What I appreciate is how this connects to your recent newsletters about perception. First you talked about how writers see, then how they observe and now how they remember. It’s all pointing toward the same idea: the raw event isn’t the story. The interpretation is. That’s a theme I’ve started noticing not just in writing but in my own life. The stories we repeat become the lens we use to see everything else. Thank you Idris Elijah for another engaging and fascinating read!
Ayyyye, Maria! I love this! Thank you!! You’re an absolutely right. Ultimately, what I’m trying to impose is that when we create, we should do it from a place of sharing our experiences more clearly. Clarity ties it all together. 🤩🤩🤩
The part about memory being more like an author than a camera spoke directly to me. When I paint from memory I always end up emphasizing certain details and completely ignoring others. I used to think that meant I was remembering incorrectly. Now I think it reveals what mattered emotionally. The painting becomes less about documenting a scene and more about translating an experience. Thank you Idris Elijah for reinforcing ideas that will help me improve my visual work!
You’re most welcome, Jody! I love how you translate these issues into the visual. Something I’ve been thinking about exploring myself. Thank you for sharing!! 🤩🤩🤩
This explains why some songs I’ve written years after an event feel more honest than the ones I wrote while it was happening. The facts get blurrier but the emotional meaning becomes clearer. I’ve started realizing that songwriting isn’t really about preserving moments. It’s about understanding them. That distinction changes the way I look at my own work. Thank you Idris Elijah for the great insights today that I know I will use in my music!
You’re most welcome, Brooke! Songwriting is most definitely about understanding moments. But often it takes a lot of time and experience before we realize it. 🤗🤗🤗
“The photograph captured the event. Your mind captured the significance.” That’s one of those lines I’ll probably be thinking about for a while. As writers, we spend so much time worrying about factual accuracy that we sometimes overlook emotional accuracy. The older I get, the more I think great storytelling lives in the space between the two. Not inventing reality but uncovering the meaning hidden inside it. Thank you Idris Elijah, I’ll be revisiting this insightful newsletter when I write my next story!
I could not have said it better. Great storytelling is somewhere between factual and emotional accuracy. As I get older, I’m also realizing the same. 🤗🤗🤗
This made me think about how many stories I’ve carried about myself that I stopped questioning years ago. Not facts but stories. The funny thing is that some of them probably started from a single moment and then grew into an identity. Reading this reminded me that the event and the meaning I attached to the event aren’t necessarily the same thing. That’s both an opportunity for growth and strangely freeing. Thank you Idris for discussing this topic so well today, I learned a lot from it!
Indeed the event and the meaning you attach to the event may not necessarily be the same thing. When I realized this, a sense of freedom does come up. You’re never truly defined by your past. 😎😎😎
What I appreciate is how this connects to your recent newsletters about perception. First you talked about how writers see, then how they observe and now how they remember. It’s all pointing toward the same idea: the raw event isn’t the story. The interpretation is. That’s a theme I’ve started noticing not just in writing but in my own life. The stories we repeat become the lens we use to see everything else. Thank you Idris Elijah for another engaging and fascinating read!
Ayyyye, Maria! I love this! Thank you!! You’re an absolutely right. Ultimately, what I’m trying to impose is that when we create, we should do it from a place of sharing our experiences more clearly. Clarity ties it all together. 🤩🤩🤩
The part about memory being more like an author than a camera spoke directly to me. When I paint from memory I always end up emphasizing certain details and completely ignoring others. I used to think that meant I was remembering incorrectly. Now I think it reveals what mattered emotionally. The painting becomes less about documenting a scene and more about translating an experience. Thank you Idris Elijah for reinforcing ideas that will help me improve my visual work!
You’re most welcome, Jody! I love how you translate these issues into the visual. Something I’ve been thinking about exploring myself. Thank you for sharing!! 🤩🤩🤩
This explains why some songs I’ve written years after an event feel more honest than the ones I wrote while it was happening. The facts get blurrier but the emotional meaning becomes clearer. I’ve started realizing that songwriting isn’t really about preserving moments. It’s about understanding them. That distinction changes the way I look at my own work. Thank you Idris Elijah for the great insights today that I know I will use in my music!
You’re most welcome, Brooke! Songwriting is most definitely about understanding moments. But often it takes a lot of time and experience before we realize it. 🤗🤗🤗
“The photograph captured the event. Your mind captured the significance.” That’s one of those lines I’ll probably be thinking about for a while. As writers, we spend so much time worrying about factual accuracy that we sometimes overlook emotional accuracy. The older I get, the more I think great storytelling lives in the space between the two. Not inventing reality but uncovering the meaning hidden inside it. Thank you Idris Elijah, I’ll be revisiting this insightful newsletter when I write my next story!
I could not have said it better. Great storytelling is somewhere between factual and emotional accuracy. As I get older, I’m also realizing the same. 🤗🤗🤗
This made me think about how many stories I’ve carried about myself that I stopped questioning years ago. Not facts but stories. The funny thing is that some of them probably started from a single moment and then grew into an identity. Reading this reminded me that the event and the meaning I attached to the event aren’t necessarily the same thing. That’s both an opportunity for growth and strangely freeing. Thank you Idris for discussing this topic so well today, I learned a lot from it!
Indeed the event and the meaning you attach to the event may not necessarily be the same thing. When I realized this, a sense of freedom does come up. You’re never truly defined by your past. 😎😎😎