Hello citizens of OLDSTER! If you would like to attend a ZOOM conversation about the craft of creative writing and the form of pieces such as this post, the next one is on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28 from 3 to 4 EST. Readers and writers are invited to send ahead questions about their own writing projects and about the content of the posts. To RSVP and for more information about attending, please email me at: lauriestone@substack.com
What grips me is your courage, fluidity, grace, and gift for sharing *How You Think.* This is so much deeper and more powerful than *Telling Us a Story.*
Thanks so much for your comment. One model for what I'm doing here is the Shakespeare soliloquy, where we see a character changing their mind as they are thinking, right in front of the audience. This piece is a monologue, of sorts, and the dramatic action, the "story," you could say, is thought-in-action . . . how it plays from moment to moment. The moment-to-moment element is devised, not really something that is happening in the moment of writing. It's a trick of narrative to produce the feeling of a stream of thought that has been constructed, sentence by sentence, to create that effect. And other effects I hope will move the reader emotionally.
Screech… boom! Boy did this plop me right back into the 70s:
“crossroads of the women’s movement and the sexual revolution. You were living on behalf of women in more restrictive cultures all over the world.”
Planned Parenthood was a block from campus. I had done a quarter traveling in Europe for Art History and felt so privileged and lucky to have my American social freedoms when I got home. It was OK to have sex, and just out of curiosity. In fact, I felt that if I could, I ’should’, because my European peers were not yet in that space. On their behalf.
Thanks for putting into words a novelty situation that, once named, suddenly becomes understood.
Those freedoms have certainly changed for many Americans, and the mores in Europe are totally different now too. But there was a point in time where we had a much safer road of exploration and self discovery.
I know I do some things now on my sister's ‘behalf’, because she passed at only 49.
It’s something I will be thinking about for some time, and I thank you Ms Stone for recognizing that peculiar motivation.
‘On their behalf’ dances in lovely tandem to ‘what they would have wanted’… They love to justify delusions and mask dangers.
Stalked by ‘I know what you're thinking’ and ‘it’s for her own good’.
When I go on any road trip now, you better believe I am thinking of our Middle Eastern peers that risk so much just to drive. Makes me floor it a bit: in their honor, of course!
One of the most important concepts I learned a decade ago was to step back and try to cooly evaluate my own thinking processes. CBT.
It’s great that you appear here regularly. Many Thanks to Sari!
I love this piece. Baffling rejections by people we love, like, admire, whatever, slay me to this day. And free-wheeling sex before AIDS. Your stream-of-consciousness writing rocks.
Thanks, love. It's not "stream of consciousness," however. Every sentence is devised to lead you to the next one. It's a technique of narrative, not a series of thoughts that just arrived. Please consider coming to the next Zoom conversation on writing craft, if you are interested to know more about how it's done. You can email me at: lauriestone@substack.com
I thought Kamala and Walz would win because I adored them so much, actually watched most speeches, the debate, rallies - something I've never done for any political campaign. These are actually real people who share who they are, who care, who are smart. I wanted to live in their country for eight years. I was broken-hearted that they lost and I'm even more broken-hearted at what we now face. As for everything else, I am SO WITH RICHARD on the egg salad! I'll eat anything healthy and delicious, but since childhood, I would rather die than eat egg salad. Yeah, Richard. It smells like eggs! The other day when my husband and I went our way in town for different errands, I asked what he was going to eat. "An egg salad sandwich," he said. "I can do it because we're not eating together." Other than that, we cook a midday meal together every day, and every day it's a feast here overlooking the bay near Whidbey Island, where someone else invited you.
Hello Laurie! Great piece! In one of my very first Substack posts, I wrote about a red-headed man I've seen around town for years. My friend Marie made a comment noting that psychologist Stanley Milgram named this phenomenon- he calls such people 'familiar strangers'. It sucks that your guy dissipated your imaginings so thoroughly. Personally, I would have been delighted to see a familiar stranger on the other side of the world. I was just in London and I kept half-expecting it, but instead all I saw were lookalikes. https://open.substack.com/pub/rosiewhinray/p/the-dimension-of-the-infraordinary
I scroll down further and find Marie's next comment. She writes: "One may see the same person daily for years and maybe only ever smile, but if we should meet them in another city, we fall on their neck as if to a long-lost cousin..."
