7,305 letters

On April 2 of this year, I will have been writing a letter every day for twenty years. I write by hand on a piece of paper, or on an exhibition entry, or on a drawing of my son. Every day I write one letter, I put it in an envelope, I close the envelope,…

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Pregnancy after miscarriage

Ever since I lost Queralt I’ve learned a few things about the various dimensions of grief after a miscarriage. Things that have to do with my own experience and others having to do with the experiences of other women who have unfortunately gone through a similar situation. One of the things I’ve learned is that…

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The method of the rational writer

In the last post I talked about the intuitive writer. Today I will approach the rational writer who, as I said, is the most described in all writing manuals that can be found in bookstores. The rational writer always thinks before writing the story, he plans it and works the idea out, before starting to…

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The method of the intuitive writer

As I explained here, we could say that there are two types of writer: the intuitive writer and the rational one. These two roles are actually just a theoretical model that simplifies reality. We would thus, ideally, have these two model writers which are located at two opposite ends of a line, working in opposite…

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To think or not to think before writing

When I started preparing the syllabus for the creative writing classes at the Laboratori de Lletres, I asked myself: how can you teach writing? I studied Fine Arts, so I saw the resemblance quite fast. Teaching writing is as difficult as teaching painting, sculpture, and art in general. You can teach the techniques (stone carving,…

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We are missing a word

English has the word miscarriage to describe the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy. In my language (Catalan) and also in Spanish we have to say abortion. Spontaneous abortion, okay, but really everyone calls it abortion. And an abortion is not the same thing as a miscarriage. It can also be called pregnancy loss or stillbirth…

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Why

I’ve always admired people who keep a blog. It requires a lot of discipline, to have much to say, or to be eager to share with the world what you think or what you do. Although I work as a teacher and I am often in the position to have to speak to a group…

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