the art of writing
advice from writers, and more on writing
Brie Wolfson and
the art of writing
When I sit down to write, the meadow is still sunk in darkness, and above it, satellites pass by, one after the other. My thoughts are flighty and shapeless; they morph as I approach them. But when I type, it is as if I pin my thoughts to the table. I can examine them. They feel porous to the touch and crumble. But among the fragments, I discover... See more
Henrik Karlsson • How to Think in Writing
Anne Lamott, on using writing to open a door:
"There is a door we all want to walk through, and writing can help you find it and open it. Writing can give you what having a baby can give you: it can get you to start paying attention, can help you soften, can wake you up. But publishing won’t do any of those things; you’ll never get in that way."
"There is a door we all want to walk through, and writing can help you find it and open it. Writing can give you what having a baby can give you: it can get you to start paying attention, can help you soften, can wake you up. But publishing won’t do any of those things; you’ll never get in that way."
The act of writing forces you to confront the truth in ways that mere thinking does not. As they say: "It's easier to lie to yourself than a blank white page."
You also receive feedback whenever you share ideas, and if it's any good, it points you towards the truth.
nametwitter.comI’ve been teaching creative writing for many years. And teaching writing is a weird thing, because it’s not just about helping students master a subject. It’s really about helping them discover what stories they’re meant to tell, how best to tell those stories, and how to overcome the inhibitions that inevitably arise when we seize the mantle of... See more
Steve Almond Tells Us
Many people assume they are bad at writing because it is hard. This is like assuming you are bad at weightlifting because the weight is heavy.
Writing is useful because it is hard. It's the effort that goes into writing a clear sentence that leads to better thinking.
nametwitter.com
great writing advice. one of my fave Sublime collections I keep private does just this and I call it “phrases”
'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
I think that greatness is best described as “invisibility.” Great writing is invisible. It might take you a minute or two to get into the flow, but once you’re reading it, you’re flowing through it and don’t even realize you are reading words. Your mind is hallucinating the story for you, so seamlessly that it feels like you’re imagining it for... See more
blog.nateliason.com • Great Writing Is Invisible
gabriel and