Writing

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

But for me, as a person for whom narrow focus is against my instincts, the most remarkable thing about it is how rich it feels. My life these days is small and boring. I bicycle across the same fields every day, I notice how the wind turbines turn to face the wind, I rarely travel, and I spend my spare time staring at a Word document. Annie Dillard... See more

Henrik Karlsson • Almost Everyone I’ve Met Would Be Well-Served Thinking More About What to Focus On

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, i... See more

Sari Azout • Check your Pulse #49

Author and writing instructor Natalie Goldberg on how to improve your writing (or anything else):

“In order to improve your writing, you have to practice just like any other sport. But don’t be dutiful and make it into a blind routine. “Yes, I have written an hour today and I wrote an hour yesterday and an hour the day before.” Don’t just put in you... See more

3-2-1: On progress, friendship, and how to improve your 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

First, take a few deep breaths into your belly. No work of genius can come from shallow breathing. Secondly, set your intention to receive and you will. I promise you will. Trust these two steps as you trust yourself when you’re in love.

Gabe Berman • The Complete Bullshit-Free and Totally Tested Writing Guide How to Make Publishers, Agents, Editors & Readers Fall in Love With Your Work

INTERVIEWER:
Do you find emotional stability is necessary in order to write? Or can you get to work whatever your state of mind? Is your mood reflected in what you write? How do you describe that perfect state in which you can write from early morning into the afternoon?
OATES:
One must be pitiless about this matter of “mood.” In a sense, the writing

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.