the art of writing
advice from writers, and more on writing
Brie Wolfson and
the art of writing
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”
—Terry Pratchett
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
It is the stuff about you that is odd that is interesting. So, don’t think to much about how you are supposed to do it, or what the genre convetions are. Just try to amuse yourself.
Another way to phrase it: the best writing tend to be when you surrender to your nature. This is hard to do!
Here is a classic pattern: you try really hard to do somethin
... See moreWriting advice from Lenny Rachitsky:
If you want to have an existential breakdown, try to make each sentence an aesthetic masterpiece. Ditch the poetry and focus on clarity instead.
“Every time I think about how to write beautifully, I just get stuck and it just slows everything down.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to say, I was just writing to the wrong people about the wrong things.
Molly Mielke • deliberate
The robot was quite good at copying my style, but much less good at writing anything meaningful. It could predict which words I would be most likely to use but it couldn’t make an original argument for me. Using the robot made me think a lot about the nature of writing and what goes in to its peculiar form of labor. AI tools fundamentally promise t... See more
Kyle Chayka • My writing robot
