Why Writing Fiction is Worth It

Play sports for the trophies. Make art so your dad will love you. Write a novel so that you can put "New York Times Bestselling Author" on the website you haven't built yet. It's all about external validation, guys. Guys? GUYS?!?! I post about my process and vaguely literary stuff on Substack: https://belowthefray.substack.com/ Thumbnail illustration by Andy Alvez:   / andyalvez   -- Quotations -- Susan Sontag's "A writer is someone who pays attention to the world" is from her interview in The Paris Review: https://www.theparisreview.org/interv... The waiter line is from Raymond Chandler's excellent The High Window. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hig... Kerouac quote from his poem "Belief & Technique for Modern Prose." https://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/8... James Baldwin's story of seeing the city in the puddle from his interview in The Paris Review: https://www.theparisreview.org/interv... -- Clips -- Dua Lipa In Conversation With Hernan Diaz, Author Of Trust:    • Dua Lipa In Conversation With Hernan Diaz,...   Daniel Green interviews his agent, Seth Fishman:    • An interview with my literary agent: Seth ...   Sunyi Dean on Publishing Rodeo Episode 1: Intros and Spilling Secrets    • Publishing Rodeo Episode 1: Intros and Spi...   Dua Lipa In Conversation With Ocean Vuong, Author Of On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous:    • Dua Lipa In Conversation With Ocean Vuong,...   Nathan Englander talks with Zadie Smith:    • Nathan Englander talks with Zadie Smith   Donna Tartt on Charlie Rose:    • Donna Tartt interview (1992)   David Foster Wallace on Charlie Rose:    • David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen and...   John Updike:    • John Updike: To Be a Novelist   Sally Rooney on The Interview (New York Times Podcasts):    • 'The Interview': Sally Rooney Thinks Caree...   UCLA professor Richard Walter on Film Courage:    • It’s All About Story And Nothing Else - UC...   Wera reads Cormac McCarthy:    • i read ✨Cormac McCarthy✨ and he gave me an...   Charles Bukowski:    • Charles Bukowski: Why Most Writers are Bor...   Billy Crystal in Throw Momma from the Train:    • THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN (1987) | Writer...   Kendrick Lamar & Rick Rubin Have an Epic Conversation | GQ:    • Kendrick Lamar & Rick Rubin Have an Epic C...   Novelist Hernan Diaz | Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference:    • Novelist Hernan Diaz | Conversations from ...   Elif Batuman | False Starts | Granta Magazine:    • Elif Batuman | False Starts | Granta Magazine   The NeverEnding Story:    • The NeverEnding Story | Original Trailer |...   Marx Brothers mirror scene from Duck Soup:    • The Mirror Scene - Duck Soup (7/10) Movie ...   -- Paintings -- The Adoration of the Kings by Jan Gossaert - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adorati...) The Lament for Icarus by Herbert Draper - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... The Fall of Icarus by Jacob Peter Gowy - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... The Magdalen Reading by Rogier van der Weyden - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mag... Saint Jerome Reading in a Landscape by Giovanni Bellini - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... The Café Royal by William Orpen - https://www.pubhist.com/w54901 At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_... Rouen Cathedral series by Claude Monet - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouen_C... Kit’s Writing Lesson by Robert Braithwaite Martineau - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/... 00:00 Intro 1:06 Getting published 3:19 Books have changed our lives 5:16 Becoming sensitive to the world 11:29 Wrestling with words