Writing

"In many cases, what you hope to learn by reading books or listening to podcasts can only be learned by attempting what you fear. Some knowledge is only revealed through action."

“Trust your obsessions. This is one I learned more or less accidentally. People sometimes ask whether the research or the idea for the story comes first for me. And I tell them, normally the first thing that turns up is the obsession: for example, all of a sudden I notice that I’m reading nothing but English 17th century metaphysical verse. And I... See more

"When one worldview dominates your thinking, you'll try to explain every problem you face through that worldview. Read widely and realize there are many answers."

By contrast, “deep freewriting” describes a practice in which you set a timer, then commit to writing without stopping or deleting until it goes off, while staying mentally present with the process. Importantly, that needn’t mean writing fast, and could even mean writing very slowly – just as it’s possible to run very slowly yet still be running,... See more

“ Write about where you’ve been and where you’re going. Become a niche of one .”

Something isn't clickbait if you deliver.

And it's especially not clickbait if you take your audience on a journey where they discover something extremely useful.

"The bad workouts are the most important ones. It's easy to train when you feel good, but it's crucial to show up when you don't feel like it—even if you do less than you hope.

Going to the gym for 15 minutes might not improve your performance, but it reaffirms your identity. It's not always about what happens during the workout. It's about... See more

The best storyteller in the world, Matthew Dicks, on the principle of but and therefore:

“A clear majority of human beings tend to connect their sentences, paragraphs, and scenes together with the word and.

This is a mistake. The ideal connective tissue in any story are the words but and therefore, along with all their glorious synonyms. These buts... See more