Writing
The antidote to envy is one's own work. Always one's own work. Not the thinking about it. Not the assessing of it. But the doing of it… [T]he work itself. It drives the spooks away.
-Bonnie Friedman
The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.
— Robert Hughes, 1996
— Robert Hughes, 1996
Dylan O'Sullivan • Tweet
It reminds me of writing and how I wake up week after week and get stuck on the blank page again and again. How I always despair that I have no more good ideas and, even if I did, not enough eloquence to convey said ideas. But I love it still. I love how writing brings everything to the surface, how it generates and absorbs my attention. How it
... See morein praise of slowing down
When it happens, we feel as if we’ve found a secret, peaceful path to the top of Everest. And when we’re not-writing—figuring out what not to put on paper—we feel as if we’re stuck in a storm, doing nothing at base camp. It feels unproductive. You can almost hear your life passing by.
Gabe Berman • The Complete Bullshit-Free and Totally Tested Writing Guide How to Make Publishers, Agents, Editors & Readers Fall in Love With Your Work
When you’re feeling small, remind yourself this is the artist’s struggle and find comfort in Anna Quindlen’s words: Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbirdand A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel. Except that each writer brings to the table,... See more
Sari Azout • Check your Pulse #49
Marianne Williamson
open.spotify.com
There’s an audience out there that will appreciate your work. Whether that audience is big or small is anyone’s guess, but if you’re chasing numbers, you might not ever find that audience.
But busyness has a way of stealing creativity from you. Generative work, like art and writing, requires long periods of nothingness: it’s only in that wide empty space that ideas emerge. Long runs, hot showers, commutes that don’t involve harried Slack messages and listening to podcasts at 2x speed. Sitting at the edge of a dock, listening to the... See more