Writing
... See moreThere's also something humbling and awful about what's on the page is never as good as what's in your head and so if you keep it in your head it's safe and good and you're not going through this awful uncomfortable middle period … I think this is why people hang on to projects or write and rewrite them … there's a real ugliness to the early creativ
If your job is to write every day, you learn to do it like any other job.
William Zinsser • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
One executive suggests a discipline — putting down first what you want the reader to do, next the three most important things the reader needs to understand to take that action, then starting to write. When you’re done, he suggests asking
Kenneth Roman • Writing That Works
- “When I have a piece of writing in mind, what I have, in fact, is a mental bucket: an attractor for and generator of thought. It’s like a thematic gravity well, a magnet for what would otherwise be a mess of iron filings. I’ll read books differently and listen differently in conversations. In particular I’ll remember everything better; everything... See more
James Somers • More People Should Write
Paragraphs matter. I’ll always resist copywriters who insist that paragraphs should never be longer than 1-3 sentences. According to White, each paragraph should contain an indivisible topic. Every paragraph functions like a scene change, a visual aid to let your reading know you’re shifting from one facet to another. If you use paragraph breaks to... See more
Michael Dean • Here is New York (1949)
Simplicity isn’t just a visual style. It’s not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. For example, to have no screws on something, you can end up having a product that is so convoluted and so complex. The better way is to go deeper with the ... See more
Walter Isaacson • Steve Jobs
Writing is not a linear process. We constantly have to jump back and forth between different tasks.
Sönke Ahrens • How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking
Develop your topics, questions and research projects bottom up from within the system. See what is there, what is missing and what questions arise. Read more to challenge, strengthen, change and develop your arguments according to the new information you are learning about.
Sönke Ahrens • How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking
Be grateful for everything you can throw away. Reexamine each sentence you put on paper. Is every word doing new work?