the art of writing
advice from writers, and more on writing
Brie Wolfson and
the art of writing
this hurdle I have to jump over each time I write: How can I say this more crisply? When I write (which is really just to say: when I think) it all boils down to one simple, but utterly excruciating question: What am I really trying to say here?
Isabel Hazan • distillation
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
this is why AI tools are better at producing filler content / content marketing garbage and not unique thought. they divorce the act of writing from the process of thought itself.
From George Saunders, on nuance and embracing complexity:
... See morethe writer doesn't have to have a fixed firm idea, but has to be able to take the reader on a journey to remind her that the world is complicated. From the very beginning, I understood writing to be about some kind of moral or ethical imperative. Absent that, I'm not that interested in it,
If you really want to understand a topic, don’t read about it, write about it.
Gurwinder • 30 Useful Principles
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”
—Terry Pratchett
I wanna write a poem. But I want it to say what you’re thinking. I wanna patch up the holes when your boat starts sinking. I wanna write that ‘one of a kind’ poem, that ‘free your mind’ poem, that ‘I like how you made that rhyme’ poem, that ‘I like that last line’ poem, that ‘Can I hear that one more time? (That is, if you don’t mind.)’ poem. I
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