writing well

An 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.

some of the best newsletters offer “a particular attitude or perspective, a set of passions and interests, and even an ongoing process of ‘thinking through,’ to which subscribers are invited.”

The root of the word essay comes from the French essayer, meaning “to try.”

Bring them into a world. Give them a reason to stay.

The problem was that I had all these ideas, but the ideas were situations; they were not stories.

Remnick does not dispute her account. “I think I would be happy if Judith Thurman wanted to write next about the National Football League,” he explained to me in an email. “The point is, I love reading her on whatever moves her, and she is a woman of parts, of wide-ranging interests and sensibility, a deep reader of literature, someone with a keen... See more

But as a writer you have to be willing to say, Yeah, that’s not good enough, over and over and over again.

Poetry gives the griever not release from grief but companionship in grief.