NotebookOn Lobsters, and How To Write (And Live) Greatly: A Lesson From A Quote from Chris Jones
A central focus of this blog is going to be exploring ways to reach my goals of writing regularly for major magazines. My goal is to one day land an "At Large" or "Senior Writer" or "Contributing Writer" title for some big fish out there.
Today's lesson in How To Write Greatly comes from Chris Jones, the two-time National Magazine Award winner, Esquire Writer-At-Large, gentleman extraordinaire, and recent publisher of this tweet:
For magazine writers, newspapers are like lobster tanks. "I'll have that one!"
The lesson for me as a writer is obvious. If I want to be a big-time magazine writer, I should search for great stories in the smallest and most unlikely of places. Like newspapers. Newspapers are like little collections, each day a bin of miscellany through which to rummage. But rummage I must, else I may miss a gem or piece of gold. Or, well, like lobster tanks. Only instead of killing and eating the story we pick from the tank, we are giving it new life. It will still nourish and make full those who read it—hopefully, and of course metaphorically—but it will live on, grow bigger, take on a new, greater form than it could have before.
Likewise, as a pursuer of the quality life, I must take the small things, pick some to invest in, and then commit to them. Like this blog. Like friendships. Like all those things that are easy to overlook as nonessential, but which, given dedication and nourishment and, really, just some time, can become things that give our lives a new and greater form than we could have imagined before.
On the flip side of that, picking the biggest, juiciest lobster also means ignoring the smaller, less juicy lobsters. As we must invest in some small things, other small things, things that we somehow have built up to seem bigger and more important than they are really worth, must be let go, and let fade away. And while in the moment of release, the letting go of these things feels painful, what happens later, and what that release brings ... it's so good. Like juicy lobsters.
What dreams are you chasing, and what's holding you back from them?
Reader Comments (2)
That really made me want to eat a lobster. Thanks for the kind words, Brandon.
I love lobster.