I have a recurring experience similar to yours. I will open my mouth and say something, or write something, and I will marvel. “Wow, where did that come from? I didn’t know I knew that.“
I often write to find out what I'm thinking. As I complete this sentence, it tells me again that I really like what you've written. I'll leave it at that--why try to paraphrase when you write it better?
There is a reason that you are a writer, and I am not, except for lists 😆, but I guess writers need readers, and I excel at that! Thank you for sharing your wondrous talents!
I woke up in the middle of the night with the phrase, "The space between the words is how the truth gets through" in my mind. I wrote it down and let it marinate for a few days and figured it out this afternoon. It only took 53 years.
That was a topic presented in one of our writing seminars! I’m more of an outline type—I need to know where I’m going at the start. I’m also not very brave. Snarky, but not brave 🤣
I have been writing as long as I can remember, since 1967 when my aunt gave me a robins egg blue 3 x 5 spiral notebook to log the events of a 6 month family trip from California to Washington DC.
Lucian, as much as I love reading your posts about society and the policies of society, this piece is probably the most valuable to me personally. I am writing fiction for the first time in my life. I am writing the one piece that I have been expecting to write my entire life, my destiny project. My calling if you will. So I’ve never been happier, I’ve never been more excited, and I’ve never been more uniquely challenged. Listening to you discuss what writing is like is helping me to hash out my relationship with this story project. I was pleased to see that finding the edges of a fiction story is similar for you as it is for me. It’s not an opportunity to experience ultimate freedom. In fact it’s very restrictive in my case, because this story project / sci-fi-novel-and-movie-script has a very distinct purpose. It disciplines me to think and reflect in ways that allow me to be an incubator for the story to emerge. Now that came out very nicely, when I started that sentence I didn’t know it was going to turn out that way.
Thank you very much for this piece. You and TC and Greg Olear are particularly valuable to me right now because the 3 of you are my crucible during this moment in time. How does a non-fiction writer become a writer of fiction? It’s an oddity.
HMMMM. You write the way I write, exactly. Screenplays too have their own strange rules as it is the edges of the story you must be careful, even if you think you're safe. I'm on my second novel -- I write on airplanes between concerts -- and my book on the Mustang Ranch is complete. I really liked this piece today, Capt'n.
Beautiful!! I remember Lutece and Grenouille so well. Used to take one special client to Grenouille every Valentines Day. And that “space” you refer to between words...yes, it’s the space where the art of writing itself comes together. It’s a space for creativity, thought, connection, and response.
Powerful! Write about the discussion you and other brats must have had with fathers who were careerists in that resignation total.
My Dad was was assigning Colonels in DC before he went to Vietnam...told me a few years later about how many did not want to go, including the father of a friend who went through the USMA prep school.
I always loved to write, more so now as it helps me cope with things that are going on in my life. I love to read as well (think there’s a connection?). I remember reading Dress Gray when it first came out. I even reread it a couple years ago. Not many books will do that for me.
Excellent as ever and an FYI that the UK postcode thing still hasn't been resolved. I had an exchange with a substack employee last week who said it'd been fixed but send her screenshots if I was still having a problem. Which I did but as yet no joy.
“It started out as a background chapter for the book I was supposed to write.”
If I am reading this correctly, a “background“ chapter is something you write for yourself but don’t publish. Is that correct?
I have so much background material for my science fiction story project it’s crazy. I have to write a story universe, a context, for the entire novel. Imagine describing the world of Star Trek before you write a single episode. I also have to write background stories for each of the characters, otherwise they don’t make sense to me. This is all material that will basically never get published with the book; it’s for my benefit only. Some of the background material, maybe a lot of it, will show up with the movie script, because the movie script can include all kinds of background information to help the producers generate the final product.
This stuff is all so new to me. I’m like a babe in the woods.
Ah. I have that kind of background material too, information that shows up in the book to explain something to a reader. But I also have all kinds of material that is separate and apart, which may show up in the book or may not.
“The one thing I love about writing on a computer is that it makes "all writing is rewriting" soooo much easier.”
All my writing used to be long hand in a blank book, an artist’s sketch book. Then word processors came out. Thrilling! My wife has been talking for the last couple months about buying an IBM Selectric typewriter. She wants to go back to typing, she does over 100 wpm, she can type as fast as she thinks. Unfortunately I was raised by an old world dad who dissuaded me from taking typing in HS, and now I’m too old to want to learn all fingers typing skill. As it turns out, writing this science fiction story is slow and laborious work. I have to be methodical. My lack of typing speed does not inconvenience that work at all.
Often I’ll read something I wrote and think, “how the hell did I do that?” I suspect you know the feeling.
I have a recurring experience similar to yours. I will open my mouth and say something, or write something, and I will marvel. “Wow, where did that come from? I didn’t know I knew that.“
I often write to find out what I'm thinking. As I complete this sentence, it tells me again that I really like what you've written. I'll leave it at that--why try to paraphrase when you write it better?
