Modern writing isn't created. It's assembled.
– David Perell
Write drunk; edit sober.
– Ernest Hemingway
All great writing is somehow about death.
– Gene Weingarten
If words are your craft, then you know how to turn a phrase, but you know too that the best stuff comes from somewhere else. There are thoughts that only come because you took yourself to that particular place, stayed still and breathed its air for long enough. There’s a kind of conversation in which visions take shape: you catch sight of things which would never have come into view, if you hadn’t set aside the to-do list to linger drinking tea all morning with that particular friend. And there are words that arrive in your imagination like a guest, a wild god coming to the door. It’s like Elizabeth Gilbert says, however mad it sounds, it’s better for the sanity to think of your best work as coming from somewhere else – from someone else – where your task is just to show up, ready to receive, to keep showing up, and to tend the relationship with this wild other, the one who brings gifts, in whatever form that takes.
- Two functions of writing:
- Writing to think
- Writing to communicate
- try not to talk or write from a disembodied propositional lens
- unclog-your-mind
- English is just a programming language.
- Write documents as you would write code: honor the
- dry-principle
- use metadata
- MVC (Model, View, Controller),
- automatic generation
- and so on.
Principles
anti-grinding principle
- https://vimeo.com/755561727
- Grinding away at sentences isn't working hard, it's inhibiting the flow of language
- Simple dumb solutions to prose problems might be better than you think
- You can always put in a placeholder and move on
Smart writing vs dump writing
Tips
- Some people think writing a book is big, daunting prospect but it’s better not to think in terms of a book but rather in terms of ideas that you want to share.
- Limit yourself to one idea per article and share the articles in public as you go.
Eventually your articles will form the basis for the chapters of a book after having had exposure and feedback from the initial public exposure in the form of the article.
- Writing offline is essential – when it’s time to write, actively turn off your internet so that you cannot go online or get distracted and the you write.
We all have a habit in the modern world of thinking that we need to look something up but then you fall down a rabbit hole and then you’re not writing. When you think you need to look something up, just add it to a to-do list somewhere else.
- We don’t NEED apps – any form of text editor that gives you the space to write your thoughts is as good as any app.
The desire to find apps to increase our productivity, paradoxically becomes the enemy of productivity.
- Avoid quoting people or listing long bibliographies before you get to a key point.
The idea is not to hide the source but just not to force it upon someone who didn’t ask for it. Imagine if it was the norm that every time you ordered a meal at a restaurant the chef would come out and explain the heritage and history of every ingredient – it would be quite strange! If you want to know you can ask, but it’s not the norm – the same philosophy can be applied to this idea of quoting people appropriately.
- posse
100 Day Writing Challenge
https://listed.to/@Listed/5202/100-day-writing-challenge
Here's why your writing sucks, and how you can fix that
https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/1337829544309399553
- Language (writting or spoken) is not about stating facts. Its a way we do relationships.
Writing puts you in relationship with readers.
Relationships are shared caring. Do you care about your readers? Do they care about your text?
- Your writing needs to show that YOU CARE ABOUT US, your readers.
- Effective writing is playful.
Play demonstrates you recognize you are in relationship with us, your readers, so we can trust you.
Tease us. That shows you know who we are and what we care about.
Showing your enjoyment is showing yourself, which shows you are in relationship.
- In relationship, in play, we gradually reveal our eccentricities.
- Initially your readers care about your text because you are telling them what they are doing wrong and how to do better.
By the end, they should care because they care about you. Because they know who you are.
How to write E-Mail
- Never leave the subject line blank.
An empty subject line is a virtual death sentence in cold emailing. Even with people who know you well, it makes a bad impression every time.
- Headline with action.
Putting the action in the headline has a big communication function though. It tells the recipient what the email is about.
- Stop explaining yourself.
Get to the point. Not every email needs to include your entire life story. Most don’t.
- Tell people what you WANT in no uncertain words.
You can provide context, introductions, references and additional calls to action later. Open with what you fracking want. It will only impress that you do.
- Don’t EVER apologize by email – directly or implicitly.
- Follow up on rejection.
You’ve only failed when you quit. Never forget this.
- Communicate in short sentences.
Learn to write in simple business language. Help people understand what you mean and what you WANT. The more effort they need to make getting you, the less energy they have left to do what you want.
- Use specifics.
Not matter what you’re talking about, ALWAYS make it concrete. If you can’t make it concrete, consider leaving it out altogether. Abstraction will only muddle up your message.
diamondroninfury
ACT I — BUSTING THE WRITER'S MYTH
-
DON'T COMPARE
-
INNER VOICE
The key to being a badass writer starts within.
LEGIT within. Not some BS, spiritual mumbojumbo. NO. Actually your core being.
Listen, you've been setting YOURSELF up to be the baddest wordsman.
For years now...
If you can read, you can write.
The dozens of stories you've internalized are laying dormant in your inner being. WAITING to be tapped into. UNLEASHED.
-
TELL THE STORY
You can tell a story to a buddy at the bar. Right?
This means you're good. Your story will be EXACTLY the way you tell it to your buddy at the bar. Nothing MYSTICAL or mystifying, confusing, or HARD about that. You sit down, you tell a story. That's all it is.
If you can talk, you can write.
ACT II — BREAKING WRITER'S BLOCK
ACT III — STRUCTURING YOUR STORY
ACT IV — STYLIZING YOUR STORY
ACT V — TAPPING INTO THE ANCIENT VOICE OF STORY
- End Writer's Block Forever! by Mark Bossert, Win Wenger
- Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
Notes
Advice
When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, your mind becomes powerfully concentrated. You begin to understand that writing/reading is, above all, a transaction. The reader donates his time and attention, which are supremely valuable commodities. In return, you the writer must give him something worthy of his gift to you.”
– Steven Pressfield
Don't use boring technical latin-origin nouns in your writing
– says William Zinsser in "On writing well."
In most good personal essay, the narrative arc is the evolution of the author as an individual, and they should evolve at least twice: (1) I have an experience, it changesme. (2) I learn more about the experience and/or about my first change, and that changes me again.
– Helen Rosner
See
Links