{"id":115,"date":"2016-05-13T14:22:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T14:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/?p=115"},"modified":"2020-12-11T17:59:26","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T17:59:26","slug":"what-it-feels-like-to-write","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/?p=115","title":{"rendered":"What it Feels Like to Write"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-124\" src=\"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/cutting-ice.jpg\" alt=\"cutting ice\" width=\"444\" height=\"600\" data-wp-pid=\"124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/cutting-ice.jpg 444w, https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/cutting-ice-222x300.jpg 222w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 444px) 100vw, 444px\" \/>I saw this Amy Poehler quote today: &#8220;I have told people that writing this book has been like brushing away dirt from a fossil. What a load of shit. It has been like hacking away at a freezer with a screwdriver.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Writing can go many ways for me. Sometimes the words and story come more easily, particularly if I just let my standards go. I don&#8217;t mean that in a flip way. &#8220;Standards&#8221; in this case are imaginary constructs that say if I don&#8217;t write for long enough, the better words will come along. They&#8217;re false standards. Probably I&#8217;m suffering through low-level writing neurosis when the writing slows down. When the neurosis kicks in, I&#8217;m hanging out with Amy, chipping the ice.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a bad writing place to be. I&#8217;m better off letting the standards go, writing steadily through the misgivings, and then evaluating what I&#8217;ve done later.<\/p>\n<p>Close your eyes. Type as if no one is watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I saw this Amy Poehler quote today: &#8220;I have told people that writing this book has been like brushing away dirt from a fossil. What a load of shit. It has been like hacking away at a freezer with a screwdriver.\u201d Writing can go many ways for me. Sometimes the words and story come more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,32,3],"tags":[33,7,10],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-writers-block","category-writing","tag-writers-block","tag-writing","tag-writing-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}