writing & storytelling
by Rob Tourtelot · updated 12d ago
writing & storytelling
- FEH, my newest memoir (more details about that soon), began with my wanting to write about the rampant judgementalism and sneering contempt I was seeing all around me. It takes on God, Jesus, Paul Rudd, Nextdoor, social media, Schopenhauer, Wolf Blitzer and Yuval Noah Harari. And even with all those sacred cows, it felt bland... until I decided to ... See more
from Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers
Rob Tourtelot added 12d ago
- The most sacred cows are the ones that are sacred to ourselves.
That’s the catch.
As I got older, I realized that the books that stuck with me for decades where the ones in which the writer held a mirror up to himself - his shame, his self-loathing, his prejudice, his hatred, his fear, his anxiety - all that sacred stuff we don't want to admit we fee... See morefrom Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers
Rob Tourtelot added 12d ago
- Much as working with a piano teacher is not, fundamentally, about learning songs, but about using songs to push yourself; I now think of our projects, not as ends in themselves, but as means to help us improve the underlying process and ourselves. This helps put me in the right frame of mind. I want this essay to turn out well, of course. But the g... See more
from On limitations that hide in your blindspot
Rob Tourtelot added 1mo ago
The audience wants characters (or storytellers) to succeed, but they don’t really want characters to succeed. It’s struggle and strife that make stories great. They want to see their characters ultimately triumph, but they want suffering first. They don’t want anything to be easy.
from Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling by Matthew Dicks
Rob Tourtelot added 1mo ago
If you’re not sure about the level of stakes in your story, simply ask yourself: • Would the audience want to hear my next sentence? • If I stopped speaking right now, would anyone care? • Am I more compelling than video games and pizza and sex at this moment?
from Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling by Matthew Dicks
Rob Tourtelot added 1mo ago
- if I tell exactly the story I’ve set out to tell, I’ve failed. The truer story exists somewhere outside the margins of consciousness. Writing constraints help us discover the truth rather than recite it.
from The One (and Only) Technique That Finally Helped Me Write About Trauma
Rob Tourtelot added 1mo ago
- Writing doesn’t just change the way we understand our lives or the world. It changes us. Sometimes, it saves us.
from Dear Scared to Feel Too Much: Sometimes, Writing Saves Us
Rob Tourtelot added 1mo ago
- The significant story possesses more awareness than the writer writing it. The significant story is always greater than the writer writing it. This is the absurdity, the disorienting truth, the question that is not even a question, this is the koan of writing.
from Joy Williams on Why Writers Write
Rob Tourtelot added 1mo ago
- I don't know if there's a specific thing, but you know it immediately. The minute I start it I know that it's the book I want to fall in love with. And that's the one I keep reading. I will read a hundred pages of something else, but I won't fall in love with it. You have this immediate sense of texture and place, and you're just inside it from the... See more
from Agents & Editors: A Q&A With Four Young Editors
Rob Tourtelot added 1mo ago