What did you just learn?
Oh, hi friends!
What did I just learn?
I am trying to ask this question more, especially after wrapping up a few commitments.
Last week, I finished a summer-long playwriting class, and although I’m happy to have generated new pages, the larger questions remain: What did I learn about myself? My writing habits? The type of feedback I require? Who do I want to read my work? What do I need to reach END OF PLAY?
On the last day of my writers’ residency, I asked the question to the other people in the house, too. What did you learn from this time away?
Since I'm often more focused on the future, rather than whatever's in front of my face, I've found that if I don't ask this question right away, I'm less likely to reflect on what happened.
So that’s the question I’m posing to you as August winds down, whether you’ve just wrapped a challenging week or pressed send on a big project: What did you just learn?
I feel in flight.
Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
"A play has to move. It has to go where it says it’s going. Like a flight to Chicago. If you buy a ticket for Chicago, when the plane lands, you better damn well be in Chicago, or you’re going to have some mighty angry people on your hands. You’re going to have, as Lucy would say, some explaining to do.”
I’ve reread Marsha Norman's lecture on craft over and over and over. A gem!
But this idea, “a play has to move,” well, can't the same be said for a novel, an article, a song, a tweet, an email, anything? Where are you moving? Are you taking a reader—your reader—from A to B?
Barbara Corcoran told me a story about the time she bought a “swanky,” but in retrospect “godawful" coat—and how it was the best business investment she ever made. Check out this adorable video made for MONEY!
National Book Foundation is hiring a freelance content writer for its James Baldwin initiative! Here’s the job posting (on Google Drive). (h/t Rebecca Darugar)
Want to learn Italian? Here’s more from my Brooklyn-based friend Angelica Frey:
Whether you want to learn basic vocabulary, perfect your verb drills or survey Italy's great literary geniuses, I can help you learn another language in a fun and entertaining manner.
We can also:
— Read your favorite Italian authors (prose AND poetry) in their original language and talk about them (Neapolitan novels too, if you like, even though I am not a fan)
— Watch the most relevant scenes and dialogues of genre-defining Italian movies, then recap them (in Italian, of course). Comedies of manners from the 1980s deserve more recognition abroad. See: Yuppies.
— Learn the lyrics of the arias of the most famous Italian operas and Italian pop songs. See: Milva, Alexanderplatz.
Who wouldn't be interested? Get in touch with her at angelicafrey2@gmail.com
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara