the art of writing
advice from writers, and more on writing
Brie Wolfson and
the art of writing
When used properly, metaphors enhance speech. But correctly dosing the metaphorical spice in the dish of language is no easy task. They ‘must not be far-fetched, or they will be difficult to grasp, nor obvious, or they will have no effect’, as Aristotle already noted nearly 2,500 years ago.
Benjamin Santos Genta • How changing the metaphors we use can change the way we think | Aeon Essays
Creating a collection of my favorite writing is so satisfying. It's like saving links, but I'm saving the objects themselves. There's some physicality to it, more like a bookshelf of sorts.
Crazy to think how this could evolve (1/x)
When I have a problem, and it’s proving difficult to solve, I’ll often go on a walk about it, go talk to a friend about it, go try to solve it again. But when it’s proving intransigent, I’ll go write an essay proving why it just cannot be solved. That almost always fixes it.
Emmett Sheartwitter.comChekhov: “The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.”
Ashley Zhang • Surrender control over your stories
Not just reading a lot, but paying attention to the way the sentences are put together, the clauses are joined, the way the sentences go to make up a paragraph. Exercises as boneheaded as you take a book you really like, you read a page of it three, four times, put it down, and then try to imitate it word for word so that you can feel your own
... See moreTakeaways from Jerry Seinfeld on Tim Ferriss:
To survive in comedy you have to be a writer
“As any writer can tell you it’s 95% re-write”
“I think I could solve just about anyone’s life, I don’t care what you do, with weight training and transcendental meditation” Jerry Seinfeld
“If you could take your experiences and ask to trade them in, the last
Writers serve the public as historians of vibe. What does it feel like to be here, now?