Slow Writing?
When we are engaged in a piece of writing, either as author or reader, our great mortal solitude which began with that first rupture from our mothers, a rupture and disruption that never totally heals, our solitude feels accompanied.
— Julia Alvarez
This quote appears as a part of a statement about “slow writing,” an intentional form of writing focused on “taking the time to craft the writing so it is good company.” Reading about this comment warmed my heart, as I reflected about all of the beautiful pieces of writing that fit me like a warm sweater, comforting my heart and being.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my own writing. With this newsletter, I've written roughly 62 essays over the course of 67 weeks. Nearly all of them were written in the 24 hours before they were sent. Most of them only had two drafts, with some having a single draft. An embarrassing number of them have typos (much to the dismay of my mom who points them all out). Beyond that, I’ve started to feel insecure about my own writing and lack of diversity in my subject matter.
My newsletters’ content can even be condensed into a formula: I usually take those themes, talk about them in some specific form or a specific instance, followed by a paragraph tying it to me specifically. Finally, I close with a paragraph that can usually be summarized as “I’m gonna work to do this thing, and you should too.” When you’re writing something quickly out of obligation and sometimes as an afterthought, it’s easy to follow a pattern to simplify the process. But I didn’t start this newsletter to just put something out weekly. It was never just a way to make more content. I wanted to develop my skills as a writer and I’ve started to reach a point where I feel stagnant in my writing. After 67 newsletters, I would ideally like my more recent newsletters more than my first few, but I still think that is my favorite.
Perhaps slow writing is the ideal form of my writing, but I don’t have time to approach this writing with such deliberation. I also don’t have a specific goal or endpoint to these newsletters or a goal for how I want my writing to be specifically. I just know that I want to incrementally improve my writing from week to week, or month to month. That’s going to mean more drafts, more diverse reading, and hopefully better writing. When I started, every newsletter I wrote felt like a bold declaration to the world “I AM A WRITER.” Now, I won’t be satisfied until each one feels like an even bolder scream of “I AM A GOOD WRITER!”
Drops of the Week
where I *drop* recommendations of cool things this week
Article
“First Twitter Gave Me Power. Then I Felt Hopeless.” by Eve Peyser - visceral article about the give and take of Twitter in particular. I found this somewhat relatable, although much more intense. The metaphors of Twitter as an untamed beast are particularly salient.
Book
Atomic Habits by James Clear - great book that I started about habit change. I feel like this will replace Charles Duhigg’s Power of Habit as the go-to habit book from now on.
EP
Champagne Eyes by AlunaGeorge - great EP by a great artist that I’ve recently got back into after loving her in high school.
Thanks so much for reading! If you have any comments/concerns or fan/hate mail for me, you know how to reach me (links below).
Love,
Nikhil