Recently, in a terrific talk for Hippocampus magazine, Gotham teacher Angie Chatman said something that really stuck with me.
Writers build credibility with readers with humility, by saying three words: I don’t know.
Angie was talking about nonfiction, but I think this advice applies to all storytelling. There’s always so much human beings can never know. We might as well admit it.
Against the ruin of the world, there is only one defense—the creative act.
—Kenneth Rexroth.Writers, I know I’ve said recently that if you’re not writing, if you’re too overwhelmed, it’s OK. That the words will come back to you when you’re ready.
In his classic essay “Notes of a Native Son,” James Baldwin remembers the day in August 1943 when his family buried his father, the morning after Night 1 of a historic two-night riot in Baldwin’s home neighborhood of Harlem. The destruction was epic—“a wilderness of smashed plate glass.” And so was Baldwin’s grief.