You write the journey so well, I rush to follow every turn, then slow down to enjoy the next view. This one made me sad, at the end. But I love egg salad and that cheered me up again. Another egg salad! And then I got caught up in peeling the eggs, a decision that often keeps me away.
Here is a trick for peeling the eggs. Set the eggs in the pan, bring to a boil, then after turn down the heat and let them simmer, no real movement in the water. After they are cool, the shells will come right off.
This is not just gorgeous, thoughtful and profoundly insightful: it's my life, only written better than I ever hope to do. I want to absorb every word, every image, every punctuation mark into my bloodstream and have some shred of the loveliness come through my fingertips.
Sorry - I don't often gush like this, but this is superb.
i believed kamala would win too and i feel so much this sentiment, "I didn't make a mistake." nope, don't look at me, 51% of america that's about to FAFO. so much to love here, but this line in particular resonated: "Time travel means you weren’t home when a sad feeling ended." i'm happy for your words, which reach out across distance to say, "oh hey. let me tell you something interesting." always, always, you do.
Hello citizens of OLDSTER! If you would like to attend a ZOOM conversation about the craft of creative writing and the form of pieces such as this post, the next one is on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28 from 3 to 4 EST. Readers and writers are invited to send ahead questions about their own writing projects and about the content of the posts. To RSVP and for more information about attending, please email me at: lauriestone@substack.com
What grips me is your courage, fluidity, grace, and gift for sharing *How You Think.* This is so much deeper and more powerful than *Telling Us a Story.*
Thanks so much for your comment. One model for what I'm doing here is the Shakespeare soliloquy, where we see a character changing their mind as they are thinking, right in front of the audience. This piece is a monologue, of sorts, and the dramatic action, the "story," you could say, is thought-in-action . . . how it plays from moment to moment. The moment-to-moment element is devised, not really something that is happening in the moment of writing. It's a trick of narrative to produce the feeling of a stream of thought that has been constructed, sentence by sentence, to create that effect. And other effects I hope will move the reader emotionally.
Screech… boom! Boy did this plop me right back into the 70s:
“crossroads of the women’s movement and the sexual revolution. You were living on behalf of women in more restrictive cultures all over the world.”
Planned Parenthood was a block from campus. I had done a quarter traveling in Europe for Art History and felt so privileged and lucky to have my American social freedoms when I got home. It was OK to have sex, and just out of curiosity. In fact, I felt that if I could, I ’should’, because my European peers were not yet in that space. On their behalf.
Thanks for putting into words a novelty situation that, once named, suddenly becomes understood.
Those freedoms have certainly changed for many Americans, and the mores in Europe are totally different now too. But there was a point in time where we had a much safer road of exploration and self discovery.
I know I do some things now on my sister's ‘behalf’, because she passed at only 49.
It’s something I will be thinking about for some time, and I thank you Ms Stone for recognizing that peculiar motivation.
Appropriate seasonal salutations!
Thanks for this great comment!
‘On their behalf’ dances in lovely tandem to ‘what they would have wanted’… They love to justify delusions and mask dangers.
Stalked by ‘I know what you're thinking’ and ‘it’s for her own good’.
When I go on any road trip now, you better believe I am thinking of our Middle Eastern peers that risk so much just to drive. Makes me floor it a bit: in their honor, of course!
One of the most important concepts I learned a decade ago was to step back and try to cooly evaluate my own thinking processes. CBT.
It’s great that you appear here regularly. Many Thanks to Sari!
I love this piece. Baffling rejections by people we love, like, admire, whatever, slay me to this day. And free-wheeling sex before AIDS. Your stream-of-consciousness writing rocks.
