If a nation loses its storytellers,
it loses its childhood.

—Peter Handke

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“The Most Beautiful Train Ride in the World” (Part 4)

“The Most Beautiful Train Ride in the World” (Part 4)

Riding the Ella Odyssey: Into the Wilds (Part 4 of 5) (In case you missed it, here is a link to Part 1) Between Idalgashinna and Pattipola, the track runs through its wildest stretch on the route—dense rainforest and tunnel after tunnel. (There are fourteen tunnels...

Who wants to become a writer?
And why?
Because it’s the answer to everything. . . .
It’s the streaming reason for living.
To note, to pin down, to build up, to create,
to be astonished at nothing,
to cherish the oddities,
to let nothing go down the drain,
to make something,
to make a great flower out of life,
even if it’s a cactus.

—Enid Bagnold

 

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“The Most Beautiful Train Ride in the World” (Part 3)

“The Most Beautiful Train Ride in the World” (Part 3)

  Riding the Ella Odyssey: The Most Spectacular Part of the Ride (Part 3 of 5) (In case you missed it, here is a link to Part 1) Almost immediately beyond Ella, the vistas swell. No longer were we seeing across a river valley, but across vast highland plains to...

It’s often good to do
a fishing trip between
the first draft and the second draft,
because that’s
where you find the howlers—
that’s where you see
the weaknesses. . . .
You need the distance to see it.

—David Seidler,
Creative Spark: David Seidler

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