{"id":18823,"date":"2013-12-22T16:59:37","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T16:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/something-that-also-taught-me-how-to-write-that-i\/"},"modified":"2013-12-22T16:59:37","modified_gmt":"2013-12-22T16:59:37","slug":"something-that-also-taught-me-how-to-write-that-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/something-that-also-taught-me-how-to-write-that-i\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Something that also taught me how to write that I tell people \u2014 I\u2019ve never been a writing teacher, but I say it because it was so helpful to me when I started doing it \u2013 is to buy a notebook or a spiral-bound book or something and get a ball-point pen of your choice. And sure people say, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to carry around a notebook and jot down ideas\u201d and that is OK, and I adapted that by writing on a folded-up piece of paper and carry it around in my pocket \u2013 that\u2019s one thing. But this is different; if you\u2019re reading along and you come to something that\u2019s really beautiful, that really stops you in the eye with its prose, you see it\u2019s true, then I\u2019ll stop or make a note to stop later and open the notebook and copy it out, in quotation marks, of course, and write down \u2013 copy that out word for word, with full punctuation, in handwriting. And the reason that\u2019s useful is it slows you down and helps you understand the rhythm of the prose and how a person constructed something that opened up in your mind in just that way. So copying out in a commonplace book interesting bits of writing that you find inspiring or interesting is the only piece of advice I have. It\u2019s the only secret that I have to pass on. I\u2019m not a poet, but copy it out and you will be amazed at how much it helps you almost instantly. Instantly, it makes you a more thoughtful reader and possibly a better writer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nicholson Baker\u2019s best advice<\/a> \u2013 a fine addition to the year\u2019s best reads on writing<\/a>. (via explore-blog<\/a>)<\/p>\n

embodied cognition, slow thought, mindfulness or not – at first, affordances of being present.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something that also taught me how to write that I tell people \u2014 I\u2019ve never been a writing teacher, but I say it because it was so helpful to me when I started doing it \u2013 is to buy a notebook or a spiral-bound book or something and get a ball-point pen of your choice. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-words","post_format-post-format-quote"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-4TB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}