So the New York Writers Workshop Pitch Conference was phenomenal, Tim Tomlinson and Charles Salzberg have saved my query letter. Also felt a lot of empathy with my fellow writers – all the people in my group were real writers who deserve to succeed, and about three of the stories seemed really wild. Someone with a finished manuscript ready to pitch is someone doing something right.
Also I realized that my love is writing is not a love of language or words, but rather a love of generating meaning. Words are the most precise way to generate meaning so therefore I use them, but really, it’s finding out new and inventive ways to express interesting ideas that drives me as a writer. Language is my tool but like rope it is only a means to an end. The generation of meaning is the most amazing development in the biological world. Writers, as creators of meaning out of thin air, have a duty to fulfill meaning itself. It’s not about pretty words – it’s about resisting the cold, bleak vision of the universe every step of the way by exposing meaning within it, even when something is deeply tragic it is still beautiful. Meaning is inherently beautiful.