The day you became a better writer
Holden Karnofsky’s: Honesty about reading Learning by writing
When you write you complete your ideas. If you don’t write at all you don’t even realize you have incomplete ideas. You have an illusion that all of your ideas are complete. – Paul Graham from Putting Ideas into words Writers recognize in much higher resolution that there is a difference in how they think about certain subjects before and after writing. Non-writers don’t even realize this delta exists
Use the first word that comes to your mind – Stephen King
This one feels important because every word in the sentence can be substituted with any other. I could have written: this one feels meaningful, significant, crucial, vital, consequential, pivotal, etc. Each of these words has a different meaning network, connects to slightly different contexts. An animal inside you does a roughly good job picking the right words. And when writing, it needs to pick a couple of words every second. If you don’t trust the first word that comes to mind, you can only overthink it and become a victim of distortions, rationalizations, and false aspirations.
Learn how to ruthlessly edit out
– Michael Schur describes process of creating Saturday Night Live sketches on Tim Ferriss Show
Write like you'r a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there's no chance for a pardon. Write like you're clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you've got just one last thing to say, like you're a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God's sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so w can wipe our brow and know that we're not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don't. Who knows, maybe you're one of the lucky ones who doesn't have to. – Allan Watts
When I write I focus on not stopping writing. What helps me to do it well is a writing warm-up. I heard this from A. J. Jacobs . On Tim Ferriss's Podcast
He said that the writing process is very hard for most writers. And he admitted that it can be also very painful for him. He is a pro writer, an editor of Esquire, a publisher of many widely read books.
The writing warm-up is simply putting a timer on (I do it from 10–60 min) with the only goal of not stopping writing. During this time I usually process emotions, speculate on things, sketch first drafts, or describe how the present moment feels. I think what happens during this time is my mind slowly getting used to the mode of writing – a process of thoughts being translated into words. Maybe the transitory period is needed as writing has a peculiar rhythm. It needs to tap into some specific mind abilities. (People may need to slow down, be more precise with the words, browse words for more precise ones etc.)
I highly recommend it. It feels a lot less effortful to write later on. I actually took this idea further. Probably a majority of writers struggle with writer’s block. I want all my writing to be as dynamic as describing an idea to a friend. I don't want to overthink how to describe a thing. I want just to keep trying. I also use this method when editing. Whenever I think a sentence or paragraph is off I hit enter and mark it with "\" and then rewrite it again and again until it feels right.