Thanks, love. It's not "stream of consciousness," however. Every sentence is devised to lead you to the next one. It's a technique of narrative, not a series of thoughts that just arrived. Please consider coming to the next Zoom conversation on writing craft, if you are interested to know more about how it's done. You can email me at: lauriestone@substack.com
Such a lovely morning read. Thank you for this time travel episode.
Thanks for reading. ❤️
I thought Kamala and Walz would win because I adored them so much, actually watched most speeches, the debate, rallies - something I've never done for any political campaign. These are actually real people who share who they are, who care, who are smart. I wanted to live in their country for eight years. I was broken-hearted that they lost and I'm even more broken-hearted at what we now face. As for everything else, I am SO WITH RICHARD on the egg salad! I'll eat anything healthy and delicious, but since childhood, I would rather die than eat egg salad. Yeah, Richard. It smells like eggs! The other day when my husband and I went our way in town for different errands, I asked what he was going to eat. "An egg salad sandwich," he said. "I can do it because we're not eating together." Other than that, we cook a midday meal together every day, and every day it's a feast here overlooking the bay near Whidbey Island, where someone else invited you.
Hello Laurie! Great piece! In one of my very first Substack posts, I wrote about a red-headed man I've seen around town for years. My friend Marie made a comment noting that psychologist Stanley Milgram named this phenomenon- he calls such people 'familiar strangers'. It sucks that your guy dissipated your imaginings so thoroughly. Personally, I would have been delighted to see a familiar stranger on the other side of the world. I was just in London and I kept half-expecting it, but instead all I saw were lookalikes. https://open.substack.com/pub/rosiewhinray/p/the-dimension-of-the-infraordinary
I scroll down further and find Marie's next comment. She writes: "One may see the same person daily for years and maybe only ever smile, but if we should meet them in another city, we fall on their neck as if to a long-lost cousin..."
You need to publish these as a book. Call it fiction or autofiction and you will win prizes.
Yup. Working on it. xxL
You write the journey so well, I rush to follow every turn, then slow down to enjoy the next view. This one made me sad, at the end. But I love egg salad and that cheered me up again. Another egg salad! And then I got caught up in peeling the eggs, a decision that often keeps me away.
Here is a trick for peeling the eggs. Set the eggs in the pan, bring to a boil, then after turn down the heat and let them simmer, no real movement in the water. After they are cool, the shells will come right off.
A thousand thanks!
Thanks for this beautiful, truly unique piece. I love your style, Laurie.
Thanks, love. Wonderful to hear!
I loved your latest book. You are wholly original 🙌
You made my day. ❤️
This is not just gorgeous, thoughtful and profoundly insightful: it's my life, only written better than I ever hope to do. I want to absorb every word, every image, every punctuation mark into my bloodstream and have some shred of the loveliness come through my fingertips.
Sorry - I don't often gush like this, but this is superb.
No apologies necessary! :) please come to the next Zoom conversation on Writing craft Dec28 from 3 to 4. EST.
I hope to be there! Thanks!
The more I read Laurie, the more I love her. Glad to see her here too.
Thanks so much Andrea, the column here is nearly 2 years old.
i believed kamala would win too and i feel so much this sentiment, "I didn't make a mistake." nope, don't look at me, 51% of america that's about to FAFO. so much to love here, but this line in particular resonated: "Time travel means you weren’t home when a sad feeling ended." i'm happy for your words, which reach out across distance to say, "oh hey. let me tell you something interesting." always, always, you do.
Nothing better to hear about a piece of writing. 💕
Wow this was so good all the different people you introduced including the porn addicted guy in the movie. I want to see this movie if I can find.
The sadness re: loosing your sister I felt since loosing my older sister 14 years ago. The cake metaphor brilliant.
Also I love talking about sex in our days & in my midwestern hood not many ever mention. It is so interesting to share & reflect on the good old days.
Finally, can relate to egg salad story.
Sometimes my husband chooses Chocolate to my vanilla.
Sending Kamala good vibes too.
xxL
I loved reading this post. Thank you.😊