The person we see when we look in the mirror is the person we become, the person we fight to defend and persist with.
— Seth Godin, When we look in the mirror
What makes a self - Maria Popova explores how the Romantics developed our idea of what a self is. Paul Jun looks at the effects of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. Craig Mod returns to drumming to rediscover himself.
Taking care of yourself - Reimena Yee confronts workaholism and compares the creative self to the cycles of nature. Abby VanMuijen and Michelle McGhee built a tool to visualize feelings and improve your emotional awareness. Victoria Ng speaks on maintaining a stable, authentic self in the face of major life changes. Mason Currey shares Sally Mann’s praise for self-doubt and insecurity can be a gift to artists.
Mistaken identities - Kathleen Murphy finds Shakespearean comedy in Bringing Up Baby’s misunderstandings and misdirection. The Writer Emergency Blog dives into the fake-it-till-you-make-it antics of Galaxy Quest. The Big Lebowski kicks into gear with a case of mistaken identity, and Cinefix looks at how the confusion extends to how to classify its genre.
Nobody’s here - Darren Mooney covers the shifting, ambiguous identities used in The Departed. Michael Stern takes a deep dive into how Persona breaks the audience’s expectations of behavior and identity.
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Keeping up the pace
We’re launching another week-long thread in Substack for subscribers looking to write some pages and cheer each other on!
What’s a Write Sprint?
John wrote up an explanation, but here’s the short version: Set a timer for 60 minutes, close down all distractions, and do nothing but write until that timer goes off.
If you want to start a sprint, drop a comment in the thread saying:
What you’re working on (in whatever level of detail you’re comfortable with)
Your goal for your 60 minute write sprint
When you plan to start
You can also comment to sync up with someone else’s sprint, drop in on the thread to cheer other writers on, or meet new people!
A quick shout out to Brian Matusz, who had this to say after his Write Sprint:
I know I lament when I hear people say how good they feel after a workout. But that writing sprint felt great.
Reading the room
Previously on Inneresting…
In case you missed it, in last issue’s most clicked link Andrew Stanton explains the relationship between a solid premise and the audience suspending their disbelief.
Other Inneresting Things…
Matt Webb explains why you shouldn’t buy a lifetime supply of toilet paper by way of an analogy about interstellar travel.
Jamie Thingelstad reminds us that you don’t own your online work unless you own your domain.
Noah Smith argues for community moderation and a decentralized internet.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
Inneresting is edited by Chris Csont, with contributions from readers like you and the entire Quote-Unquote team.
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🗣 Have ideas for future topics (or just want to say hello)? Reach out to Chris via email at inneresting@johnaugust.com, Twitter @ccsont, or Mastodon @ccsont@mastodon.art