the art of writing

“Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.”

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.

Language can never capture the full human experience, but that's what makes writing so much fun. It's a game: how much of the human experience can I capture with words? The delight is in surprising yourself and realizing it's more than you think.

Whenever I have a bad writing day, I take a peek at Kafka's diary.

Read to collect the dots, write to connect them