Is the subway conductor drunk or something?
Oh, hi friends!
The subway car spasmed out of the station so dramatically even a few tired commuters raised their eyebrows at each other.
We were noticing something you should not notice.
You can always feel when that happens, right?
When it’s tough to get through a story, you’re noticing the writer in ways they do not want to be noticed.
Or when a word in a song hits your ear a funny way, you’re noticing what’s wrong.
Or when you’re trying to wade through a work email and find yourself saying, But what are they trying to say?
The funny thing is, you don’t notice when things feel right. When they’re smoooooth. You only notice when they’re jolting you out of the station.
Something to strive for, maybe: Being so steady and so effortless and so crystal clear with your intention — and your execution — that no one raises a single eyebrow.
“Stumbles loom rather large, the more I write. You know this is the wrong route but sometimes you choose it anyway, and then when you go over it, you just carry it out and scratch it out and do something else. But they’re very important. It’s like hitting the wrong note. You have to do something else. In a musical score, if you’re singing or you’re playing an instrument onstage in public, and you hit a wrong note, you can’t say “Oops” and leave the stage. You have to make something out of that error, do a really powerfully creative thing. You may go down a different road. If it’s public, you have to have that ability, that gift to make a mistake look creative. With writing, you can always scratch out the knowledge. You write and erase and do it over.”
From Toni Morrison on failure, risk, and writing outside yourself. (via Stephen Adly Guigis tweet)
As someone who straddles both office life and work-from-home life, Laura Belgray’s hilarious piece on the 16 things she'll never miss about working in an office cuts so deep. Do you relate? She also has some excellent tips on how to be productive when working from home. You gotta protect your time! This amazing illustration is by Jade Schulz.
As a sidenote, I'm looking to hire someone who does illustrated + animated text over video for a project. Is that you? Email me your work!
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara