15 Comments
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Andrew Boryga's avatar

Sage advice. Crisp and clean but true as hell.

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Anton's avatar

“Reading saved me.” That line alone cracked something open in me. This whole framework is brilliant—especially the inclusion of emotional regulation, which most writing advice skips. Propulsion hits home too. For me it’s often a mix of longing and the fear of vanishing. Thank you for distilling it all with such clarity and care.

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Junot Díaz's avatar

and your honesty towards self and here is its own light.

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Julieta Holman's avatar

God damn this is helpful! Love. That is the reason.

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Kate Birtwell's avatar

I loved this one Junot💕

On my way to the library to write. Keeps me centered on my work.

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Ceci Miller's avatar

Lovely — the essentials! And in the perfect order, in my experience.

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Penelope Cottrell's avatar

Thank you for giving us the Four Commandments. I will take them with me on my writing journey. <3

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Elaine R. Frieman's avatar

🤩

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Rodney Lee Rogers's avatar

Thank you Junot. This really unlocked some thoughts for me today!

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Taft's avatar

I dig it! Thanks

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Rosie Watson's avatar

I adore this thank you!!

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Claire Cayson's avatar

Thank you junot

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Margaret Harris's avatar

A beautiful piece: Love begets love.

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Taft's avatar

I dig it! Thanks

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Courtney Sender's avatar

“As with any art there are, of course, deeper mysteries that elude explication.”

Yes: I think we're using craft, propulsion, emotional weight as entrypoints to get us to that point as writers where we're making leaps from sentence to sentence or idea to idea that we can't explain. We could reverse-engineer those leaps in retrospect, and I do this with the work I love, but I think the un-explainable why the prose I find "permeable" rather than laminated is always sort of a mystery to me.

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