on writing

Writing is hard, and it’s not surprising that the promise of removing that friction from the writing process is appealing. But we need to be able to recognize when removing the friction from the process might mean losing something important.

When the friction is the point

Writing isn’t just how I communicate ideas or discoveries; it’s how I come up with them in the first place.

Kyle Chayka • My writing robot

Writing increases your rate of revelation. This is true irrespective of the subject because writing is a process of reflection, assertion, and iteration.

Writing clarifies your own ideas. Writing begets new ideas too. Writing lets you explore ideas in depth even if you won’t have time to act on them all. Writing shows people how you think and lets... See more

Anu • Writer-Builders

“While we naturally understand that writing is a good way to share ideas with others, we under-appreciate just how much good writing helps us think about an idea ourselves. Writing is not only a means of communication, it enables us to practice reasoning.”

Farnam St blog

“We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget loves and betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were. Keeping a notebook keeps alive some illusion of who we used to be, allowing us to maintain continuity with a self we’ve already outgrown.”

-Joan Didion (from “On Keeping a

Writing creates spaces for self-discovery.

"The first useful concept is the idea of short assignments. Often when you sit down to write, what you have in mind is an autobiographical novel about your childhood, or a play about the immigrant experience, or a history of— oh, say— say women. But this is like trying to scale a glacier."

Anne Lamott • Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

"In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts."

Anne Lamott • Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Time is the best editor.

If you have it, time is the easiest trick for self-editing. Simply put your work away long enough so when you come back to it you can see it with fresh eyes.