the why in writing
A writer’s greatest responsibility is to his readers, to keep providing them with the best work that he is capable of turning out.
Haruki Murakami • Novelist as a Vocation
Metamorphic words…attempt to change the author in unpredictable ways, which you can think of as an intrinsic reward of sorts…If you don’t like, or are bored with, who you are right now, whether as a writer, or more generally as a person, you can write yourself into an unpredictable new version. It’s a kind of disruptive self-authorship lottery.
Writing is a great way to excavate an emotional reaction and find the why behind it.
Allison Fallon • The Power of Writing It Down: A Simple Habit to Unlock Your Brain and Reimagine Your Life
Writing is a generosity, even to yourself.
Kurt Vonnegut • Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style
“It doesn’t matter if it’s good right now, it just needs to exist.”
First drafts - Austin Kleon
Poetic Outlaws on Substack
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All novels, short stories, and plays, and most poems, are about human transformation. The subject of the novel is the human spirit and psyche—how the characters interact in their relationships with other souls and with the world in general.