Matt's Mix Tape, Vol. 122

Hi, I’m Matt Tillotson, and this is Matt’s Mix Tape: essays + links on living a vibrant and creative middle life.

This weeks Mix:

• How to write with strategic authenticity

• Some of my favorite books of 2021

• This week’s not-a-Florida-photo

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How to write with strategic authenticity

Personal authenticity is a huge writing challenge.

Maybe the biggest.

And if you’re a more private person (like me) it’s hard to open up and share things online with strangers.

But if you want your writing to be interesting and vibrant, you have to open up at some point.

I tell writing students that we set our own boundaries. Writing authentically doesn’t mean sharing everything.

So I like Mark Schafer’s concept of strategic authenticity:

But if my audience is going to put their trust in me, they do deserve to know what I’m like and what I stand for.

[…]

So I’m not reporting every snotty nose and daily disappointments, but I open the door enough so people can see my priorities and values. That’s strategic authenticity.

Start small:

So I started to experiment — open up just a little. And something magical happened. Every time I said something personal, my readers would say something like “How did you know I was struggling with this same thing today!”  – or – “This helped me a lot to know I am not the only one having this problem.”

Set your boundaries. Take small incremental steps. But push yourself, also.

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Some of my favorite books of 2021

I read more fiction this year. That’s good, and a trajectory I plan to accelerate in 2022.

Also: Not all these books were new this year. But they were new to me this year.

The Splendid and The Vile, Erik Larson

A fascinating historical fiction work about Churchill during the London Blitz. Weaved throughout the book are insights into Churchill the writer: his struggles, his methods, and plenty of examples of his prose.

Victory’s Price, Alexander Freed

I have to slip one Star Wars novel in here. Victory’s Price is the third book in Alexander Freed’s Alphabet Squadron series, about a team of Republic pilots tasked with rooting out the remains of the fallen Empire, including the formidable 204th Imperial Fighter Wing.

It’s a novel about leadership, forgiveness, and the murkiness of doing “the right thing” in war.

The Midnight Library, Matt Haig

A woman attempts suicide, and in the space between life and death, reviews other potential lives she could have lived.

And it’s core, The Midnight Library is a story about the folly of regret.

The Bomber Mafia, Malcom Gladwell

Gladwell explores the two American schools of thought regarding bombing during World War II.

On one side, General Haywood Hansell believed an emerging technology—airborne warfare—could make wars shorter and far less deadly with precise and limited engagements.

General Curtis LeMay had a competing vision. He too believed airpower could shorten wars, but only by bombing widely and indiscriminately to create as much civilian and military destruction as possible.

LeMay wins out—but who was really right? The analysis is complicated.

Writing Down The Bones, Natalie Goldberg

Goldberg shares lessons learned in writing poetry, but her wisdom applies to writing anything. There’s unique writing advice here you won’t see in other books.

(I haven’t finished my review and summary yet, because my writing group—as it often does—told me my piece didn’t “have enough of me in it.” TBD.)

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

The fate of humanity—and an alien species—hangs in the balance of a unlikely interstellar alliance between two very different beings.

In addition to telling a great story with humor, Weir reminds us to express gratitude for all humanity has accomplished, and to look, with some reverence and awe, at what we are.

The Fatburn Fix, Dr. Cate Shannahan

Dr. Shannahan takes a very different look at how we eat and why we struggle with weight. She believes that as we overconsume sugar and vegetable oils, our bodies burn sugar for energy instead of stored fat.

The Fatburn Fix provides a roadmap to create your own fatburning machine.

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This week’s not-a-Florida-photo

I’ve been playing around with creating pixel art in Procreate. Here’s Han Solo. Because why not.

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Hello to 36 new subscribers

And thank you to you for reading. Drop me a note, ask a question, or tell me I’m wrong anytime.

Matt’s Mix Tape Logo #122 created from an Unsplash photo by Jess Bailey.