on writing
by alexi gunner · updated 24d ago
on writing
- If you write to please others, you are selling out. You are in the process of audience capture. This way of talking, which is how the fear in me talks, is common—as if writing for an audience and writing for yourself are at odds with each other. I really used to feel like that.
But I no longer think that it is quite right. The relationship between c... See morefrom Writing as Communion by Henrik Karlsson
alexi gunner added 6mo ago
We are writers, and we never ask one another where we get our ideas; we know we don’t know.
from On Writing by Stephen King
alexi gunner added 2mo ago
- Good writing is meditative writing. It’s a polished and cohesive train of thought, devoid of superfluous babble. If intrusive thoughts make their way into your writing and you neglect to edit them out, your work will suffer. Quality writing does not arise from a stream of consciousness or absent-mindedness. It’s a practice of meditating on a specif... See more
from Attention, Distraction, and Your Responsibility by Jen Hitze
alexi gunner added 6mo ago
- The way to get novelty is to write about topics you've thought about a lot. Then you can use yourself as a proxy for the reader in this department too. Anything you notice that surprises you, who've thought about the topic a lot, will probably also surprise a significant number of readers. And here, as with correctness and importance, you can use t... See more
from Matter
alexi gunner added 6mo ago
- My strategy is loose, then tight. I write the first draft of an essay fast, trying out all kinds of ideas. Then I spend days rewriting it very carefully.
from Matter
alexi gunner added 6mo ago
One of the mirages that resides in many books today, of course, for him and for many of us, is the idea of its author being a “middle class writer.” That appellation seems somewhat fantastical, something borne of secret inheritances and side hustles. Becoming one has become the literary version of the illusory American Dream. It rhymes with the “do
... See morefrom Dirt: Cutting Class by Dirt
alexi gunner added 3mo ago
- People read nonfiction to learn and to feel. My framework for ensuring a blog post accomplishes both is to start with a first draft that focuses on "novel" ideas.
A novel idea is one that's not just new to the reader, but also significant and not easily intuited. Think of it as new and worthwhile . I've identified five categories:- Counter-intuitive —
from What to Write About
alexi gunner added 24d ago
- cafes really should have a ‘newsletter of the week’ noticeboard because half the people in them are probably writing substacks
from olivia rafferty on Substack
alexi gunner added 3mo ago
Sometimes writers sit down and it's all pouring out of them. Each word - exactly the right one - is just sitting there, juicy and bursting with potential, easily within reach on a nearby branch. Every idea flows naturally from the last and in an order which provides a neat crystalline structure to the whole endeavour.
from How to Write by Ian Dunt
alexi gunner added 6mo ago