March 30th, 2011 / 3:58 pm
 Random & Snippets
—

I would like to hear optimistic statements about the writing life.

49 Comments

  1. March 30th, 2011 / 8:01 pm Sean—

      Many public readings serve beer.

  2. March 30th, 2011 / 8:07 pm Lincoln Michel—

      “Everything is absurd when one thinks of death.” – Bernhard

      So writing isn’t any more futile than anything else. That’s kind of positive, right?

  3. March 30th, 2011 / 8:07 pm ryder collins—

      Ha. My first response to your statement was, I would like a beer. For reals.

  4. March 30th, 2011 / 8:08 pm Jac Jemc—

      1) I like finding something I wrote and thinking this is what I wanna read.

      2) I like reading something someone else wrote and thinking, “All I wanna do is read this.”

      3) I like feeling like I’m a part of something that is growing and changing and deciding what parts of that I want to participate in.

      4) I like the community. It’s so nice that people care enough to have opinions that I can disagree with. :)

      5) Even though I don’t have a job that has much to do with my writing life, I like having a life outside of that job to put my energy and efforts into. I am confused by people that don’t have an endeavor outside of their job.

      6) I like not having a job that has nothing to do with my writing. This is a lie I’ve told myself so many times, I believe it.

  5. March 30th, 2011 / 8:09 pm Paul Clark—

      you don’t get to decide

  6. March 30th, 2011 / 8:10 pm Iskandrian—

      writing ‘problems’ are good problems, and also not-problems.

  7. March 30th, 2011 / 8:11 pm Nick Antosca—

      I would like a patron.

  8. March 30th, 2011 / 8:16 pm Daniel Bailey—

      i wrote two poems yesterday.

  9. March 30th, 2011 / 8:18 pm Frank Tas—

      Writing my friend’s statement of intent essay for his law school application got me a free meal at Panera Bread.

      I have learned a lot about people by having them read my fiction and the various ways they react to it.

      I helped a frat win some Homecoming competition at Georgia Tech by writing a script for their performance in twenty minutes while drunk.

      My friend started a great hardcore band based on my first novel.

      A lot of my friends read my writing and then they become a little more like me.

      I’m pretty sure me mentioning I was a writer helped me sleep with my cleaning lady.

  10. March 30th, 2011 / 8:27 pm stephen—

      “…do you know what you will be asked when you die? But let me tell you first what you won’t be asked. You won’t be asked if you were working on a wonderful, moving piece of writing when you died. You won’t be asked if it was long or short, sad or funny, published or unpublished. You won’t be asked if you were in good or bad form while you were working on it. You won’t even be asked if you had known your time would be up when it was finished. . . I’m so sure you’ll get asked only two questions. Were most of your stars out? Were you busy writing your heart out? If only you knew how easy it would be for you to say yes to both questions.”
      – Salinger

  11. March 30th, 2011 / 8:35 pm Frank Tas—

      If you’re single, if you’re writing a novel and you’re single, it’s your girl, it’s the thing you come home to every night that you work on no matter how you feel because you know that in the end it’ll put you in a good mood.

  12. March 30th, 2011 / 8:36 pm Anonymous—

      imagine the non-writing life

  13. March 30th, 2011 / 8:42 pm Samuel Sargent—

      Since deciding to take writing seriously and dedicating myself to my craft, I’ve had a 100% acceptance rate. Granted, that only accounts for one acceptance but it was to the lit journal that got me re-interested in writing, so I’ve decided to feel cocky about it as long as it lasts.

      On a more general (and realistic) note, almost everyone imagines or wishes that they could be a writer, but relatively few take the plunge. Even though the reality of the writing life is miles away from the glamour and ease that the average person imagines it to be, we’re still the envy of the misinformed.

      Also, I bet there are a lot more professional writing awards than there are awards in all the major professional sports combined.

  14. March 30th, 2011 / 8:45 pm Daniel Bailey—

      also, i’m reading a really amazing poem by someone in my workshop.

  15. March 30th, 2011 / 8:46 pm Roxane—

      I love getting turned on to new writers all the time, writers who make me think, “Damn, I want to write like that,” and writers who make me think, “Damn, I will never write like that,” and writers who make me think, “Damn.” I love reading what I wrote and feeling like I made something happen. I love writing, every day. It never gets old. It never feels like a chore. I love writing more now than I ever have.

  16. March 30th, 2011 / 8:49 pm Lincoln Michel—

      See also: “Life’s a bitch and then you die” – Nas

  17. March 30th, 2011 / 9:13 pm JimR—

      What hardocre band?

  18. March 30th, 2011 / 9:14 pm JimR—

      A reason, the reason, reason that trumps all reason, for not stopping your clock.

  19. March 30th, 2011 / 9:15 pm Frank Tas, the Raptor—
  20. March 30th, 2011 / 9:17 pm Sean—

      Were you drunk? Were they sonnets?

