The Makings of A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
"After all, as Dillard told me, one of the goals of writing about an experience is to mythologize it—“not that one is aware that one is mythologizing, but you want everything simplified and enlarged.” Most of us do this subconsciously whenever we tell stories."Diana Saverin in _The Thoreau of the Suburbs_
A must read for your book wish list
This is undoubtedly my favorite book. I first read it in college my junior year. I have read it almost every other year since then. It is the only book that I own that I have more than one copy. I can't recommend it enough. (Wrote about it a couple of years ago as well.)
It is a book of solitude, of nature, of being curious, of noticing and of questions. It captures, as Diana Saverin, the author of this article aptly puts, the "brutality and beauty" of the creation around us.
This article is wonderful fodder for writers. It delves into the mind of a writer. Dillard wrestles with her craft. And she has a Pulitzer to show for it.
"Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our hearts?"from The Writing Life by Annie Dillard