Oak Ayling

Just keep standing. Just keep standing up.

Faith renewed in writing exactly as you feel called to, I am reposting my favourite piece about Time and Art and Goldfish and God. Thanks again to @TransfiguredLit and @david_perell whose podcast is a genuine lifeline. transfiguredlit.wordpress.com/2023/11/10/ves…

@david_perell This podcast is genuinely nurturing the parts of me which yearned for education and never received it. Nothing has ever edified me in my inclination to write the way that this episode has. As far as I'm concerned this conversation speaks to what a writer actually is. Thank you!

Ocean Vuong is a poet, novelist, and professor at NYU. This is the anti writing with AI conversation. It's about breaking free from technology and convention in order to see the world fresh again, and then make beautiful art about what you see. Some highlights: 1) "We're out here to write sentences the species has never encountered, and it's possible in this lifetime." 2) "Eighty percent of writing is looking and thinking. The last part is syntax." 3) "When you have a sentence, what you really have is consciousness filtered through syntax. For every single person, it's different." And below are all the things we talked about, in the form of timestamps: 1:40 Writing metaphors 4:52 The problem with writing workshops 13:02 How AI changed writing 23:32 Why did writing get so rigid? 28:04 Rescue the cliche! 32:06 Seeing vs. recognizing 34:37 80% of writing isn't writing 41:31 What makes sentences memorable 50:31 Poetry as a testing ground for writers 1:02:30 Synchronic vs diachronic reading 1:09:03 Daringness and disobedience 1:14:27 The limits of language I've shared the full interview with Ocean below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen on Apple / Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

“And the task of poetry’s unceasing labor is to bring together what life has separated or violence has torn apart. Poetry makes language care because it renders everything intimate.” -- John Berger

Jon Yaged runs Macmillan, one of the five biggest publishers in the world, so I asked him to explain the book publishing industry to me. My main question: why should authors work with a traditional publisher, especially when self-publishing is taking off? What I got was a full tour of how book publishing works. Everything from how authors make money, to how publishers choose which books to back, to the traditional vs. self-publishing debate. Timestamps: 2:01 Consolidation in book publishing 4:01 Celebrity books 7:57 The scale of the publishing industry 9:48 How to get your book published 14:15 New York 16:25 Using data to find great books 29:33 How to work with a publisher 31:11 The economics of a book deal 36:42 How sequels work 42:21 Children's books 48:42 Books in Europe vs. America 50:25 Should writers use AI? 1:00:57 How printing works 1:04:52 Book marketing advice 1:09:48 What a publishing CEO does 1:11:06 Audiobooks 1:15:17 Are people getting stupider? 1:18:20 The publisher business model 1:19:08 Macmillan I've shared the full interview with Jon Yaged below. If you'd rather watch or listen to the interview somewhere else, check out the first reply tweet where I've linked to the interview on YouTube, and also on Apple / Spotify. Enjoy!

We'reeeeee baaaccckkkkk 📖👀🪻 Check out volume 13 now!! sparepartslit.wixsite.com/sparepartslit/…

your tiny poems can change a big scary world

The state of the Internet in a nutshell: For 2.5 years, whenever I published a video on YouTube, I'd come up with a bespoke title / thumbnail that accurately described what the conversation was about. Then, during the summer, my view count fell. Nothing worked until I found a formula: "How to Write ________ Well." Always the same text. Throw an adverb in the middle, then share a quote from the interview in the thumbnail. People are 0.5% - 1% more likely to click on that title format, so the channel has exploded in growth. This title format is worse for my viewers and soul-deadening for me, but it's leading to so many more views that I'd be crazy not to follow it — and people are significantly more likely to click on videos with the formulaic title. This isn't just a story about YouTube. So much of the Internet works like this now.

We're trapped in a never-ending now. Essay via @david_perell

We may be closed right now but we are still 100% here for justice!

People have long held fast to the notion that the general public has the power to affect change in the world by sheer mathematical merit. If we truly believe this then we have the opportunity to prove it. Right now!

A lot of us want to avoid thinking about the atrocities evidenced in the Epstein files. All of us wish it wasn't true. But it is. If you feel powerless, there is one simple and lightning fast thing you CAN do. Please sign your name to this petition at @Change

Please lend your voice to the demand for accountability, prosecution and justice for the Epstein victims and survivors. c.org/kKcFmkQtsy

Don't sit on that novella or poetry collection — send it to Driftwood Press instead! Use the link in our bio for details. #callforsubmissions

It's that time of year again! And by that time of year we mean the time of year when you brew yourself a niiice cup of coffee and cozy up with a new Volume of Spare Parts Literary! Isn't it nice that our favourite time of year happens every few months? 🍂☕📖 sparepartslit.wixsite.com/sparepartslit/…

. @rejoindermag, a magazine doing serialised fiction, is looking for managing editor and a social media manager. Link in the comments.

“Crooked the road” live with Full version on YouTube Thank you for having us !

Very grateful to have a new poem out in @SparePartsLit special issue, protesting against AI erasure of the arts. What a great volume of work! Thank you for all you do for the arts, Oak Ayling, EIC.

You ever just want to slip into something and not come out again? Like a hot bath, or a tiny strip of coastland, or a song? youtube.com/watch?v=6UEi8z…

Volume 3 of ART/ificial is out now! Follow the link below to download your free copy and join the protest against AI erasure of the arts ✊🏿✊🏼✊🏽💀 sparepartslit.wixsite.com/sparepartslit/…