  21. March 30th, 2011 / 9:18 pm Sean—

      Grad school?

  22. March 30th, 2011 / 9:19 pm Daniel Bailey—

      i was sober and i was trying to write poems like i was david byrne trying to write a book about butt disease

  23. March 30th, 2011 / 9:25 pm gina—

      everything from kylie minogue songs to edith wharton to stained scraps of cloth are inspiring parts of my day, because they move to me to write. i get to read things that i love beyond comprehension and know that even if i never do anything that comes close to those beloved writings, i get to be in conversation with them.

  24. March 30th, 2011 / 9:28 pm Sean—

      Did I read some essay about you sleeping with your cleaning lady? Did she have genital warts or something? And like you were worried if you had sex with her you wouldn’t get the place cleaned in time. I’m getting deja vue or however you spell that.

  25. March 30th, 2011 / 9:32 pm Frank Tas, the Raptor—
  26. March 30th, 2011 / 9:45 pm Sean—

      Ok, thanks. Means I still have an excellent memory and I just re-read it and laughed a bit and that set off some dopamine, so cool.

  27. March 30th, 2011 / 9:50 pm Blinde Schildpad—

      Hey, it beats sulfur mining.

  28. March 30th, 2011 / 10:22 pm Frank Tas, the Raptor—

      That’s another optimistic thing about writing! “Making people laugh.”

      And my pleasure!

  29. March 30th, 2011 / 10:46 pm shaun gannon—

      you make lots of cool friends if you are nice
      this is clearly not possible in any other lifestyle

  30. March 30th, 2011 / 10:56 pm ben spivey—

      +1

  31. March 30th, 2011 / 11:18 pm karl taro—

      i don’t like writing much. i just feel shitty if I don’t do it every day.

  32. March 30th, 2011 / 11:20 pm Nate—

      Reading.

  33. March 31st, 2011 / 12:25 am phill—

      Out of the seven or eight-hundred thousand hours that each of us are given (if we’re lucky), someone has spent a minute or an hour or more than one of each of those reading something you’ve written. That always blows me away.

  34. March 31st, 2011 / 1:04 am Janey Smith—

      It is my favorite way to waste time. It gives me a certain kind of porpoise.

  35. March 31st, 2011 / 1:46 am richard chiem—

      ╔═══╗ ♪
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      ╔═══╗ ♪
      ║███║ ♫
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  36. March 31st, 2011 / 2:14 am Jimmy Chen—

      a good reason to be alone

  37. March 31st, 2011 / 2:23 am marshall—

      az does the chorus, not nas…

      sonned!

  38. March 31st, 2011 / 3:02 am jesusangelgarcia—

      I’m kind of fired up about the badbadbad summer tour. It seems like off-trail adventures in live lit are more doable now than ever. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be appearing in a crazy range of unusual venues, from a solo show at a hair salon/gallery on a First Friday to a mega multi-artist jam at a massive room in NYC. Then there’s the cool indie bookshops, the raucous DIY reading series, the intimate house parties. I expect to meet inspiring fellow writers and artists and art lovers I never would have met otherwise, and I may even sell some books. To have this opportunity feels like a gift. Howz that for writing-life optimism?

  39. March 31st, 2011 / 3:49 am deadgod—

      we who are a butt to die

  40. March 31st, 2011 / 3:52 am deadgod—

      ha ha

      you just won the ‘meta-deprecation of the thread’ award

      non-pro, though

  41. March 31st, 2011 / 3:58 am Amy McDaniel—

      this thread is weirdly depressing

  42. March 31st, 2011 / 4:05 am deadgod—

      There’s tons of sex, dough, worldly power, whatever dope you like, interesting and corporeally healthy immortality, and lasagna and, for dessert and between meals, black licorice – and all consequence-free – in “the writing life”.

  43. March 31st, 2011 / 4:22 am alexisorgera—

      I love to write.

  44. March 31st, 2011 / 4:33 am John Minichillo—

      Cultural cache. A reason to Twitter. Excuses to yourself to put off everything else. Peo

  45. March 31st, 2011 / 5:47 pm Amber—

      Writing makes me feel like I am a real person, not just a hamster on a hamster wheel. Is that how you spell hamster? It looks really weird written out.

  46. April 1st, 2011 / 1:22 am Shannon—

      I wrote something I find very beautiful today and I’m probably going to keep it to myself.

  47. April 1st, 2011 / 5:53 am J.V—

      1.) a portion of my insanity suddenly feels socially acceptable
      2.) you get to laugh at yourself the moment you realize just how long you’ve been trying to come up with “optimistic statements about the writing life.”

  48. April 1st, 2011 / 5:53 am J.V—

      1.) a portion of my insanity suddenly feels socially acceptable
      2.) you get to laugh at yourself the moment you realize just how long you’ve been trying to come up with “optimistic statements about the writing life.”

  49. April 2nd, 2011 / 9:21 pm KKB—

      mediating with imaginary characters lets me see the multiverse