I've been exploring a pseudo-memoir writing project, so I *might* be a bit biased here, but if you - fellow writers! - have ever thought about or pursued autobiography, creative nonfiction, memoir, autofiction et al...
Take a moment to sit with @A_Jay_Adler's latest at Substack. It's a beautiful invitation to think about paying better attention to absence when we read and write.
What lives in the gaps of the stories you tell?
#Writing #WritingCommunity
https://open.substack.com/pub/ajayadler/p/the-close-read-missing-in-memoir
💯 One of my "writin' rules" is I think still pinned to my profile:
"Write what you *want* to know."
So much more useful. :)
(And thank you for that mental image of JMS. 😂 I am imagining him painfully slicing off pieces of himself that transform - pop! - into specific characters. I always suspected he felt an internal tension between Sheridan and Garibaldi.)
@MLClark JMS always talks about Londo and G'Kar arguing in his head. It still happens.
He let me read ahead in S4 scripts for a project I had. (There was a library across from his office with scripts and whatnot.) I read the Zathras/Ivanova scene and cracked up.
When I mentioned it to him, he said, "Isn't Zathras great?!" or something to that effect. I realized that, in his head, Zathras was real.
@MLClark "Write what you *want* to know."
That is the smartest advice I have read in a long time. I'm going to pay you the highest compliment by stealing it. 😘
That's my philosophy, exactly. The book I'm writing now about Florida space politics is because I wanted to know about it. I wanted to master the topic. Yes, it's a hole in the existing literature that needs to be documented, but wanting to know is my motivation.
Steal away! ❤️
I'm very much looking forward to reading your piece once it's ready - and not just because of the subject matter, but because, knowing how highly motivated the author is by personal passion, I *know* it will be well told and insightful.
(No pressure!)
@MLClark Happy to share a chapter or two.
@MLClark Please check your DM at your convenience.
Seen and downloaded!
I look forward to reading these tonight when I get home. Thank you for sharing, Stephen. I just know this is going make for a wonderful end-of-day treat. 💫
@MLClark Aren't all our written works pseudo-bios? JMS has said his characters are little bits of himself he slices off.
A beginning writer adage is, "Write what you know." I don't buy that -- do some research! -- but I understand the idea.