the art of writing
advice from writers, and more on writing
Brie Wolfson and
the art of writing
Many people assume they are bad at writing because it is hard. This is like assuming you are bad at weightlifting because the weight is heavy.
Writing is useful because it is hard. It's the effort that goes into writing a clear sentence that leads to better thinking.
nametwitter.comThe way I see it, AI is already incredibly good at priming us while we’re writing. It can show us the way towards ideas that are adjacent to those we’re currently exploring, much better than we could see on our own.
Every • Writing with Machines
The most important advantage of writing is that it helps us confront ourselves when we do not understand something as well as we would like to believe.
How to Take Smart Notes Quotes by Sönke Ahrens
Readers don’t have short attention spans—they have short enchantment spans . There’s an infinite amount of content out there, and readers know it. The introduction convinces a reader that their finite time alive is best spent reading this piece in front of them , and not all the other things on the internet.
Celine Nguyen • In Praise of Writing on the Internet
Current AI writing tools are a great way to mass produce writing that is intensely mid, and makes you feel dead inside. Can we use AI to help the best writers do better work?
I don't know. But let's think about the bottlenecks for good writing.
Grace Lin: She asks, Where do you get your ideas?... See more
Mo Willems: Well, Leah, that's a very good question and I'm afraid you may not like the answer because ideas are not things you get. People tend to think that ideas are things like diamonds. And then you go out and you get them and you grab them and you bring them back. But that's not what ideas are.
Grace Lin • Episode 9: Where do you get your ideas? With Mo Willems — Kids Ask Authors
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.”
Chekhov: “The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.”