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
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.
Here are some other techniques people use to access and maintain the zone:
- Introducing a long delay between when you do the work and when it is shown to the world. Annie Ernaux writes about this in A Simple Passion, a memoir about how she becomes obsessed in a banal way with a man who is having an affair with her—the thought that others will read
Substack • Notes | Substack
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
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
... See moreINTERVIEWER:
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
Marianne Williamson
open.spotify.comAuthor 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... See more
“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... See more