I Will Write More
88 points by candrewlee14 2 years ago | 42 comments- marginalia_nu 2 years agoI've found the quality of my inputs to be extremely important if I want to sustain any sort of writing habit. It's hard for me to write frequently if I'm not reading frequently. It almost has to be books, not necessarily related to the sort of things I write, but it's like the act of reading plants seeds for new thoughts and ideas that eventually grow and form into text.
- quanticle 2 years agoRyan Holiday talks about this a bit in "Success Is A Lagging Indicator" [1]. The way he puts it, "writers block" doesn't exist. What people call writer's block is a symptom of not having done enough preparation work. It means the writer hasn't researched or structured their ideas to enable the writing process to occur smoothly. I tend to agree, but I would add that there is an "analysis paralysis" failure mode where you fall in a trap of constantly revising the outline instead of getting the words on the page and refining from there.
[1]: https://ryanholiday.net/all-success-is-a-lagging-indicator/
- marginalia_nu 2 years agoI prefer an agricultural metaphor. I think interesting ideas are planted and nurtured rather than manufactured. If you seeds for interesting ideas by engaging with the thoughts of others (may be through talking or reading), make sure to sleep well and take care of your body, then you'll think interesting thoughts and if you enjoy writing like I do, most likely be inspired to write about them.
But as Ryan is suggesting, having things to write about is a side-effect or consequence of minding your "garden" (to avoid confusion, this is not a nod to Candide).
- solarkraft 2 years agoI fall into that trap a lot. I have stuff to say, but it can be approached in so many ways and I find it hard to choose one.
Any tips?
One thing I guess works is "just blurt it out spontaneously". Ryan Holiday also has a motivating line on that (https://ryanholiday.net/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer-thats-mis...):
> No one ever reads something and says, “Well, I got absolutely nothing out of this and have no idea what any of this means but it sure is technically beautiful!” But they say the opposite all the time, they say “Goddamn, that’s good” to things with typos, poor grammar and simple diction
- quanticle 2 years agoSteve Jobs put it more succinctly: "Real artists ship". At some point you have be very honest and ask yourself, "Do I really need to revise my outline once again before I start writing?"
- quanticle 2 years ago
- marginalia_nu 2 years ago
- quanticle 2 years ago
- cramjabsyn 2 years agoI’m growing more and more jaded by the notion that a new calendar year should involve some sort of personal reinvention.
If you wanted to do that, you’d be doing it already. So quit making promises and just do the thing, or don’t.
Just enjoy where you are in life and focus on whats most important now.
- tunesmith 2 years agoI think this is needlessly discouraging.
The end of a year really does correspond to a lot of things that end. The tax year, project deadlines, the big holiday season is over, reconnecting with family via reunions, etc. There very much can be a feeling of wiping the slate clean and starting fresh, and that isn't just a superstition; it aligns with things that actually happen in our lives.
So there's nothing wrong with using that extra bit of space of psychic room to do some reflection and come up with some new goals.
- estevaoam 2 years agoI agree with you. I don’t understand why some people get annoyed about this. Any desired life change starts with goal setting.
Easy to say “just do what you’re supposed to do” as if that phrase by itself had magic powers. It is known that motivation and habit is a fairly complex process, so I don’t get why we still get such reductionist comments around here.
We need more empathy and less criticism toward others, specially when they’re trying to improve themselves.
- langsoul-com 2 years agoIt just needs a bit of rewording to sound more encouraging.
If you failed the last new years resolution, then reduce the scope of the goal and then start today. Lumping goals into the new year tends to make them too difficult to achieve. Start small and snowball. Don't wait.
- estevaoam 2 years ago
- whywhywouldyou 2 years agoIt's easy to see this behavior when it comes to the flood of gym memberships that coincide with the new year. Everyone simultaneously decides, "THIS is the year I finally get in shape!".
Right. Except by March all of these people are back to sitting on the couch. I'm sure if it were as measurable as gym memberships, we'd see the same thing happen with all resolutions.
- k__ 2 years agoIn my experience, people underestimate what these endevors actually include.
Going to the gym is so much more than getting a membership. It's also a training plan that fits you, maybe a change of social circle that helps you to be consistent, a change of diet, etc.
I often started new things just to notice weeks to months in that they don't require the work I expected.
- k__ 2 years ago
- late2part 2 years agoOne might look to the words of Morrissey for a similar approach:
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/morrissey/jimjimfalls.html
" If you're gonna jump then jump Don't think about it If you're gonna run home and cry Then don't waste my time If you're gonna kill yourself Then to save face Just kill yourself"
- hamilton987 2 years ago[dead]
- hamilton987 2 years ago
- quickthrower2 2 years agoI agree. Every night is potentially a new years eve.
- dspillett 2 years agoBut every night is not part of the second long weekend in a row¹ which is rare², and we spend more of this couple of weeks mixing with (or at least thinking of) people we don't see very often compared to other parts of the year, this change sometimes resulting in different reflections in our own heads.
The prominence of resolutions around the day count's rollover point isn't directly due to that rollover, but is due to the collective stop-start of our usual routines.
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[1] I know it isn't for everyone, service sector workers in particular, but I suspect it is for the majority here.
[2] Again, for most but not all. I know a few people on shift patterns that involve three or four days off in a row every 7/8/14 rather than following the more common 5-on-2-off rotation.
- dspillett 2 years ago
- k__ 2 years agoI do both.
Making changes during the year and new year's resolutions.
Sometimes one works, sometimes the other.
