In real life, you can’t go on and on about your obsessions; you have to tame yourself to not ruin the day for others. This is a good thing. Otherwise, we’d be ripping each other's arms off like chimpanzees. But a blog is a tiny internet house where you decide the norms. And since there are already countless places where you can't be yourself, there... See more

Look at Kafka’s diary. Look at what he did when he felt one of his drafts sucked. He didn’t rewrite the sentences, moving commas and phrases around. He flipped a page and wrote a new draft from scratch. This is a way to learn from your attempts without sacrificing the life that comes from writing fast. Kafka could give himself the same prompt four... See more

A simple format: “Here is a problem I had and here’s how I solved it.” (Or, “I haven’t solved it yet but these are some reflections.”) Having a problem to solve, or a question that demands an answer, makes the text live and move. Otherwise, it is just a clump of words, and it is unclear why I should read on.

This, however, is not an excuse to be lazy in your thinking. You have to put your thoughts in order. But the time to do this is before you write for publication. Think: musicians practicing hard so they can be in the moment when they improvise. Read, take notes, study, question yourself. But then, when writing a post, let that go, and rely on the... See more

Not that many people will care about what you write, at least for the first few years, so make the writing useful to you. Write in a way that lets you refine your thoughts about the things that matter. Write to experience what you care about in higher resolution, write to enhance your feeling of aliveness.

Your contradictions are an asset. You’re a lover of classical English architecture and you’re also a dirty little punk—expressing both at the same time is more interesting than sharing just cute pictures of English gardens or just wild trashy stuff. The more you incorporate everything that you love and that comes easily for you, your interests,... See more

It is what is odd about you that is interesting. If you work hard, you will be able to write like everyone else in your genre, but the result will never be rich as the texture of your own personality. So, don’t think too much about how you are supposed to write, how others do it, or what the conventions demand. Just try to amuse yourself.

A classic pattern: you try hard to write like someone else, but then you mess up and write in some stupid other way, and that ends up being what people relate to. I wish I had messed up sooner.

Your contradictions are an asset. You’re a lover of classical English architecture and you’re also a dirty little punk—expressing both at the same time is more interesting than sharing just cute pictures of English gardens or just wild trashy stuff.