Writing
After a while, you will have developed ideas far enough to decide on a topic to write about. Your topic is now based on what you have, not based on an unfounded idea about what the literature you are about to read might provide.
Sönke Ahrens • How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking
What works for me (as I said previously) is a single line at the top of the page that sums up the main point I'm trying to make. Then I list some key points that relate to or support my bigger idea. Then I go back and expand on those ideas in another sentence or two, creating paragraphs. Then I move the paragraphs around, adding transitions between
... See moreAnn Handley • Everybody Writes
Be grateful for everything you can throw away. Reexamine each sentence you put on paper. Is every word doing new work?
William Zinsser • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
- “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
Clutter is the laborious phrase that has pushed out the short word that means the same thing.
William Zinsser • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
Note to self:
Leaving this here for next time I’m halfway through a piece, staring vacantly at the page and slowly losing my grip on reality.
- The first draft is to make it exist.
- The second draft is to make it functional.
- The third draft is to make it effective.
Leaving this here for next time I’m halfway through a piece, staring vacantly at the page and slowly losing my grip on reality.
Sublime • Sublime on Substack
I would argue that the paragraph, not the sentence, is the basic unit of writing—the place where coherence begins and words stand a chance of becoming more than mere words. If the moment of quickening is to come, it comes at the level of the paragraph.
Stephen King • On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft (A Memoir of the Craft (Reissue))
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.