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John Cage on the true meaning of discipline
I've been thinking about it all wrong.
22 hrs ago
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Mason Currey
67
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John Cage on the true meaning of discipline
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17
Write a letter to your project
Worm School Extension, week 1
13 hrs ago
•
Mason Currey
16
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Write a letter to your project
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3
Françoise Sagan on the power of laziness
A timely reminder from the author of Bonjour Tristesse
May 27
•
Mason Currey
131
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Françoise Sagan on the power of laziness
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16
Most Popular
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Totally insane and truly helpful
May 13
•
Mason Currey
1,040
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Totally insane and truly helpful
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101
The truest thing I’ve ever read about making art
May 15, 2023
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Mason Currey
258
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The truest thing I’ve ever read about making art
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76
Van Gogh’s advice to a young artist
Aug 7, 2023
•
Mason Currey
222
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Van Gogh’s advice to a young artist
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32
Know your creative cycle
Jul 15, 2024
•
Mason Currey
799
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Know your creative cycle
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46
David Milch’s disembodied writing process
Feb 5, 2024
•
Mason Currey
183
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David Milch’s disembodied writing process
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71
Get rid of what your project needs
Jan 22, 2024
•
Mason Currey
182
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Get rid of what your project needs
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36
📌
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New to Subtle Maneuvers? Start here
Links for the newsletter curious
Jul 25, 2024
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Mason Currey
7
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New to Subtle Maneuvers? Start here
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Worm Zoom
Join the weekday Zoom and tracking spreadsheet here
Jun 16, 2024
•
Mason Currey
59
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Worm Zoom
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16
Subtle Maneuvers
A fortnightly newsletter on routines, rituals, and wriggling through a creative life, from the author of Daily Rituals: How Artists Work
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Recommendations
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Austin Kleon
Austin Kleon
Lonely Victories
Hurley Winkler
CAFÉ ANNE
Anne Kadet
The Elif Life
Elif Batuman
Oldster Magazine
Sari Botton
Filmmakers
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The Fassbinder Method
“So: completion come what may.”
Dec 16, 2024
•
Mason Currey
70
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The Fassbinder Method
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18
David Milch’s disembodied writing process
“I lie there on the floor and I talk and the words come up on the screen.”
Feb 5, 2024
•
Mason Currey
183
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David Milch’s disembodied writing process
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71
Get rid of what your project needs
A peek into Céline Sciamma’s desire-driven process
Jan 22, 2024
•
Mason Currey
182
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Get rid of what your project needs
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36
Mike Leigh’s gloriously inefficient filmmaking process
“I can’t tell you about the character because there is no character.”
Nov 13, 2023
•
Mason Currey
113
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Mike Leigh’s gloriously inefficient filmmaking process
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38
Musicians & composers
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What artists really do
John Cage on the whole job, in a nutshell
Feb 24
•
Mason Currey
134
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What artists really do
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44
Cindy Lee knows the secret
“Doing it is where it’s at I think.”
Dec 2, 2024
•
Mason Currey
84
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Cindy Lee knows the secret
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16
Subtle Maneuvers x Oblique Strategies
“You’re most alive when you’re not quite sure what is going on.”
Oct 7, 2024
•
Mason Currey
114
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Subtle Maneuvers x Oblique Strategies
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31
Viv Albertine’s brilliant memoir of creative frustration
“Every day the task seems hopeless and I feel like giving up.”
Nov 14, 2022
•
Mason Currey
68
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Viv Albertine’s brilliant memoir of creative frustration
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25
Get a new issue every other Tuesday
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Novelists
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Françoise Sagan on the power of laziness
A timely reminder from the author of Bonjour Tristesse
May 27
•
Mason Currey
131
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Subtle Maneuvers
Françoise Sagan on the power of laziness
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16
Gary Indiana’s controlled uncontrol
The late writer on stumbling through projects, putting things in proximity to one another, and how not to write about Warhol
Nov 4, 2024
•
Mason Currey
56
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Gary Indiana’s controlled uncontrol
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9
Kathy Acker was against creativity
“I set up this task, this nutty task basically, and I’d do it!”
Mar 18, 2024
•
Mason Currey
115
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Kathy Acker was against creativity
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11
Jane Bowles was vulnerable and strong
“I’ve got to do it my way and my way is more difficult than yours.”
Feb 19, 2024
•
Mason Currey
107
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Jane Bowles was vulnerable and strong
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20
Painters
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Faith Ringgold’s exuberant pragmatism
Portable paintings—and a very expensive mistake for artists
Apr 29, 2024
•
Mason Currey
148
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Faith Ringgold’s exuberant pragmatism
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34
Living with art stops one wilting!
