Daily Nourishment for October 11, 2024: Something Weirder, More Interesting
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 50 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“In fact, the very act of trying to look ahead to discern possibilities and offer warnings is in itself an act of hope.” - Octavia Butler
Pause.
Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale.
Prompt.
Read this quote from a New York Times piece on author Jenny Offill:
“While teaching a class called Unhinged Narrators, she finally abandoned the book that had so stymied her — about a student who has an affair with a professor. She strode out of her office one day and announced to her husband that she was going to write something weirder, more interesting, told instead from the wife’s point of view, never mind if it didn’t sell; she’d keep writing children’s books to make money. For years the draft that became ‘Dept. of Speculation’ was saved in her computer as a file marked ‘Bad Novel.’
Practice.
How can you be inspired by this quote? What is stymying you? What do you really want to write even if no one reads it? Something weird? Something super interesting?
Set a timer for five minutes and take notes or journal in response to the quote and questions above.
Then set a timer for eight minutes, open a brand new file on your computer, name it “Bad Novel,” “Bad Poems,” “Bad Essay,” or “Bad Writing of Some Sort,” and write at least ten new words of something you want to write even if it’s terrible, even if it never turns into anything lasting, even if no one ever reads it.
Want More?
Read this New York Times piece on Jenny Offill.
(Also. Parul Sehgal is such a great writer and a fantastic book critic.
Also. I loved Jenny Offill’s Dept of Speculation so much. I own Weather but never read it. I definitely need to read it one day soon.
Also. That Octavia Butler quote! More from her soon.)
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Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
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