About the Actual Writing Part
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Highlights
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I believe in editing, or just the influence of a sympathetic reader who is willing to provide honest feedback.
- In the abstract, it’s simply this: static writing advice is dangerous for the same reason that WebMD is dangerous. It fails to see that a patient is not a list of symptoms; your problems in writing are never reducible to “ah, too many commas.”
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(Why write if you’re scared to write lustily and out loud?)
- Write as much as you have to.
- don’t let an older generation lay a curse on you just because they labored underneath it themselves.
- The OK-for-everybody version of that piece gets read once and slips into the memory hole. Which is better?
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And in particular you should revise reflexively and continuously.
- Constant endless iterative change. If I could grant you one gift as a writer it would be a sense of permanent dissatisfaction.
- Cultivate your craft to the best of your ability. It’s all you can ask of yourself.
- appreciation that prose writing is the steady procession of small changes that create an overall impression.
- I think it’s easy to tell yourself that composing social media posts improves your longform writing when it does not;
- Anyway people who are more savvy about the digital networks of 2021 might have better ideas about how to share your work and get comments on it. The most straightforward part is publishing on your website.
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When you figure out the best way and place to share your work, share it. The hard part is getting honest feedback.
- She helped me let go of God in a way that was so gracious and so understanding, not remotely pushy, just a sympathetic ear that affirmed the legitimacy of my feelings as God slipped out of my life like someone quietly leaving a party.
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Of course your life seems pointless; all life is pointless. Of course you can’t find purpose; there is no purpose. And they were correct, and there was a certain kind of cold comfort there, but it still left you wondering why you’d bother to get out of bed in the morning.
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So if you find something you think you’re good at and you enjoy, why not admit that it’s important to you, that you very much do care?
- And what you find that you are, you should embrace. This is corny as hell, but it really is a journey of self-discovery, finding out who you are as a writer. You’ll surprise yourself. And it’s immensely fulfilling if you’re willing to really, unapologetically take it on as your life’s work. So do, and have fun.