Writing

To learn what a job well done looks like, dissect your favorite posts: highlight the best and worst parts of each and identify what makes them so.

One trick for getting yourself to write is to only write sections that immediately interest you. Perhaps it's the middle of a post—that's okay. You don't have to write in order.

Sit down and write any three paragraphs you can. And do it fast. You'll find that by forcing yourself to start with speed, momentum carries you forward.

Four shortcuts for sourcing topics to write about:

• Trigger ideas that bug you — Your most empassioned opinions often make for the best writing. To trigger opinions, you can consume other people's views (via Twitter, news, and conversations) and note when you strongly disagree. Then crack open a laptop and argue your counter-position. Assuming, that

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Instead of telling us a thing was "terrible," describe it so that we’ll be terrified.

In short, consider finding evocative, unconventional ways to say meaningful things. It forces readers to use their imaginations to piece ideas together. You engage their minds and no longer spoon-feed each detail. Now they meditate on your implications.

I define poetry as finding evocative, unconventional ways to say meaningful things.

For example, instead of saying "the day was hot," you could write “even the bugs were looking for air conditioning.”

In that example, we're describing the effect caused by our subject (the hot day)—as opposed to directly describing the heat itself. In other words, po... See more

To engage a reader's senses, you can do more than just add vivid details. You can also swap plain phrases for more engaging ones.

Pay attention to the bold words, which now create metaphors:

• “Make me an instrument of your pain.”


• “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”


• “Where there is hatred, let me

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Notice how vividness isn't just detail. It's detail that resonates. It's the articulation of the rarely articulated nuances of life—in a way that makes you remark, "Ahh, that’s how I'd put words to that feeling."