on writing

My strategy is loose, then tight. I write the first draft of an essay fast, trying out all kinds of ideas. Then I spend days rewriting it very carefully.

cafes really should have a ‘newsletter of the week’ noticeboard because half the people in them are probably writing substacks

A Big List of Writing Advice From the How I Write podcast: 1. Start with one brave sentence and see where it goes. (Morgan Housel | @morganhousel) 2. Discipline beats talent when talent isn’t disciplined. (Steven Pressfield |... See more

The way to get novelty is to write about topics you've thought about a lot. Then you can use yourself as a proxy for the reader in this department too. Anything you notice that surprises you, who've thought about the topic a lot, will probably also surprise a significant number of readers. And here, as with correctness and importance, you can use... See more

If you write to please others, you are selling out. You are in the process of audience capture. This way of talking, which is how the fear in me talks, is common—as if writing for an audience and writing for yourself are at odds with each other. I really used to feel like that.

But I no longer think that it is quite right. The relationship between... See more