Sublime

he was who I wanted to be when I grew up. He’s one of the great nonfiction writers of our time, a genius of reportage and the profile, someone who could take any curious whim and turn it into a compelling book.

A little guide to writing, by @paulg https://t.co/5vgjOAj03M

Everyone knows that the way to get good is to be prolific. But it’s incredibly hard to be prolific. For most of us, it means reaching way beyond the output level that feels natural. I keep trying to dig deeper in my writing, which means that I’m always saying the thing I’m most scared of saying at any given moment.

If you want to become a great writer, you need to allow yourself to create “junk.”

An essay lets the soul of a memoirist, the rigor of a scholar, and the pen of a poet all co-exist on the same page. Out of all the mediums, it's most able to fuse the best parts of every other genre. It's literature's sponge, the frontier of the written word. https://t.co/Olikaqb5pV

As for how to write well, here's the short version: Write a bad version 1 as fast as you can; rewrite it over and over; cut out everything unnecessary; write in a conversational tone; develop a nose for bad writing, so you can see and fix it in yours; imitate writers you like; if you can't get started, tell someone what you plan to write about,... See more