People say write about what you know. That’s bullshit. Write about what you don’t want people to know.
—Susan Sarandon’s character in an episode of Mike & Molly
Tag: Writing
Writing or doing… move fast first
Even if you write something of poor quality but do it quickly, you’re already getting somewhere. Reflecting on writing is fine sometimes, but it doesn’t actually bring you any closer to completing a work, whereas having a draft, even if it’s bad, gives you material to hone.
—Karl Ove Knausgaard’s surprising secret for curing writer’s block
A class I want to attend – on writing, editing, pruning, shining.
…A writing course. Every assignment would be delivered in five versions: A three page version, a one page version, a three paragraph version, a one paragraph version, and a one sentence version.
I don’t care about the topic. I care about the editing. I care about the constant refinement and compression.
—Jason Fried, in ‘The writing class I’d like to teach’
Each step requires asking “What’s really important?” That’s the most important question you can ask yourself about anything. The class would really be about answering that very question at each step of the way. Whittling it all down until all that’s left is the point.
Speed. In product development, and writing.
Last week I was reminded of what might be the most important reason to go fast: Going fast prevents you from second-guessing. Speed keeps you authentic. If you’ve got a weird, opinionated, crazy, possibly-stupid-possibly-great plan, and you take a long time to think it through, revise it, and make it perfect, you water down and wash out the goodness.
Go fast to stay authentic – Jake Knapp – Medium
Continue reading Speed. In product development, and writing.
Kottke on Dean Allen, writing, and friendship
A writer whose prose could make your soul ache who stopped writing, because, it didn’t matter.
Kottke, writing about Dean Allen
… you could think of him as like an old-fashioned: sweet, bitter and strong, who left you intoxicated because of his friendship
The Like Button Ruined the Internet
When you are writing in the absence of feedback you have to rely on your own judgment. You want to please your audience, of course. But to do that you have to imagine what your audience will like, and since that’s hard, you end up leaning on what you like.
Once other people start telling you what they like via Like buttons, you inevitably start hewing to their idea of what’s good.
The Like Button Ruined the Internet, April 24, 2017, at 10:13 AM
Use my marker 