Jenny Zhang on writing the secret languages inside your head

July 2023

If you collected lists of techniques for doing great work in a lot of different fields, what would the intersection look like? I decided to find out by making it.

Partly my goal was to create a guide that could be used by someone working in any field. But I was also curious about the shape of the intersection. And one thing this exercise sh... See more

The call of any creator is to keep making things, not to make any sense of what you create. Just dive down deep into the ocean of awareness and see how long you can hold your breath. What I know is that most days I wake up with an question in my mind, some thought that begs an answer, without the slightest clue where the urge originated. On a good ... See more

I see hundreds, actually thousands, of online writing courses popping up on the Internet. Nearly all of them involve some cohort based model that trains people on how to write consistently for an online audience (for engagement).

The creators have already solved the riddle of content-driven writing, and they will show you how to crack the code.

Life... See more

the primary concern of the writer should revolve around the aesthetic elements of the work which are ultimately a way of containing / directing what emerges from the darkness of the writers interior.

lately I’ve been thinking of great writing as work that emerges from a very distinctive, very deep subjectivity; and “craft” is about finding the ideal... See more