A lot of the work of revision comes in the process of evaluating the rhythm of the sentences themselves, but if you’re reading the words out loud as you compose them, you’ll hear the false notes right away.
"I deeply love my character in this collection, and terrible things happen to her, but I have the power to help her get out of her situation. I can write her way, and my way, out of despair."
"I’m constantly thinking through how we construct the self/other dichotomy. I do believe, as humans taking up space on this planet, that yes, we have a responsibility to the planet and to one another."
"Don’t try to be profound or teach a lesson, and don’t write for anyone’s approval or admiration; simply write what is specific and true to your observation, to the unique, often secret convolutions of your own heart and mind."
Language is probably the most important facet of creative nonfiction because it can take the most mundane of experiences and turn them into ideas that seem life-altering.
Sure, writers write to explore our beginnings, but they more often write to transcend them. Writers also write to contemplate the horrors that might have been or almost were.
It's frustrating and alienating for readers to feel like they should know what's going on but don't. They want to be grounded in a character, in a place, in a context.
"The earrings, for example: I'll never know if she really stole them but at some point I chose to believe she did. Is that unfair? I disapproved but was also really moved by the gift, and I don't think I ever told her."
"As Rita Dove once said, so succinctly, poetry is the most “immediate and intimate” genre. Our brains/souls/hearts/memories/days are desperate for it."
