the art of writing
advice from writers, and more on writing
Brie Wolfson and
the art of writing
Handwriting, compared to typing, results in more complex brain connectivity patterns, enhancing learning and memory. This study used EEG data from 36 students to compare brain activity while writing by hand and typing.
Handwriting, whether in cursive on a touchscreen or traditional pen and paper, activated extensive brain regions, vital for memory... See more
Handwriting, whether in cursive on a touchscreen or traditional pen and paper, activated extensive brain regions, vital for memory... See more
Neuroscience News • Handwriting Boosts Brain Connectivity and Learning - Neuroscience News
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
... See moreWriting online gives you access to near infinite leverage. But writing also forces you to find stillness and face your own inner world. It teaches you to accept that you are but one voice in the world’s choir. It teaches acceptance and equanimity in the face of temporary defeat.
There’s also something to be said about collating and curating in the slow writing process—facts, knowledge, smells, descriptions, stories, passport stamps, headlines—until the collection becomes part of the transformation process. Through acute and critical attention, away from the drive of production, toward the singularity of studying a branch,... See more
Melissa Matthewson • A Revolution in Creativity: On Slow Writing
The one practice I kept was writing. It made the cut because I can’t deny how many good things in my life have come as a result of my putting words out into the world. It also felt like a respite: one area where I wasn’t skeptical of my identity. I’m at my most courageous on the page because interrogating my feelings with words feels justified and
... See moreMolly Mielke • (self) concept
247 You will know that you’re done with something when you can’t imagine making it better. For some writers that’s a state of exhilaration: They’ve done everything they can. This beautiful accomplishment! Nothing can improve it. Others of us arrive at the same place, despondent: This ramshackle thing. I’ve reached the end of my powers. Nothing can
... See moreElizabeth McCracken • A Long Game
I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I write.
Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are:
(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be... See more
(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be... See more
Animal Farm • Why I Write | the Orwell Foundation
i can’t believe this is the first time i read this.