Jack El-Hai: writing wisdom and tips

#Writing: "Depending on the published work to provide happiness, success, or contentment is a mistake. Rather, it is in the work itself that one should look for the reward from our craft." – James McGrath Morris

#Writing: "I am always afraid of things being too simple, too obvious, but I've learned that when there are too many stories going at once, it is like having ten different songs playing at once in a room." – Arya Samuelson

#Writing: "A story's greatest challenge is just a hair away from its greatest opportunity." – Peter Rock

#Writing: "He who has never been an apprentice will never become a master." – Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, who died 50 years ago on today's date

#Writing: "Young fiction writers are making a terrible mistake by self-publishing. And I believe the platforms that are selling those tools are doing them a disservice." – Margaret Verble

#Writing: "People don't really want reality. They want theater, and that's different." – D. A. Pennebaker

#Writing: "And why should I not, as a good gastronomer, publish some of my experiences in the 'social science' of cookery?" – Georgiana Hill, born 200 years ago on today's date

#Writing: "Love truth, but pardon error." – Voltaire

#Writing: "To mock foes, is that not the sweetest mockery?" – Sophocles

#Writing: "My list of story ideas continues to grow. I figure if I'm hungry to find out more about a particular challenge or trend or facet of life, surely others are, too." – Abby Alten Schwartz

"Dear #writer friend: I will not read your Substack. But I will never unsubscribe. Because in this strange digital terrain of content and community, I believe the gesture still counts." – Rebecca Morrison

#Writing: "Objectivity? I always have an objective." — Jessica Mitford

#Writing: "The humor in my later books is sometimes very adolescent, which strikes me as a good sign — immaturing with age." – Geoff Dyer

#Writing: "Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." – Mary Oliver

#Writing: "To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard." – Allen Ginsberg

#Writing: "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." - George Orwell

#Writing: "Dialogue is not conversation. Dialogue is a construct; it is artificial; it is much more efficient and believable than real conversation." – John L'Heureux

#Writing: "Learn punctuation; it is your little drum set, one of the few tools you have to signal the reader where the beats and emphases go." – Annie Dillard advicetowriters.com/advice/learn-p…

At last coming to a movie theater near you on November 7 – Nuremberg, adapted from my book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. variety.com/2025/film/news…

#Writing: "If they ever stop making index cards, I guess I'll stop writing books." – Susan Orlean