There is ALWAYS some other story

So true

David- glad to have connected via Matador. I enjoy the stream of consciousness of this. The questions also work really well to illuminate your thought process. Is there such a thing as “flash NON-fiction”–if so, this definitely qualifies and should be submitted somewhere!

that being said, how do you write about people ‘honestly’?

thanks alyssa.

was happy to see your reads pick at Matador btw.

checked out your blog this morning. love how you’re blogging your whole education / path to writing process in what seems like a really transparent way. i’ve written a lot on that here.

look forward to reading more from you / working with you downstream.

Thanks, David. On transparency, that’s a big compliment for me because I think my greatest challenge as a writer is overcoming shyness about the process and how it connects with me as a PERSON–and one who is always learning by trial and error at that.

Guess I’ll keep doing what I’ll doing!

no doubt alyssa. keep it flowing.

once i heard bradford cox of deerhunter say if people would just keep playing music without trying to sound like each other then it all be so much more interesting (or something).

that’s how i feel about writing too. if everyone just kept blazing away without worrying about anything else than getting the words down how they needed to sound to them (the writers themselves) then… i dunno.

the point i guess is to just keep charging.

and oh yeah, i forgot to mention about the ‘microfiction’ point you raised. right now there is less of a ‘market’ or existing audience for hypercondensed nonfiction writing, although we are publishing some on the notebook.

sometimes i just submit nonfiction work in super condensed form as fiction just to get it out to places.

one of these was this past spring, a magazine called rumble:http://www.rumble.sy2.com/stories/notes_miller.html

have you checked out the six sentences writing community?

The six sentences writing community is VERY cool. My mom actually bought one of the first anthologies way back when– maybe 3 years ago?–when it was first evolving.

Psyched that that notebook has been publishing some “micronotes.” Very exciting stuff to be getting involved with–and somehow not surprised Matador has taken it on.

Also back on transparency– I re-read this (http://retwt.me/1GSDf) and thought I’d mention to you that last fall I took a Literary Journalism class for my creative writing minor at Colgate University. One of our most discussed issues for journalists was how much of yourself to put into the writing, how much do you recognize your connection with your subject, how do you provide full disclosure, etc. (We spoke of this–and also read–in terms of Joan Didion, Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson). Very interesting and important topic. The class was taught by Jennifer Brice, a wonderful nonfiction writer from Alaska who has written extensively on growing up there. Her most recent book is Learning to Fly and I would definitely recommend checking it out as an example of literary travel/place narrative that’s very honest in a memoir-like way. It seems like something right up the alley of you and the rest of the Matador eds, writers, readers.

*the name of Brice’s book is actually UNlearning to Fly – oops!

Probably the best example I’ve read about this whole subject yet. Fair initial assessment though, I would have thought the same!

Totally on point and so true.

Really is a metaphor for how we meander through life. Painting complete pictures of others from the very little we’ve glimpsed of their lives.

thanks Candice. honestly i had no idea. had i not spent years as a carpenter i probably wouldn’t even have noticed the tape.

thanks for the reference / recommendation Alyssa. i’m going to look up Jennifer Brice right now.

thanks lola. how to keep progressing in our writing and photography so it always keeps this in mind?

The question of writing about people honestly is difficult. As writers, we gather insights from details, and writing tends to feel truest when you let these accumulate on the page, creating a shadow of the whole from the parts.

But it’s difficult to be true to subjects, I think. What we see has as much to do with us, if not more, than it does with the people we’re “studying.”

Beautiful little portrait. These are just the kind of details that manage to tell a complex story in a matter of sentences.

On another note, I can’t believe that the above are photos from your backyard. I am indescribably jealous.

thanks for the props on the window view. as my friend tim patterson wrote, patagonia will shatter your sense of scale.

thanks for thoughts re: honesty in writing as well. more soon.