The Reading

Share this post

The Writing: What writing unproductively means

yanyi.substack.com

The Writing: What writing unproductively means

On the Atlanta shootings.

Yanyi
Mar 17, 2021
29
4
Share this post

The Writing: What writing unproductively means

yanyi.substack.com

Thanks for coming by. This post has been migrated.

4
Share this post

The Writing: What writing unproductively means

yanyi.substack.com
4 Comments
Manjinder Sidhu
Mar 17, 2021Liked by Yanyi

As writers, anything that we write or reflect towards is, an act of bearing witness. There are multitudes of moments - some that go down smoothly, some that shred all the way down - but I do not believe anything is unproductive.

Expand full comment
Reply
1 reply by Yanyi
Rascher Marie Alcasid
Writes malikot
Mar 17, 2021Liked by Yanyi

Thank you, Yanyi. I think of the virtual event you led a few weeks ago, Sick at Heart. It was so healing, so generative. I need that again. After something like this happens, I also find it so difficult to write. But at the event you shared Reginald Shepherd's words from Why I Write and this line, "My aim is to rescue some portion of the drowned and drowning, including always myself." This reminds me that my memoir about my experience as an Asian American woman, being on the receiving end of gun violence. But it's not just the telling of that moment in my life years ago and how that moment echoes, it is how it still depicts life in America today. This formula of male anger, easy access to guns, the savage moments before death and sorrow, how many repetitions of this do we need? I'm too angry, too full of echoes to write today. So I'm giving myself permission, like you, to be visible in my anger, if only here and to myself.

Expand full comment
Reply
2 more comments…
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Yanyi
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing