Writing about Writing
file under: THE STACK
this one is from: AMBIKA
Sometime last week, I sat down to write this post and titled it, rather grandly, “The Joys of Writing.” It was going to be about one of Liminal’s signature workshops—our Writing Practicum—that we’re excited to be offering again! This ten-week course is a journey designed to develop the skills and habits that will help you write with power, purpose, and ease; you can learn more about it here.
Fate, however, is cruel sometimes—after I tempted it with my ambitious title, it struck me down with an uncommon case of writer’s block, and I managed to put absolutely no further words onto the page last week. I also managed to forget Ed Yong’s extremely helpful insight for when you’re stuck in your writing. Ed diagnoses stuckness as one (or both) of two problems: not enough information (ideas, reading, conversations, etc.) or not enough structure.* This diagnosis has gotten me out of many periods of writing-stuckness in the past, but this time I was too stuck to even begin thinking about why I was stuck!
Returning to the page afresh this week, and sheepishly changing the title of the post, I can identify this particular stuckness as a problem of not enough information. You see, I’m in the process of reading some excellent books on writing, and I haven’t yet finished soaking in all that they have to say. I’ve only barely begin contemplating how they all connect to one another. Which means I don’t yet have much to say about them, other than that I have loved the experience of reading them and cannot wait to build their lessons into our Writing Practicums! So for now, I’m just going to tell you which books I’ve been reading, and a little bit about why I’m enjoying them so much.
The Writer’s Practice, by John Warner. A series of writing exercises that get at the heart of why and how, at its most useful, writing is an act of intentional relationship building. I kinda wish I could go back to being a writing beginner, just so I could start with this book!
Bird By Bird, by Anne Lamott. An oldie but goodie, Bird by Bird reminds me just what a gloriously human thing it is to write—how the project of becoming a better writer and the project of becoming more myself are in fact the same project.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, by George Saunders. By diving deep into seven short stories by 19th century Russian authors, Saunders teaches us how to read closely and generously in order to write better stories, with equal reverence for both the experience of reading and the craft of writing.
Once all the goodness of these books has soaked in, I’m looking forward to figuring out how their lessons are going to come together in our writing practicums! In the meanwhile, if you have any favorite books about writing, I want to hear about them too; feel free to reply, or find me on Bluesky 🙂 Of course, if you’re interested in learning more about (or booking!) a writing practicum, please reply to this email or reach out via our contact form.
*Ed actually puts it a little bit differently in his Journalism Advice: “Pay attention to structure, and learn how to report well; remember that most writing problems are actually structuring problems, and most structuring problems are actually reporting problems”