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Jason Schwartzman
Jason Schwartzman

801 Followers

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Published in Forge

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How to Have a Great Conversation With Anyone, Anywhere

When I let small talk with strangers spiral into something deeper, it became a book about memorable interactions. Here’s what I learned. — The best conversations crack us open. They leave us tender and reeling, alive again with possibility, mesmerized by the uncanny nature of things. When you really “get there” with someone, you reach what my friend once referred to as the wilderness. You may not know where you are anymore, but…

Conversations

6 min read

How to Have a Great Conversation With Anyone, Anywhere
How to Have a Great Conversation With Anyone, Anywhere
Conversations

6 min read


Jun 28, 2022

How To Edit a (Live) Conversation

Acting like an editor will make your chats more dynamic. — As a magazine editor, part of my job is to cut away verbal fat. The boring parts, repetitions, whatever needs cutting. I’m also a student of compelling conversation (I wrote a book made of unusual and uncanny ones). So I took note when I was increasingly getting marooned in frustrating…

Conversations

6 min read

How To Edit a Conversation (Live!)
How To Edit a Conversation (Live!)
Conversations

6 min read


Apr 27, 2022

What It’s Like To Be Every Age, According To Fictional Characters

I made this bonkers existential timeline inspired by a flower clock. — Through one rabbit hole or other, I recently discovered Carl Linnaeus’ notion of the horologium florae, or flower clock, which was based around the idea that different species of flowers opened at different times of day — sometimes at very precise times — and theoretically you could create a functional…

Aging

8 min read

What It’s Like To Be Every Age, According To Fictional Characters
What It’s Like To Be Every Age, According To Fictional Characters
Aging

8 min read


Mar 30, 2022

All Writers Should Murmur This Credo To Themselves

It has to do with treating reality as a dreamscape. — I was elbowing my way through Grand Central Station, early for the tour. An idiosyncratic tour guide (and hero of mine) was returning to New York City to guide people through his observations of the venerable train station, and I’d raced to make my reservation, afraid it’d be sold out…

Writing

5 min read

All Writers Should Murmur This Credo To Themselves
All Writers Should Murmur This Credo To Themselves
Writing

5 min read


Mar 23, 2022

Storytelling Secrets from the Breaking Bad Writers’ Room

A roundtable interview offered several craft insights. — “Just because you shot Jesse James, don’t make you Jesse James…” I recently rewatched “Breaking Bad,” the TV show that famously bucked the culture of “enforced stasis” and plotted an epic character change over five seasons, in this case turning “Mr. Chips into Scarface” in the formulation of the creator…

Writing

6 min read

Storytelling Secrets from the Breaking Bad Writers’ Room
Storytelling Secrets from the Breaking Bad Writers’ Room
Writing

6 min read


Published in Creators Hub

·Mar 17, 2022

A Bummer of a Text Exchange Yielded This Neat Editing Trick

Understanding how space is allocated will tighten up your story — “How’s it going with that new person you’ve been seeing?” my friend asked a while back. “What’s it been, like three dates now?” “Yeah…OK, I think?” He asked to glance at the text conversation and scrolled up a few times with his thumb. “You’re not even reading it!” I said. …

Writing

2 min read

A Bummer of a Text Exchange Yielded This Neat Editing Trick
A Bummer of a Text Exchange Yielded This Neat Editing Trick
Writing

2 min read


Mar 9, 2022

Permission Granted: You May Steal From Yourself

And other lessons I learned from titling my book. — A title works hard for you; it’s a first impression, an advertisement, an earworm, an instruction, an invitation. Especially with book titles, there’s a lot of pressure on your choice, so it’s wise to prepare for a bit of an odyssey as you sift through different ideas. Don’t worry if…

Writing Tips

5 min read

Permission Granted: You May Steal From Yourself
Permission Granted: You May Steal From Yourself
Writing Tips

5 min read


Feb 23, 2022

Every Book Has Important Ancestors

The movies, music, and books that informed my debut collection. — No book is an island—each is made of more than our experience and imagination and sentences. Books emerge out of other books and influences that help provide a template or guide or inspiration or peer or parent. Some influences are more direct and others are subtle, but knowing what works…

Books

5 min read

Every book has important ancestors
Every book has important ancestors
Books

5 min read


Jan 19, 2022

How To Add a Productive Element To People-Watching

Writers can hone their observational skills and pluck material. — A woman I know who lost most of her sight once told me that everyone has what she called a “giveaway.” A tip-off to clue her in that they were there before they’d announced themselves. One person has a heavy walker, another is always doused in cologne, some people just…

Writing Tips

2 min read

How To Add a Productive Element To People-Watching
How To Add a Productive Element To People-Watching
Writing Tips

2 min read


Published in Creators Hub

·Jan 1, 2022

Forgetting Can Be a Writer’s Friend

If handled honestly, it leaves room for revealing speculation — This story is behind Medium’s membership paywall, which means the writer earns through our Partner Program. To become a Medium member, click here. Specifics are crucial to making a story come alive, so it can seem like there is no greater sin for a memoirist than failing to remember a…

Writing Tips

3 min read

Forgetting Can Be a Writer’s Friend
Forgetting Can Be a Writer’s Friend
Writing Tips

3 min read

Jason Schwartzman

Jason Schwartzman

801 Followers

Debut book NO ONE YOU KNOW out now from Outpost19 | Founding Editor, True.Ink | Twitter: @jdschwartzman | outpost19.com/NoOneYouKnow/

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