Check out these experienced writers’ viewpoints. Maybe one of them will help you get going.... Then you could try one of these [[assignments for texts about writing]]. [“On Trying Times & Saying Exactly What You Mean” by By Ernie Smith, September 11, 2025](https://tedium.co/2025/09/11/honest-statements-complex-culture/) > “Life is too short to not say exactly what you mean all the time.” [“Writing as Transformation” by Louise Glück](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/writing-as-transformation-louise-gluck) ([backup PDF](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E4W-rSMZVHuBn0sxOKqCTD-fmsbJv1Xp/view?usp=share_link)) > Making up stories, making up anything, seemed to me the most involving and wonderful activity I could possibly imagine. And the story seemed, in some way, more important than anything in the world, I suppose because it was not subject to change. I imagine that people believe in God for the same reason. [*Art of Fiction* No. 78, James Baldwin](https://drive.google.com/open?id=17x4xDSkQNH_VMN7JWSPk_MAHRVMvEeWD&authuser=mschulte%40waukesha.k12.wi.us&usp=drive_fs) An interview with [James Baldwin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin) from The Paris Review. [“A Way of Writing” by William Stafford](http://www2.csudh.edu/ccauthen/451S12/staffort.html) > William Stafford was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, on January 17, 1914. He received a BA and an MA from the University of Kansas at Lawrence and, in 1954, a PhD from the University of Iowa. During the Second World War, Stafford was a conscientious objector and worked in the civilian public service camps—an experience he recorded in the prose [[memoir]] Down My Heart (1947). He married Dorothy Hope Frantz in 1944; they had four children. [Harper Lee’s advice to young writers](https://www.openculture.com/2022/01/harper-lee-gives-advice-to-young-writers-in-one-of-her-only-interviews-captured-on-audio-1964.html) > “People who write for reward by way of recognition or monetary gain don’t know what they’re doing. They’re in the category of those who write; they are not writers,” she drawled. [“The Last Unicorn: Why Must You Always Speak In Riddles?”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNrTM74pdTk) by “What’s So Great About That?” > What is [[poetry]], what is fiction, what’s the difference, and who cares? > “Only to a magician is the world forever fluid, infinitely mutable and eternally new.” > I love Peter S Beagle, I love Joyce Carol Oates, I love Emily Dickinson, and I love this video. ([alternate link](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pA4SeTHpWGubAyfTh8VfFEHJkRgd67zL/view?usp=sharing)) [Thomas C. Foster on the Seven Deadly Sins of Writing](https://lithub.com/thomas-c-foster-on-the-seven-deadly-sins-of-writing/) > “You cannot let worry win.” “[How to feel bad and be wrong](https://www.experimental-history.com/p/how-to-feel-bad-and-be-wrong)” by Adam Mastroianni > “I didn’t have the guts to tell Zack that trying to get an A in my class was a waste of his time, and he should instead focus on putting out the various fires in his life. Nor did I have the guts to tell him that he shouldn’t get an A in my class, because obviously he hadn’t learned the most important thing I was trying to teach him, which was to get his priorities straight.” > (This essay isn’t *exactly* about writing, but it could be—can you make it be? For me, it has a lot to do with authenticity, which is something I struggle with daily in regards to my job as a teacher.) [“People simply empty out” by Charles Bukowski](https://drive.google.com/open?id=17yEytoUGzTo_6qkUAI6_80pBmPP0lUsx&authuser=mschulte%40waukesha.k12.wi.us&usp=drive_fs) > In 1969, publisher John Martin offered to pay Charles Bukowski $100 each and every month for the rest of his life, on one condition: that he quit his job at the post office and become a writer. 49-year-old Bukowski did just that, and in 1971 his first novel, Post Office, was published by Martin’s Black Sparrow Press. 15 years later, Bukowski wrote [this] letter to Martin and spoke of his joy at having escaped full time employment. [“The dangerous idea that life is a story” by Galen Strawson](https://drive.google.com/open?id=189bb1A4V6iTunnZ6jH1y59bh7HlIxBkn&authuser=mschulte%40waukesha.k12.wi.us&usp=drive_fs) at [*Aeon*](https://aeon.co/essays/let-s-ditch-the-dangerous-idea-that-life-is-a-story) > “Some find it comforting to think of life as a story. Others find that absurd. So are you a Narrative or a non-Narrative?” [Letter from Vonnegut](https://drive.google.com/open?id=18DWX2cmdiFAL4MnVzd5EJgtH4ffxDfWz&authuser=mschulte%40waukesha.k12.wi.us&usp=drive_fs) > The original site I got this from seems to not have it anymore, but I found it again at [this blog post](https://11eggs.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/letters-of-note-fraternally-brother-vonnegut/). “In 1989, eager to seek feedback from an established, highly influential author, and in an effort to simply reach out to a long-time inspiration, first-time novelist Mark Lindquist wrote to his idol, Kurt Vonnegut. Some time later a reply materialised in the form of the admirably gracious typewritten letter seen below, in which Vonnegut spoke of his inspirations in the literary world and warmly welcomed Lindquist into the ‘family’; the missive illustrated by way of Vonnegut’s self-portrait, drawn in his trademark style.” [“A Single Small Map Is Enough For A Lifetime” by Alastair Humphreys](https://www.noemamag.com/a-single-small-map-is-enough-for-a-lifetime/) > This is about “the importance of being amazed about absolutely everything,” which is a great mindset to have for exploring your own writing and this class!