Letters from the late Austrian artist Maria Lassnig
Aug 21, 2023
•
Mason Currey
89
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Living with art stops one wilting!
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14
Van Gogh’s advice to a young artist
“In order to write a book, do a deed, paint a picture with some life in it, one has to be alive oneself.”
Aug 7, 2023
•
Mason Currey
222
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Van Gogh’s advice to a young artist
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32
The mantra issue
Smooth as butter
Jul 24, 2023
•
Mason Currey
94
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The mantra issue
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44
New issues are free for all—paid subscribers get the full archive of 150+ back issues
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Poets
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My Baudelaire Summer
“How difficult it is to do as one ought every day.”
Sep 9, 2024
•
Mason Currey
128
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My Baudelaire Summer
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20
Petrarch got up every morning at midnight
“I regard sleep as a kind of death, my bed as a tomb.”
Apr 15, 2024
•
Mason Currey
145
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Petrarch got up every morning at midnight
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30
Sharon Olds’s huge archive of thinking and feeling
“Clouds of meaning were rolling this way and that.”
Nov 27, 2023
•
Mason Currey
173
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Sharon Olds’s huge archive of thinking and feeling
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62
Louise Glück on writer’s block
“I think everything good in my own work I owe to endurance.”
Oct 16, 2023
•
Mason Currey
143
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Louise Glück on writer’s block
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41
Making art is like setting a trap
Philip Larkin on constructing “the device”
Sep 18, 2023
•
Mason Currey
181
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Making art is like setting a trap
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40
Henri Cole on the enemies within
And why they’re a gift
May 1, 2023
•
Mason Currey
92
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Henri Cole on the enemies within
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26
Alice Notley on getting things to come easily
Here’s the secret, if you can bear it
Mar 20, 2023
•
Mason Currey
98
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Alice Notley on getting things to come easily
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41
Bernadette Mayer will give you ideas
On the late American poet’s irrepressible confident weirdness
Mar 6, 2023
•
Mason Currey
176
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Bernadette Mayer will give you ideas
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24
“Productivity”
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John Cage on the true meaning of discipline
I've been thinking about it all wrong.
22 hrs ago
•
Mason Currey
67
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Subtle Maneuvers
John Cage on the true meaning of discipline
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17
Totally insane and truly helpful
The best creativity advice I've read in ages—plus, enroll now in Worm School Extension 🪱🎓
May 13
•
Mason Currey
1,040
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Subtle Maneuvers
Totally insane and truly helpful
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Notes
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101
The Fassbinder Method
“So: completion come what may.”
Dec 16, 2024
•
Mason Currey
70
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The Fassbinder Method
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18
The Complete Worm School
My summer course on wriggling through a creative life has now concluded—read the entire series here.
Jul 23, 2024
•
Mason Currey
24
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The Complete Worm School
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Writing is bouldering, bouldering is writing
On “eking out a delicate gift laboriously”
Apr 1, 2024
•
Mason Currey
94
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Writing is bouldering, bouldering is writing
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41
The dumbest and best productivity trick
And why I’m rebelling against it anyway
Dec 11, 2023
•
Mason Currey
307
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The dumbest and best productivity trick
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104
Samuel Johnson and the art of procrastination
Or how to write 1,800 words an hour
May 30, 2023
•
Mason Currey
166
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Samuel Johnson and the art of procrastination
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75
Three tales of creative slowness
“A week is nothing, one thinks one can do so much in a week”
Apr 3, 2023
•
Mason Currey
195
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Three tales of creative slowness
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58
Worm School 🐛
View all
Finish it!!!
Worm School, week eight
Jul 22, 2024
•
Mason Currey
27
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Finish it!!!
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28
Know your creative cycle
Worm School, week seven
Jul 15, 2024
•
Mason Currey
799
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Know your creative cycle
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46
Seek funny leaps
Worm School, week six
Jul 8, 2024
•
Mason Currey
25
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Seek funny leaps
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25
Lean into ritual
Worm School, week five
Jul 1, 2024
•
Mason Currey
123
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Lean into ritual
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53
Follow your energy
Worm School, week four
Jun 24, 2024
•
Mason Currey
33
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Follow your energy
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40
Find some accountability
Worm School, week three
Jun 17, 2024
•
Mason Currey
69
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Find some accountability
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24
Forgive yourself
Worm School, week two
Jun 10, 2024
•
Mason Currey
47
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Forgive yourself
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43
Think smaller
Worm School, week one
Jun 3, 2024
•
Mason Currey
120
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Think smaller
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62
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masoncurrey
Subtle Maneuvers
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