I think that's one of the maybe under-discussed aspects of process - the difference between a good writing day and a bad one is the quality of the split-second decisions you made.
Interpretation
The quality of our decisions in writing defines our success on any given day.
George Saunders emphasizes that the distinction between a productive writing day and an unproductive one often hinges on the split-second decisions we make throughout the writing process. These small choices, although seemingly minor, can significantly impact the flow and quality of our work.
In practice
During a writing workshop, you might use this quote to highlight the importance of decision-making in the writing process.
I still believe that capitalism is too harsh and I believe that, even within that, there is a lot of satisfaction and beauty if you happen to be one of the lucky ones, although that doesn't eradicate the reality of the suffering. It's all true at once, kind of humming and sublime.
Down in the city are the nice houses and the so-so houses and the lovers making out in dark yards and the babies crying for their moms, and I wonder if, other than Jesus, has this ever happened before. Maybe it happens all the time. Maybe there's angry dead all over, hiding in rooms, covered with blankets, bossing around their scared, embarrassed relatives. Because how would we know?
What a powerful thing to know: That one's own desires are mappable onto strangers; that what one finds in oneself will most certainly be found in The Other.
When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you. What I want is to have the reader come out just 6 percent more awake to the world.
I don't think much new ever happens. Most of us spend our days the same way people spent their days in the year 1000: walking around smiling, trying to earn enough to eat, while neurotically doing these little self-proofs in our head about how much better we are than these other slobs, while simultaneously, in another part of our brain, secretly feeling woefully inadequate to these smarter, more beautiful people.
Irony is just honesty with the volume cranked up.
If you survive long enough, you're revered - rather like an old building.
Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.
Over time, I've paid attention, taken notes and forgotten easily half of everything I've gone through.
You are more than you think you are. There are dimensions of your being and a potential for realization and consciousness that are not included in your concept of yourself. Your life is much deeper and broader than you conceive it to be here. What you are living is but a fractional inkling of what is really within you, what gives you life, breadth, and depth.
At the root of all the harm we cause is ignorance.
A lot of times, especially when it comes to political debates, people get caught up in esoteric statistics. So the realest thing I can do that has nothing to do with numbers is tell you my personal experience.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.