Dear Substack: Is it possible for you to make this piece required reading for anyone wishing to sign up ? It's all here, everything anyone needs to know about the whys and wherefores and joys of writing. Amen, Ms. Oates!
I love this article. I also love the books that put me right there in their settings. I often think of your first book, With Shuttering Fall, as one of my favorite works I have read that put me right there in the story. I knew them and I think of them often. I use the memories of these stories as a sort of meditation and I get almost as much joy just remembering them. Thank you for that!
‘...there is a spiritual dimension to landscape that gifted photographers can suggest and gifted writers can evoke.’ Yessss! I am moved by that - landscape, especially rugged, wild landscape like that which surrounds me here in Donegal, Ireland, is so much more than a ‘view’
This is so incredibly, beautifully written and expressed. I find myself rereading it. I am a painter and you have put into words the feelings behind Art that are too elusive for me to grab hold of. Thank you for helping to make sense of it all. Love your books too.
What Freud said about beauty is a bit strange. Beauty is what gives us pleasure and pleasure gives us reason to go on. To see someone who is beautiful is to see a lighthouse in a dark, bleak storm at sea. It is what makes us human.
I know that deep down there is some primal wish to be noticed, with the far binary being immortalization. But, like breaking any bad habit or instinct, I have created a new habit of thought that cares more about my fellows and their future; most of the time at least. It takes redirecting, however my mind now knows that such a motivation will create a better product.
I am so grateful for this article. I am struggling to finish my first severe edit of my first draft of my first book. It is a memoir about what I have learned from our pets about dying and living. I try to use engaging stories to gently illustrate how they can accept death and I introduce animal hospice as an alternative to consider to euthanasia. People are just as afraid to read about this as confront it, yet are willing to do for our pets what we can not even do for ourselves. I feel compelled to write this, and yet, I am afraid to finish. Thank you for your beautiful writing and expressing these “whys” so well. They are giving me more courage to carry on. ❤️
Your time could not be better!!!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Dear Substack: Is it possible for you to make this piece required reading for anyone wishing to sign up ? It's all here, everything anyone needs to know about the whys and wherefores and joys of writing. Amen, Ms. Oates!
I love this article. I also love the books that put me right there in their settings. I often think of your first book, With Shuttering Fall, as one of my favorite works I have read that put me right there in the story. I knew them and I think of them often. I use the memories of these stories as a sort of meditation and I get almost as much joy just remembering them. Thank you for that!
Illuminating and glowing, thanks
‘...there is a spiritual dimension to landscape that gifted photographers can suggest and gifted writers can evoke.’ Yessss! I am moved by that - landscape, especially rugged, wild landscape like that which surrounds me here in Donegal, Ireland, is so much more than a ‘view’
Thanks, and best wishes, Liz
This is so incredibly, beautifully written and expressed. I find myself rereading it. I am a painter and you have put into words the feelings behind Art that are too elusive for me to grab hold of. Thank you for helping to make sense of it all. Love your books too.
So beautifully expressed. Thank you!
Surrounded by my precious husbands's paintings, longing--
for the first time since his passing,
words make sense again
Yours --
the candle is not there to illuminate itself--
Guide me.
Thank you.
What Freud said about beauty is a bit strange. Beauty is what gives us pleasure and pleasure gives us reason to go on. To see someone who is beautiful is to see a lighthouse in a dark, bleak storm at sea. It is what makes us human.
I know that deep down there is some primal wish to be noticed, with the far binary being immortalization. But, like breaking any bad habit or instinct, I have created a new habit of thought that cares more about my fellows and their future; most of the time at least. It takes redirecting, however my mind now knows that such a motivation will create a better product.
I love the picture of the Erie Canal in Syracuse (me -- Ph.D. class of 2012), but couldn't find where it was exactly from google maps.
I am so grateful for this article. I am struggling to finish my first severe edit of my first draft of my first book. It is a memoir about what I have learned from our pets about dying and living. I try to use engaging stories to gently illustrate how they can accept death and I introduce animal hospice as an alternative to consider to euthanasia. People are just as afraid to read about this as confront it, yet are willing to do for our pets what we can not even do for ourselves. I feel compelled to write this, and yet, I am afraid to finish. Thank you for your beautiful writing and expressing these “whys” so well. They are giving me more courage to carry on. ❤️
Cheers!
Just realized I had Not read this... Must Now. Thank you for being here. :-D
I love these insights on writing. Thank you for sharing.