i always enjoy your thg posts and reading about books in general. but i struggle to articulate my own thoughts about books i like, beyond "i like this". the most insightful thing i've ever said was that half his age (which i loved) is about different ways people seek validation. i feel like i can't engage in thoughtful discussion about books or stories. do you have any advice for how i could improve on that?
anon!! ive been thinking about how to reply to this. its an interesting question and i guess i have a few thoughts!
first of all, for me, i think i process a lot through language. i write things down constantly, to make sense of them, to read them back to myself, to talk them out and work things out. and i genuinely think part of why there are SO MANY WORDS of mine on this blog is partly just because that’s how i think and that’s how i make sense of the world, and that extends to just like, personal blogging too.
but second, i think you can always work and practice to write more if that’s something you want to do! it’s like a muscle; you can train it and build it and improve on it. i think a lot of my writing is now just built off years of instincts from my school years and so i don’t necessarily think directly about a lot of the craft of writing because it’s sort of subconscious to me now. so part of getting better at it is just doing it more!
in terms of your specific question, i guess id start with just sort of asking yourself questions. i love to stress test my ideas and takes, and for me it usually takes the form of more writing. so maybe to start there’s an exercise in there with just spinning out what you already wrote. i haven’t read half his age (yet!!) BUT. in terms of what you wrote, my next questions would be: what are the different types of validation you noticed? where do you see them in the book and how do they show up? do you agree with the way the book portrays it? is there something missing?
and you can write that however! make a mind map on a sheet of paper and write bullet points, make a list in your notes app and write it out, send yourself an email and read it back in a week and add to it. whatever works best for you! but challenge yourself to take an idea and follow it down its rabbit hole as deep as you can go. (i think my brain sort of tends toward that anyway, i have like, a genuine inability not to just dig and dig and dig until i get to the bottom of something. but it is why i think so many of my ideas get written out over and over and over again.)
