This morning, we opened Chronicles Volume 1 by Bob Dylan at random and found this…
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Philip Roth on Age, Being Alive, Talent, and What Creative Work is Really Like
We found several illuminating hunks in No Long Writing, Philip Roth Still has Plenty to Say, a New York Times interview with the legendary novelist, who retired from writing several years ago…
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An Intro to ‘Bird by Bird”s Brilliant Instructions on Life
A while ago, Brain Pickings posted on Anne LaMott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, for our money one of all time BEST books about the creative process. Although we’ve written about the book ourselves — including our crazy-favorite quote about being “flanged” — Brain Pickings offers a trove of excerpts that make a fine introduction if you’re…
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seth godin on creatives: ‘there’s only what works for you’
In the course of a year, quite a few people ask me for advice about how to DO what they dream of doing. Many, not all, are writers. The question is not about how to achieve success, but simply how to start and keep going. It is a central question of the creative process. Seth…
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john mcphee on ‘getting going’ and ‘finishing things’
In a recent New Yorker, award-winning journalist and FABULOUS writer John McPhee wrote the best advice we’ve read for aspiring writers, and for just about anyone dealing with a creative ‘block’. The 4th Draft offers plenty of useful chunks and techniques, but our very favorte snipped is an exchange McPhee had with his daugher Jenny, a novelist.
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