- tunesmith 2 years ago
- andreyk 2 years agoI can relate to this post, but it does seem to be a little idealistic. The plan is: consistently set aside time, write any ideas that seem fun, then see if it's valuable and does not exist (and don't release it otherwise). So, basically it's "write for the sake of writing." As someone who has written many long high effort blog posts (1000s of words long), the amount of work a solid post usually takes for me is too great for this write-and-see-what-happens plan; I simply would not want to put things out there that are redundant or uninteresting. But that's just me - maybe this'll work for the author of this post.
- quanticle 2 years agoJust for once, I'd like to see some prominent (or even not so prominent) person embark on a New Year's resolution to write less.
- PuppyTailWags 2 years agoI've definitely seen this sentiment. It's in avoiding burnout. It's in noticing that one is going hard but the returns just aren't there and focusing instead on onesself or their family. But of course this isn't going to be written down about ;)
- quanticle 2 years agoI guess my reaction is more about the fact that writing more is an instrumental goal, rather than a terminal goal. Writing is a tool. It is not an end in itself. Saying, "I want to write more," is like saying, "I want to buy more flour." Okay, sure, but what are you buying the flour for? Bread? Cookies? Cake? Just throwing into the air and making a mess? Similarly, writing more is a goal that only makes sense if you have some goal in mind and see writing as a tool to accomplish that goal. Otherwise, "I want to write more," is a goal that's so vague, it becomes impossible to achieve.
- schaefer 2 years agoRead the article. This author’s specific goal is 500 words a day. There is nothing vague about that!
For example, in my own journaling today, I’ve written 646 words. So clearly the goal is not “impossible to achieve”, as you’ve claimed.
- vouaobrasil 2 years agoI disagree. One can also want to write more as an end itself, simply to become a better writer.
- jraby3 2 years agoWriting can be therapy.
It can be a process where one learns by trying to explain it to someone else (the reader) so it helps to find holes in your argument or thinking.
It’s a tool used daily to communicate - arguably the greatest invention of mankind.
There are plenty of reasons to write.
- schaefer 2 years ago
- quanticle 2 years ago
- dspillett 2 years agoI'm not prominent at all (which I think is a fact about me that I like so have no desire to change), and this is not specifically a new year based resolution (it is a decision I came to a while ago), but I'm actively trying to stop trying (well, planning) to do so much.
The reason: I find myself getting frustrated at the ever elongating list of things I might like to do/develop/improve in all my walks of life, and the fact that I try to do so many of the things on that list means I never seent to do (or even properly start) any one thing particularly well.
I miss the focus I had at certain points earlier in life when time seemed less at a premium and I would just spend a complete weekend tinkering on a personal project and on feel guilty about missing anything else. I miss the focus I had ahead of my first marathon, that allowed me to find the many blocks of time needed to more-or-less follow a decent training plan, particularly now as I want to return to my pre-covid-and-long-recovery levels of "fitness & not being overweight".
Of course I'm bending the resolution right now as part of it is to spend less time commenting in discussion threads and more time concentrating on my own stuff (little tech projects, fixing my home up a bit, getting out for runs and bits of cross-training, wasting time with friends instead of online, etc.).
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Of course there might be many who embark on a resolution to write less, who you don't see talking about it because not posting about it is one of the first steps to achieving it!
- asgraham 2 years agoThe author of The Wandering Inn [1], a web serial, has been trying to write less the past few months (the past year?). They peaked around 80k words/week, and have been aiming closer to 30-40k words/week with more breaks. They've had mixed success (e.g. last week they wrote and released 70k).
They only post updates/reflections on their progress towards this goal in the author's notes on the biweekly chapter releases, so I'm not sure how you could follow along, if that's what you're looking for. I guess you could just follow the releases and only read the notes. Or you could try catching up haha.
- azhenley 2 years agoI was just thinking the same thing!
I think I use writing as an excuse to procrastinate, so this coming year my goal is to release useful products rather than blog posts.
- zachncst 2 years agoHear hear. Isn't anyone exhausted of blasting their lives on the internet?
- quickthrower2 2 years agoThat would be impossible for me :-). Unless I sabotage other blogs for a negative word count.
- PuppyTailWags 2 years ago
- mark_l_watson 2 years agoI like to write. Now that I am retired I usually work on a book project about two hours a day.
I started a private journal six months ago and tried to write every day. Then I stopped two months ago. I journaled today because it is the last day of the year, and felt much better after a five minute personal brain dump. It is very different writing for oneself! I hope that I do personal journaling more consistently next year because the process is very centering. As individuals we have a lot of stuff that other people either shouldn’t hear or wouldn’t want to hear. Personal journaling into /dev/null seems appropriate.
- barganzo 2 years agoI will read less text from LCDs and more from dead trees.
- harrego 2 years ago> However, my brain feels like it’s become very intake-optimized at the expense of creativity.
Bingo.
- wcerfgba 2 years agoI find the volume of ideas I have far outstrips my time to write meaningfully about most of them, so now I have a Backlog page on my website where I can just post a single paragraph and leave the idea floating there. That way I have a record of it, and someone else can pick it up if they have time and interest, and I don't feel like I have to write a comprehensive treatment for every idea.
- jasong 2 years agoMy favorite part of this post is the distinction between writing and posting. Picking an audience is important for me when I write. If a post is mostly self reflection for yourself, it’s ok to not post it.
- prox 2 years agoI can recommend to Op reading the book “If you want to write.” by Brenda Ueland.
- nigamanth 2 years agoThe questions that one asks themselves before writing a blog post such as whether it's valuable, exists, whether we have time is what leads to the downfall of 99% of blog posts.