I thought about it, and I think it comes with age.
There is a reason that you are a writer, and I am not, except for lists 😆, but I guess writers need readers, and I excel at that! Thank you for sharing your wondrous talents!
This is the truth about writing if ever I’ve heard it.
I woke up in the middle of the night with the phrase, "The space between the words is how the truth gets through" in my mind. I wrote it down and let it marinate for a few days and figured it out this afternoon. It only took 53 years.
Yea
That was a topic presented in one of our writing seminars! I’m more of an outline type—I need to know where I’m going at the start. I’m also not very brave. Snarky, but not brave 🤣
I have been writing as long as I can remember, since 1967 when my aunt gave me a robins egg blue 3 x 5 spiral notebook to log the events of a 6 month family trip from California to Washington DC.
Lucian, as much as I love reading your posts about society and the policies of society, this piece is probably the most valuable to me personally. I am writing fiction for the first time in my life. I am writing the one piece that I have been expecting to write my entire life, my destiny project. My calling if you will. So I’ve never been happier, I’ve never been more excited, and I’ve never been more uniquely challenged. Listening to you discuss what writing is like is helping me to hash out my relationship with this story project. I was pleased to see that finding the edges of a fiction story is similar for you as it is for me. It’s not an opportunity to experience ultimate freedom. In fact it’s very restrictive in my case, because this story project / sci-fi-novel-and-movie-script has a very distinct purpose. It disciplines me to think and reflect in ways that allow me to be an incubator for the story to emerge. Now that came out very nicely, when I started that sentence I didn’t know it was going to turn out that way.
Thank you very much for this piece. You and TC and Greg Olear are particularly valuable to me right now because the 3 of you are my crucible during this moment in time. How does a non-fiction writer become a writer of fiction? It’s an oddity.
I’ve never been happier.
HMMMM. You write the way I write, exactly. Screenplays too have their own strange rules as it is the edges of the story you must be careful, even if you think you're safe. I'm on my second novel -- I write on airplanes between concerts -- and my book on the Mustang Ranch is complete. I really liked this piece today, Capt'n.
Who owns the words, who defines the meanings, who determines the truths. The classic question of communication
Beautiful!! I remember Lutece and Grenouille so well. Used to take one special client to Grenouille every Valentines Day. And that “space” you refer to between words...yes, it’s the space where the art of writing itself comes together. It’s a space for creativity, thought, connection, and response.
Powerful! Write about the discussion you and other brats must have had with fathers who were careerists in that resignation total.
My Dad was was assigning Colonels in DC before he went to Vietnam...told me a few years later about how many did not want to go, including the father of a friend who went through the USMA prep school.
I always loved to write, more so now as it helps me cope with things that are going on in my life. I love to read as well (think there’s a connection?). I remember reading Dress Gray when it first came out. I even reread it a couple years ago. Not many books will do that for me.
Thanks.
“I always loved to write, more so now as it helps me cope with things that are going on in my life.”
Until recently that has been my primary reason for writing: Coping. Staying sane.
Thank you, Lucian. Very interesting.
thank you for this
A great piece. I am a writer myself and have shared this on Facebook.
Excellent as ever and an FYI that the UK postcode thing still hasn't been resolved. I had an exchange with a substack employee last week who said it'd been fixed but send her screenshots if I was still having a problem. Which I did but as yet no joy.
Please send me your email address and I will contact Substack for you again.
“It started out as a background chapter for the book I was supposed to write.”
If I am reading this correctly, a “background“ chapter is something you write for yourself but don’t publish. Is that correct?
I have so much background material for my science fiction story project it’s crazy. I have to write a story universe, a context, for the entire novel. Imagine describing the world of Star Trek before you write a single episode. I also have to write background stories for each of the characters, otherwise they don’t make sense to me. This is all material that will basically never get published with the book; it’s for my benefit only. Some of the background material, maybe a lot of it, will show up with the movie script, because the movie script can include all kinds of background information to help the producers generate the final product.
This stuff is all so new to me. I’m like a babe in the woods.
You got it. This is all so new to me. I’ve been writing forever but I’ve never written a book. It’s fascinating and sometimes baffling.
And hard.
Ah. I have that kind of background material too, information that shows up in the book to explain something to a reader. But I also have all kinds of material that is separate and apart, which may show up in the book or may not.
“The one thing I love about writing on a computer is that it makes "all writing is rewriting" soooo much easier.”
All my writing used to be long hand in a blank book, an artist’s sketch book. Then word processors came out. Thrilling! My wife has been talking for the last couple months about buying an IBM Selectric typewriter. She wants to go back to typing, she does over 100 wpm, she can type as fast as she thinks. Unfortunately I was raised by an old world dad who dissuaded me from taking typing in HS, and now I’m too old to want to learn all fingers typing skill. As it turns out, writing this science fiction story is slow and laborious work. I have to be methodical. My lack of typing speed does not inconvenience that work at all.