Michael Brooks
@michael
Michael Brooks
Run an article through the four-part musicality test. It’s no guarantee of clarity, but clear and intriguing writing tends to do well on all measures.
- Writing rhythm —do the sentences vary? Color code them: 1-3 words yellow, 4-8 red, 9-13 green, 13+ blue.
- Article form —does the structure vary in a subtle, pleasant way?
- Argument harmony —is it
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I used to blame advertisers for that restlessness and dissatisfaction, but I don’t think that’s right. We were already restless; we always have been. The advertisers just figured out how to nurture, tend, exacerbate, and capitalize on the pre-existing condition, that innate restlessness, promising that something new is going to set all to rights.
... See moreKurt Armstrong • Repair and Remain
Here are some other techniques people use to access and maintain the zone:
- Introducing a long delay between when you do the work and when it is shown to the world. Annie Ernaux writes about this in A Simple Passion, a memoir about how she becomes obsessed in a banal way with a man who is having an affair with her—the thought that others will read
Substack • Notes | Substack
Superpath
pro.superpath.co
Always begin in mythology. It’s good fuel. Fables and fantasy don’t age or grow stale for one reason: They are a step into a dimension beyond the reach of time itself. Build with them.
Brian Collins • 101 Design Rules
Classics are classics for a reason.
The mismatch between past and present doesn’t seem trivial to me — if the “you” of today can so blithely disregard the “you” of yesterday, then it follows that the “you” I’m talking to now might very well not be the one who shows up for our date tomorrow. There’s a kind of unpredictable change that seems to lie outside of the virtues of growth and... See more
Duncan Sabien • The Levers of the Soul
Repair and remain sounds simple because it is. But simple is not the same as easy. “For better, for worse,” we say, and everyone likes to stay when it’s the better.