Things to share this weekend (11/16)
1st draft - 10%, hyper-specific literature, 27 club, ChatGPT articles
I just had some fried pickles at a so-called Southern restaurant, but it was a bit too polished, I talked to a couple the other night whose first date was at the Olive Garden in Times Square, and I’ve met this artist up here and we talk about the New York Knicks, his book of illustrated NYC storefronts is good…here are some things worth sharing:
Here comes the “reference novel” at The Walrus
In the post–alt lit, autofiction-fatigued, always-on-the-internet landscape that young writers are working within—or struggling against—hyper specificity has become a fashionable device. In the hands of a master, a pileup of proper nouns can be a conduit for sharp commentary or satire. It can also easily slide into status signalling, where the book serves to confirm the status and milieu to which the author, and their ideal reader, belongs.
The 27 Club isn’t true, but it feels true at The Conversation
Stigmergy describes how traces of an event or action left in the environment can indirectly coordinate future events or actions. In the digital age, platforms such as Wikipedia serve as repositories of collective memory. The existence of a dedicated 27 Club page, with links to its members’ pages, increases the visibility of those who die at 27. This creates a feedback loop: The more we click, the more prominent these figures become, and the more the myth is reinforced.
Adjusting the levels of revision by Lincoln Michel
We might say most writers tend to either be cutters or expanders. If you are a “loose” writer who pumps out messy drafts, your revision process might be primarily sculpting by deleting. Stephen King in On Writing said his life was changed when a teacher gave him this very prescriptive feedback: “Not bad, but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Good luck.” I know more than a few writers who follow this advice. They set a goal of cutting roughly 10% for each new draft.
From me:
Notes on reading/watching:
Reading:
This House of Grief by Helen Garner
A true crime story set in Australia, things are different there, their words are slightly different
The crime? Did a father intentionally kill his children by driving off an overpass into a dam?
Watching:
My daughter is currently taking ballroom dancing in PE class
This movie is about the 5th graders participating in ballroom dancing, 20 years ago
I showed both daughters a trailer and they were riveted, we’ll be watching it soon
My wife and I were chatting and we saw this movie in the theater 20 years ago, time flies and here we are
Keep going-
Josh Spilker