different matter,
John Wyndham - The Chrysalids
There’s a quote I like from Theodor Adorno, who said, “for a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes place to live." While I’ve never been a refugee, I still feel that quote really strongly, as someone who’s never quite felt fully at home in most of my ordinary life– always a bit of an alien, always an outsider, always a minority, always ... See more
Notes versus Posts
Because right now there is someone
Out there with
a wound in the exact shape
of your words.
Out there with
a wound in the exact shape
of your words.
Sean Thomas Dougherty • “Why Bother” by Sean Thomas Dougherty
why bother to write?
I think of writing a lot like walking. It’s rarely the most popular, the most effective, or the most efficient way of getting to your destination. I don’t always want to do it, and it’s not always technically enjoyable; sometimes it’s boring or slow, sometimes it’s tiring and pointless, sometimes it’s cold or wet or windy and I’m retracing the same... See more
rayne fisher-quann • Choosing to walk
“Most of all: the point is to aim for writing that enhances your feeling of aliveness, that lets you refine your thoughts about what matters, lets you experience with more nuance what you care about, lets you enrichen the texture of your mind.”
-Henrik Karlsson
It is the stuff about you that is odd that is interesting. So, don’t think to much about how you are supposed to do it, or what the genre convetions are. Just try to amuse yourself.
Another way to phrase it: the best writing tend to be when you surrender to your nature. This is hard to do!
Here is a classic pattern: you try really hard to do somethin
... See more