As Books Editors, we set aside more designated reading time than most people do. Still, even we are daunted by copies of The Goldfinch looming on our desks.
Incidentally, some of my favorite books of all time are on this list–Chopin’s The Awakening, James’ Turn of the Screw, Wharton’s Ethan Frome. It’s probably because when books are shorter like this, they read more like short stories, and that appeals to me? I dunno, but check it out!
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#lit #link #article #edith wharton #henry james #kate chopin #gatsby #huffpoThrowback thursday to when I was like 12 and I was putting out new writing DAILY...... Like entire Chapters of my then-current wips just, over an afternoon. What the fuck was I on
Nobody:
Me, age 12, just started drinking coffee:
I drew 14 pictures during the day, and wrote 32 pages a night. Now I can’t do shit.
A huge part of this is because you've gotten better! And now, when you're drawing/writing/doing whatever creative task, you're not just mindlessly throwing thoughts at your paper, you're thinking as you do it. Children can churn out a lot more work because it's not yet refined, but when you're older and have more practice, you work with all these thoughts running through your head about form and shape, color palettes or word choice. Now, you're making a dozen decisions with every moment of work, and you're also questioning the decisions you've just made, wondering if you can do it better. Don't beat yourself up about producing less work now than you did back then, because every sentence or shape involves a lot more effort for you now, than it did when you were ten and brand new to this hobby.
Also you have a job now and the never-ending bullshit that is laundry and dishes and feeding yourself.
I feel like some people need to relearn Genre Expectations... "Man, this tragedy sucks!!! Why didn't they just do XYZ, then everything could have ended happily!!" well, then it wouldn't be a tragedy, would it. "Man, this lighthearted teen romcom is terrible, it's so sappy and unrealistic!!" Well, yeah. If it had been gritty and dark, it wouldn't have been a lighthearted romcom, would it. Is the writing actually bad or are you just trying to order a milkshake from a Home Depot
Some people got so deep into the deconstruction media phase that they don't like anything normally constructed any more.
Jane Austen really said ‘I respect the “I can fix him” movement but that’s just not me. He’ll fix himself if knows what’s good for him’ and that’s why her works are still calling the shots today.
Meanwhile Emily Brönte just said “We can make each other worse.”
Mary Shelley said, "I can make him
look, I know I've talked about this essay (?) before but like,
If you ever needed a good demonstration of the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", have I got an exercise for you.
Somebody made a small article explaining the basics of atomic theory but it's written in Anglish. Anglish is basically a made-up version of English where they remove any elements (words, prefixes, etc) that were originally borrowed from romance languages like french and latin, as well as greek and other foreign loanwords, keeping only those of germanic origin.
What happens is an english which is for the most part intelligible, but since a lot everyday english, and especially the scientific vocabulary, has has heavy latin and greek influence, they have to make up new words from the existing germanic-english vocabulary. For me it kind of reads super viking-ey.
Anyway when you read this article on atomic theory, in Anglish called Uncleftish Beholding, you get this text which kind of reads like a fantasy novel. Like in my mind it feels like it recontextualizes advanced scientific concepts to explain it to a viking audience from ancient times.
Even though you're familiar with the scientific ideas, because it bypasses the normal language we use for these concepts, you get a chance to examine these ideas as if you were a visitor from another civilization - and guess what, it does feel like it's about magic. It has a mythical quality to it, like it feels like a book about magic written during viking times. For me this has the same vibe as reading deep magic lore from a Robert Jordan book.
That "somebody" is science fiction writer Poul Anderson, fyi.
We read this in one of my German linguistics classes in grad school.
*sweating, whole body shaking while I stare at a google doc* would he fucking say that????
you understand.
sick of using "very _____" ? : https://www.losethevery.com/
want to simplify your writing ? : https://hemingwayapp.com/
writing buddies / motivation ? : https://nanowrimo.org
word you're looking for but don't know ? : https://www.onelook.com/thesaurus/
need a fantasy name ? : https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/
need a fantasy name ? : https://nameberry.com/
want a name with meaning ? : https://www.behindthename.com/
who wants a map maker! : https://inkarnate.com/
story building / dnd ? : https://www.worldanvil.com/
need some minimalistic writing time ? : https://zenpen.io/
running out of ideas ? : https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/
setting a goal ? how about 3 pages / day ? : https://new.750words.com/
what food did they eat ? : https://www.foodtimeline.org/
questions on diversity within writing ? : https://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/
now what was that colour called ? : https://ingridsundberg.com/2014/02/04/the-color-thesaurus/
want more? : https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lyralit :]
