Una vita a scrivere

Beautiful essays on writing. It’s not a how-to guide, but more of a metaphorical deglamorization of what it means to be a writer. The gist is that writing is agonizing work and those who are sane should probably avoid it. In her most dramatic moment, Dillard compares being a writer to being a stunt p Leggi tutto

The Writing Life is a short book where Annie Dillard recounts, in elegant prose, a few autobiographical anecdotes. And, since she is a writer, some of these reminiscences incidentally or metaphorically provide insights about her craft: writing as mining, sailing, painting, chopping wood or aerobatic Leggi tutto

Tunnel through. Stretch the line to the limits of the possible. It will be hard, and it will be a torment, but that is the writing life. It’s easy, after all, not to be a writer. Most people aren’t writers, and very little harm comes to them. —Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot The writing life is tough Leggi tutto

I have a love/hate thing with this book. On the one hand, it's a brilliant poetic evocation of the creative process. On the other, the process is so romanticized and the examples exalt such a rarified form of extreme self-sacrifice that I half-suspect Dillard is trying to discourage and/or sabotage

Annie Dillard wrote a brutally honest description of her relationship and struggles with the process of writing. Instead of the usual advice about showing, not telling, etc that I see etched inside my eyelids, as I read The Writing Life, I was compelled to copy its poetic quotes on note cards that I Leggi tutto

This is my first book by Annie Dillard and it didn't disappoint me. Brilliant book, beautiful excerpts with many examples corelating with how to write why to write what urge you to write, emphasizing the importance of words. The whole book was written in monotonous tone which is perfectly fine with t Leggi tutto