Dyads – Daily pair of short stories and poems by Ben Moll

Inspired by Lydia Davis as she conveyed a time in her life when she working on one very long story for more than two years with many failed versions – so, she set up a goal of writing two one-paragraph stores per day, no matter how silly” (Between the Covers with David Naimon, Tinhouse: Between the Covers Podcast, 10/2/2023).

My attempt to actually hear and actively respond to her wisdom began on Tuesday October 3, 2023 with daily pairs, dyads, which are each tagged with “Dyads.”

Background and guidance from Lydia Davis

“By forcing myself to write two a day, I couldn’t mull over what was a good subject, what was a subject worth writing about, whether/how I was going to approach it, couldn’t criticize it in advance….”

“Think of something, and then see where it goes from there. To me, they’re still stories.”

A story that is silly; that doesn’t work … that just doesn’t make it at all. and then another that is devastating, the same sort of thing, but devastating. This is the way in (Lydia Davis speaking regarding Russell Edson’s influence on her, including freeing her up to write about weird and highly emotional things – like what we’ll have for dinner, including each other).”

Free the imagination, and the emotions; so liberating; not trying to fit into a form, with appropriate subject matter and so on. Set an example that no matter what the form was doing, to do what she wanted to do, not what she should do.

10/3/2023 – stopped at 23:08.