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Alex Michael's avatar

Wow Adam, this is a very helpful and delightfully entertaining response to my question - and much more than I could have asked for or expected! I think you've done a far better job answering the question than you give yourself credit for. Thank you for this thoughtful and personal piece.

It's funny, I had a realization not too long ago that went something along the lines of "shit, being a good writer doesn't appear to have much to do with being a good writer." What you've written captures the essence of that idea. Good writing seems to be downstream of much more important stuff, like acknowledging and embracing our own versions of bow-leggedness and esoteric theater productions and improvisational saliva transfer.

I spent a lot of time trying to make my writing sound pretty, and I realized I was doing exactly what you mentioned: “doing an impression of another person, usually the person I think I should be” (which in my case was a Good Writer). But a lot of it was forced and devoid of any of my “doubloons”. Once I stopped trying to sound smart and actually shared some personally meaningful stories and ideas, the writing magically got better. Funny how that works.

All of this is to say: awesome piece, tremendously helpful, resonates in a major way. Thank you.

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Natalie's avatar

That line from your clown friend was the darkest and funniest thing I’ve read in a while.

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