Alice Bradley's Weekly: Too hot to stop
We’re picking up this kid tomorrow from camp and I cannot wait. I predict he will be 78% less clean than the above photo, but 100% more awake.
(Henry wouldn’t approve of me posting this on Instagram, where his friends might discover he is a sweet lil’ boo who looks like an angel when he naps, but what, have his friends signed up for my newsletter? That would be weird.)
STUFF I DID
I met six deadlines, none of which is for work I can yet share with you. I do have a piece coming out in Salon tomorrow night, so, you know, stare at Salon all day and keep hitting refresh! (Or wait until I share the link next week.)
While toiling away this week on my six (six!) assignments, I fantasized about getting a non-writing job. While I am more than grateful for the work—my hands, they are tired. Perhaps, I thought, I should find a simple, honest job wherein I could compose my flights of fancy during the off hours. I asked my Facebook friends:
What's a good day job for a writer? The only thing I can come up with is owning a charmingly ramshackle bookstore in rural Ireland. Oh, and the bookstore is haunted. I guess that's kind of obvious though.
Some ideas I received in reply:
Weed dealer
Carnie
Companion to eccentric billionaire
Spooky caretaker
Captain of a haunted fishing boat
My friends really get me.
STUFF OTHER PEOPLE DID
In which we get down to the actual writing
The best writing advice contradicts itself, because there are not a finite number of ways to create a masterpiece. Advice about writing is more importantly writing itself, and it defines its own rules and strictures as much as it instructs its adherents directly. In the words of these masters we find the strength to go on.
This is a delightful collection of writing advice from all kinds of different writers. Skip the excerpts that bore you. There will be a couple. But there is a lot here, and plenty to enjoy.
How to overcome procrastination
It all comes down to the limbic systems and your prefrontal cortex.
OH DOESN’T IT ALWAYS. Goddamn you, limbic system.
Recently a student asked me how to handle the fact that in the time that it takes to write a book, we change, we grow. The self who finishes a book is not the same self who started it. And so, how do we reconcile these selves? How do we continue to evolve when what we know also continues to evolve?
This is a great argument for sending out your work before you think it's ready: if you wait until it's ready, you change and the work starts to change with it and it's never ready.
Electrified: adventures in transcranial direct-current stimulation
Clark offered to drive me back to my hotel. Everything was mesmerizing: a dumpster in the rear-view camera, the wide roads, the Route 66 signs, the Land of Enchantment license plates.
I just handed in a piece about a different kind of device that zaps the ol’ brain parts (sorry for getting so technical) and while researching I found this. Fascinating. Soon I will tell you about my brain device. My brain work now good, it thanked!
In conclusion: this song has been in my head all week. Which is a strange way to live, frankly.
I want to be a hedgehog officer so badly,
Alice