On Writing
A live journal with musings, learnings, and techniques from my writing practice
When I was younger, I read voraciously. In middle school, I discovered there was no limit to the number of books you can borrow at once from the public library. Imagine the bewildered stare from the librarian when I unloaded over 15 books on the checkout desk. I read on bus rides, late into the night, and yes, often for hours on the toilet.
It was my love for reading that led me to writing. I recently had free time and wanted to try my hand at some form of creation. A useful heuristic in choosing an artistic pursuit is to create what you like to consume. I’ve devoured books, news articles, essays, tweets - why not try writing?
But man, writing is difficult! Writing has flung me into the beginner’s mind again. There are many components of writing—idea development, structure and composition, language and grammar, voice—and I am a novice at all of them.
Hence the motivation to start a writing journal. This page will be a rolling document to share my reflections and learnings about the art of writing.
Don’t underestimate the power of iteration
My first drafts suck, and I’ve learned to be ok with that. The first draft is the first time the ideas, narratives, and phrases in my head become tangible on the page. Ideas may not come through, the structure won’t flow, and word choice will be off. But it’s crucial to finish a first draft as soon as possible to create momentum.
Once the first draft is complete, however bad it feels, I have something to base off of. The first draft provides fodder and raw ideas that decide to keep or cut. The first to second draft is usually where structure and flow emerge. The second to third draft is where phrasing and word choice begin to crystallize. Over multiple iterations, a polished piece magically emerges. Most of my pieces have involved 2-3 iterations so far, but I wonder how a piece with 6-7 iterations might turn out.
Entering the zone (with longer time blocks)
When I write for about an hour, I spend the majority of it focusing, re-reading, and thinking, leaving no time for writing. I might complete a paragraph or two, around 10-15% of the first draft. I’ve noticed that with 2-3x longer writing blocks (2-3 hours) I’m able to write over 5x more (50-75% of a draft). There is a superlinear relationship between duration and output.
My lived experience matches the numbers. During longer sessions, there is the distinctive feeling of entering a concentrated state of mind. Noises and conversations in the cafe fade away, I am alone with ideas and words, my fingers tap away at the keyboards, and a rhythm appears.
Practicing writing with an athlete’s mindset
When I was training for my triathlon I used training plan software called TrainingPeaks and planned out my weekly workouts across the three disciplines. I kept detailed heart rate / zone / perceived exertion / pacing data. Since writing is a trainable skill, I’m playing with applying a similar data-driven mindset to my writing practice.
I keep a writing session tracker that tracks each writing session, its duration, what I write about, and comments. My v1 was a Google doc with bullet points, and the current v2 is a Google sheet that standardizes the structure. I hope data about my writing habits can increase awareness about my practice and motivate me to write more. It feels good to see rows indicating that I am writing daily for two to three hours.
A mental framework for the creative process
Rick Rubin writes in The Creative Act: “Source makes available. The filter distills. The vessel receives. And often this happens beyond our control.” As I write more, his conceptualization of the creative process has begun to resonate.
I thought and talked about interesting ideas before, but since I didn’t have any type of formal process to do anything with them, they’d mostly just pass through my mind. I might have a conversation about the consequences of an employer-sponsored healthcare system on US healthcare with a friend, then we’d each move on with our lives.
Now, my weekly writing goal creates healthy pressure for me to listen out for novel ideas and narratives (Source). Since each idea could be something to write about, I have developed a conscious decision process to let it pass or capture it (Filter). I now keep an Apple Notes doc to record concepts that I want to store for later (Vessel). A new awareness of ideas, stories, and language nestles itself in the minute-to-minute of my life.
I’ll be keeping this page updated as I write. One of my greatest hopes is that writing can be social. Fellow writers: let me know if you’ve experienced any of these, and comment with what you’ve learned about writing along the way!
I love the writing journal to write like an athlete. Will be starting one for myself :)