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5 days ago | 
ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh
I wrote a lot during lockdown, including LAPVONA, which is the last novel I’ve published. Not everything I write makes it into print, of course. That’s totally fine. It’s exactly right, actually. When something I write isn’t “accepted,” and I know there’s more work to be done, I do it. Other times, I just detach and move on, understanding that the act of writing itself was the project-lesson, which is always what matters most to me.
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1 week ago | 
ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh
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1 week ago | 
ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh |Liz Goldwyn
Get more from Ottessa Moshfegh in the Substack appAvailable for iOS and Android
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2 weeks ago | 
ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh
I started writing in Composition Notebooks in the summer of 1996. I was fifteen. There are lots of these—I’ve scanned them all and will publish them monthly for the next year or two—but the best ones, the most exuberant and embarrassing, are the notebooks from my high school days. This first one contains very early attempts at short stories. I was at an arts camp in Michigan called Interlochen. Here’s a random example of a complete one-page story. Paid subscribers get full access. Keep scrolling.
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3 weeks ago | 
ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh
ACHTUNG BABY: This Sunday, April 27th, at 4 PM EST/1 PM PST, instead of a live chat “Writing Advice” forum, we’re switching to a live video stream. This way I can practice talking instead of typing. You type your questions, I answer with my face. Paid subscribers get automatic access. You can always unsubscribe.
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1 month ago | 
ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh
Send your writing-related questions to: [email protected]. Each week I'll pick a question and answer it here. Dear Ottessa,What do you think about the writer social scene in LA these days? Do you cavort with other writers here, and do you think LA has a "vibrant literary culture," or is it all a sham, a fake, a phony? Sincerely,Zelda FitzgeraldDear Zelda,First of all, how are you?! I’m sure you know this already, but a “scene” doesn’t define itself from within.
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1 month ago | 
ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh
Welcome back to “Reviews of All the Movies Mentioned in My Year of Rest and Relaxation, the novel.”As I wrote the book, I noticed that the protagonist was mentioning movies that I, Ottessa Moshfegh, had never actually seen. Did I feel I needed to watch these films in order to know how to handle the narrator’s sense of them? No. What mattered in these instances was the essence of a film, not the actual film.
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1 month ago | 
ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh
Dear Ottessa,How does one get over crippling self-consciousness and an overwhelming feeling of being a cringey, pretentious loser when they’re writing? The last couple years whenever I’ve tried to write it’s as if there’s an audience watching from above and giggling like zFir? Thanks, HomerDear Homer, First of all, if I were a cartoon, and single, I would totally bone you. Moving on: Being a cringey pretentious loser is how we all start out. This post is for paid subscribers
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1 month ago | 
ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh
The narrator of my novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation watches a lot of movies1. Reva, her best friend, doesn’t understand her taste…“What do you like so much about Whoopi Goldberg?” [Reva asked me.] “She’s not even funny. You need to be watching movies that are going to cheer you up. Like ‘Austin Powers.’ Or that one with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. You’re like Winona Ryder from ‘Girl, Interrupted’ all of a sudden. But you look more like Angelina Jolie.
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1 month ago | 
ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh
“You go straight to the thing that you know is the most sensitive thing for me.”—OttessaLuke: Hi, Ottessa, can you tell me about what you're doing? Ottessa: Well, I'm going to put these two dirty spoons in this dishwasher from 2004 and not run it because it's empty so that you have something to put in your documentary about me. Luke: Do you remember the first time that you ever did dishes? Ottessa: No.Luke: You don't have a memory of that?
