On Practicing Writing

On my current writing process

I recently sent one of my posts to a friend who was considering trying out GrapheneOS. He asked what my writing process was like and I took some time to summarize my thoughts. I pretty quickly had a brain dump and here's what I said:

Yeah the process is pretty different now than when I was younger. As a kid I was into the "manage your online brand" Kool-aid when I thought I wanted to do startups. Then in the second era I was writing posts because I was looking for new work and wanted to link to my blog. See this post.

Before my grandfather passed he gave me his favorite books ^[1] and I earnestly gave them a try. ^[2] For the first time in my life I started to really enjoy reading. Ever since then I've been gradually building on the habit.

Similar to reading, writing was also something that I didn't enjoy growing up. Though I find it much more manageable for me now with ADHD meds. ^[3] Anyways, my process:

• No AI assistance, since that defeats the goal of deliberate practice.
• Harper is nice for spell checking though. I will also listen to my writing using TTS to help catch errors.
• A lot of my writing is project driven. As I work I quickly dump notes into Obsidian and I can use that as fodder.
• If the project kicks off the writing itch I'll start massaging the different pieces into prose.
• Some notes and thoughts just never end up fitting. I used to try and cram a paragraph in, but now I'm OK setting them aside. Sometimes I'll pull those unused pieces into a future post.
• My goal is to get better at long form writing so I aim for at least 1000 words. I'm trying to be careful not to force that though. Some topics don't need that much.
• Recently, when pieces start to get above 1500 words I'll sit with the draft. When it's that long there's usually different but related topics. If I can expand each of them then I can make a series of posts. For example, these were originally one post.
• Often times I have notes I was not interested in writing about. Then something happens in the news that makes me annoyed. I can combine old notes with commentary on the event and make a post out of it. ^[4] That's why keeping old notes is nice. You never know what you may use. Right now I'm incubating one where I'm lamenting never trying to do maker stuff.
• Above all, I need to carve out time for projects or they don't happen, especially when the brain has juice and wants to write.
• That also means communication with my partner, like if the dog needs to go out and I'm in a writing groove, I ask if she can walk her. Likewise if my partner is energized to jam on one of her projects, I'll take the dog out.
• Finally, I working on accepting that not every idea works out and needs to be published. I still got some practice from writing a draft.
• Also, I hate copy editing and will sometimes not publish because I'm afraid of errors. I'm working on finding a middle path of practicing some copy editing, but also knowing the blog is a work in progress and doesn't need to be perfect.

Hey look at that 600 words.

On thinking more systematically about how I write

Growing up I mostly wrote for assignments in school. I was taught the mechanics of how to write, but never how to think about how I write. So, I recently attended a How to create a writing habit session. I had never taken a class like that before and I really enjoyed the experience.

Some takeaways that really resonated with me:

• Do warm up and cool down when you set aside time to write. Even a couple minutes will help mentally prepare you.
• Always have a mentor text, and keep one specific element of writing in mind. ^[5]
• Each genre has different strengths and weaknesses. Write outside of your main writing genre to be well rounded.
• Read lit mags. My local library gets the usually suspects like Ploughsares and The New Yorker, so I can read them there.
• Have a "Go Everywhere Journal" to record inspiration when it happens. ^[6]
• Have intentionality about what kind of writing I will do when I sit down: researching, drafting, editing, etc. ^[7]

The class also ended with a really reassuring thought:

Your writing habit is an organic, ever-evolving thing, since you are an ever evolving thing. Allow it to adapt to its changing environment. Building a long term writing habit is about coming back to the page, time and time again.

On tone and trying new forms of writing:

I recently started reading the 13th edition of Style: Lessons In Clarity And Grace. I'm only on the first chapter, but I came across these two nuggets:

To accommodate those situations, I renamed Williams’s First Rule of style the “golden rule” of style and introduced a second “silver rule”: do not write to others as you would not have others write to you. If Williams’s golden rule is a principle of empathy, its corollary silver rule is a principle of fairness.

Our own writing always seems clearer to us than it does to our readers because when we read it, we respond less to the words on the page or screen than to the thoughts in our own heads: we read into it what we want them to get out of it. We see what we wanted to say, and we blame our readers for not understanding us as well as we understand (or think we understand) ourselves.

These really resonated with me because one post of mine about a podcast player recently got some attention. This was a great example of the importance of being conscientious of how you write. I wanted the tone to be "disappointed parent", but one reader online described my writing as "righteous fury". As you can imagine that was not my intention. Thankfully there is another great quote from the book:

As we struggle to master new ideas, most of us write worse than we do when we write about things we understand better. If that sounds familiar, take heart: you will write more clearly when you more fully understand what you are writing about.

The class I took said to give yourself the permission to experiment with different writing styles. Here are some new post types I've published over the last couple of months:

• Learning About Municipal Open Data with a Cambridge Workshop - Kind of reporting, but also combined with a summary of the event.
• I'm a laptop weirdo and that's why I like my new Framework 13 - The first time I did a review style post. I enjoyed mixing some personal history and social context in as well.
• What Podcasts Am I Listening To? - This post was a survey of my habits and preferences. I'd love to do this for the books I read as well. Additionally I can do yearly updates to see how my preferences have changed.
• Ricoh GRIII in Japan - One part travel blog with one part technology thoughts.
• Post Race Report: Boston Run to Remember - A personal reflective piece on my experience training.

Even though the styles are all different they have a common aspect: sharing what I've learned with others. That is my main through line with writing.

On the benefits of reading and writing

Ever since I sent that message to my friend I have been mulling over why I'm practicing all of this. So, I've started collecting links when I encounter an article or story that reinforces the importance of reading and writing.

As a parting thought, the links below are to copies of the articles with my Readwise highlights. You can click through to the original articles.

From The Economist:

• Is the decline of reading making politics dumber? - the importance of reading for political sophistication and as a means of social mobility.
• Can you make it to the end of this column? - if there is an attention economy, then you can have attention theft.

From Cal Newport: ^[8]

• Why are we getting dumber? - around 21:00 Cal talks about some steps to help deal with phone usage so you can recapture your attention.
• Should We Fear Cognitive Debt? - around 9:00 he talks about the neurological processes behind writing. How the brain did not evolve for writing the way we evolved for speaking.

From Complex Systems:

• Building institutions that bend towards truth, with Clara Collier of Asterisk Magazine - the guest talked about giving their writing fellows feedback. She mentioned using the concept of reader personas when you are a publication.
• Understanding and wielding power in local government, with Daniel Golliher - on the value of sharing your voice through your own blog.

Happy reading and writing!