writing well
“Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.”
It's Hard to Stand Still in Paris, or Some Notes on Miles Davis - Tin House
The root of the word essay comes from the French essayer, meaning “to try.”
Why Everyone Can (and Should) Be a Great Storyteller | Figma Blog
Friction eroded poor execution and clumsy ideas until something simpler and more elegant was revealed.
Just a moment...
But as a writer you have to be willing to say, Yeah, that’s not good enough, over and over and over again.
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
He said that what’s wonderful about poetry is that it tells you things that you’ve already known.
Durga Chew-Bose of Too Much and Not the Mood — passerby magazine
When you write online, there are strong incentives to write prose that is tightly packed with insights and fastmoving and a little intense—to catch and hold attention. That can feel limiting. I wonder what is the slowest, calmest piece I could write that would still work?
Henrik Karlssonsubstack.comAn essay is not the process of translating a fully-formed idea into words on a page; it is the process of discovering and testing an idea by challenging it with form, syntax, structure.
Rayne Fisher-Quann • Choosing to Walk
Bring them into a world. Give them a reason to stay.
Rachel Karten • How to Write Better Captions
I think we’ve all had that experience of reading a book or story and an author includes such an odd, beautiful, specific detail that it makes the whole scene come to life and feel indisputably real. Sometimes these details occur magically to us as writers, like little gifts.