the art of writing

Writing 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.” ​

I don’t love writing; I love having a problem I believe I might someday write my way out of.

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

Trust the process.

Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it.

-Anne Lammott

If you revise trying to answer every objection anyone has to your work, you will write something unobjectionable. Nothing is worse than unobjectionable fiction.