Hi, everyone! I spent the last week in a situation that defied writing, so today’s post is about Not Writing. What situations or relationships cannot or should not be written about? How should we think about not writing, and what can we learn from it about writing? This is actually something readers asked about in the QA last year. (From Mynda: “How often are you thinking about your writing in your day to day interactions? Does it ever get in the way of being present in a moment?” From Doriana: “Do you ever feel like there’s a part of yourself that shouldn’t be brought into the writing process? As if not everything should be transformed creatively, and some things need to remain untouched.”) I answered briefly in a video, but today is a new and longer answer. 3000 words coming after the paywall, largely devoted to two of the most popular non-writing subjects: (1) Other People’s Trauma, and (2) One’s Own Spouse. Also discussed: the “Loss” meme, the ethics of international reporting, main character energy, Famesick (again), The Death of Ivan Ilyich (again), Anthony Trollope, David Sedaris, and Alison Bechdel.
Thank you!
