Making and pointing
Making and pointing
Hello, friends!
Today's newsletter is a few hours late because I'm on a break, and, to be honest, forgot to write something. That's good, though, because during this break I'm getting a lot of writing done. Just not newsletter-writing.
(I'm also napping lots, but that's got nothing to do with anything.)
One of the best books about writing I've encountered in recent years is Verlyn Klinkenborg's Several short sentences about writing. I've referenced it before, several times, but this is the kind of book that just keeps offering up gems, on nearly every page.
One of my favorite things about the book is how simply Klinkenborg describes being a writer:
Your job as a writer is making sentences. Most of your time will be spent making sentences in your head. In your head. Did no one ever tell you this? That is the writer's life. Never imagine you've left the level of the sentence behind.
Making sentences. It's never more than that. And every sentence is worth working and reworking and reworking again until it sings just the way it wants to.
It's a wonder books get written at all, isn't it? There are a million sentences pressed into their pages, each one demanding attention.
I like what Klinkenborg says about the role of writing in the world, too:
Writing doesn't prove anything. And it only rarely persuades. It does something much better. It attests. It witnesses. It shares your interest in what you've noticed. It reports on the nature of your attention. It suggests the possibilities of the world around you. The evidence of the world as it presents itself to you.
Austin Kleon puts it more simply:
Good writing is often just pointing at things.
That's how I'm spending this break: Pointing at things. Making sentences.
It's a good way to spend the days!
✏️Until next time,
Jg
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