Let's close up the week
With the bear that roars / Issue 1,112
Oh, hi friends!
Are you fishing for negative information?
I found myself doing this the other day—asking questions I knew would have answers that would bug me or make me lean ever further into a negative story.
Later, I thought, Well, I didn’t have to do that, did I?
I’m guessing we all succumb to this impulse though…
Starting a comparison game that makes you feel bad about yourself. Checking the stats under the guise of “needing to know” without actually needing to know.
Are you poking the bear because it’s soft or because you want to hear a roar?
What do I hope to learn from this answer is something I’ll ask myself next time.
“Some players love winning. Some players love money. Some players love traveling. He loves everything about this game. He loves even the smell of the new balls. He loves how the ball sounds on the strings. He loves these things that actually are much more important than money or that stuff. He plays the game for the right reasons. And none of us taught him that. It’s just that tennis was his best friend, and he took care of his best friend.”
Love this vintage profile of a then 16-year-old Frances Tiafoe, who’s playing in the U.S. Open men’s semifinal match this afternoon. How he approached tennis then explains everything that’s happening now.
Swimming through a few reads about process and practice (P&P?!) and wanted to share them with you:
A wonderfully close read of an Auden poem (which also shows you what immersive web design can accomplish).
The truth of how movie scores are made. (h/t Hannah Frishberg)
Exactly how a book is made. (Especially eye-opening for me right now!)
Elizabeth Strout has reached maximum productivity. (h/t Charlotte Maiorana)
Including this gem of a quote: “I’m getting older, and I’ve taught myself how to get these sentences down, how to know when they’re worth getting down,” said Strout, 66. “It’s like I’ve been training for a marathon my entire life and now there’s an acceleration happening.”
And here’s this week’s podcasts on finding your flow state with Diane Allen and writing a debut novel in two hours a week with Delia Cai! New episodes with Ann Harada, Tim Herrera, Adam Gwon, and more wonderful people next week.
Have a wonderful weekend, friends.
Thank you.
Kara, Thank you for the article on how a book is made. This should prove useful.