Tips for writing more (compiled)
Remember these points
Make writing a part of your identity
The author, Christian, notes that being “good” at writing “isn't the same thing as 'having an easy time doing it' [...] writing is hard, and for the vast majority of us it always will be.” Christian suggests that instead of waiting to “find time to write,” writers should “make a habit of writing,” “stick to a schedule,” and “make appointments with [themselves].” Writing time, it is said, should be measured by “word count,” “goal attainment” (e.g., 500 words every day), and where the most “effort” was spent (i.e., a project name).
Talker's block (Seth Godin)
While I disagree with the idea that “no one ever gets talker's block” and that “talk is ephemeral” — think social anxiety, for example — I do like Seth's reminder that “the second best thing to zero is something better than bad.”
So if you know you have write tomorrow, your brain will start working on something better than bad. And then you’ll inevitably redefine bad and tomorrow will be better than that. And on and on.
#100Days and #100DaysToOffload
I read Seth's post (above) after it was quoted in the announcement for a 100 day writing challenge (@Listed). The challenge:
Write for 100 days? Surely my life is not that interesting. I would run out of things to write about. And that's where the magic lies. Yes, you will run out of things to write about. So what will you write about then?
As part of the #100Days challenge, @Listed also published “Tips for writing every day.” In it, the author expands on the idea of “[running] out of things to write about.”
If you simply transcribe what your mind is thinking, then there's no way you fail this challenge. [...] Your job is to simply sample a small timeline of those thoughts onto paper. You're not doing any work here other than transcribing the thoughts that naturally flow through your mind onto paper.
In “transcribing the thoughts that naturally flow,” #100Days expects us to write without regard for “[winning] a Pulitzer Prize for literature.” Similarly, #100DaysToOffload asks that we “forget about search engine optimization and “all that jargon.”
#100DaysToOffload is “the brainchild of Kev Quirk,” for which Kev asks participants to “tell us about your dog, your cat, your fish tank, or whatever hobbies you have. Someone will find it interesting [emphasis added].”
Kev's guidelines for #100DaysToOffload are more forgiving than those of Christian in “Make writing a part of your identity” or @Listed for #100Days. Instead of maintaining a schedule or writing every day, Kev wants us to:
Publish 100 new posts in the space of a year. You don't need to publish a post every 3 days — if you want a week off, that's fine. If it comes to the end of the year and you have only published 60 posts, that's also fine. Just. Write.
Where should I write?
Pen (or pencil, which I prefer) and paper!
I like the notebooks from Baron Fig.
Where should I write? (Digital)
Consider: The hidden privacy risk in note-taking apps
Note-taking apps have become a welcome replacement for post-it notes. People frequently use them for quick to-do and grocery shopping lists, but they’re also often used to store more private information.
Places to quickly post Markdown and plain-text content without an account, accessible to anyone with the link
Top ten reasons GitHub is a great tool for creative writers
The reasons really apply to version-control software more generally, including Gitea and GitLab. One helpful suggestion by the author:
Not sure whether a particular plotline or character might work? Create a branch!
ghostwriter
“A distraction-free Markdown editor for Windows and Linux,” available under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3).
Joplin
“An open source note taking and to-do application with synchronisation capabilities,” available under the MIT (Expat) License.
Joplin also supports end-to-end encryption (not enabled by default). I use Joplin with a WebDAV (Nextcloud) backend for synchronization.
Mark Text
A “markdown editor that focused on speed and usability,” available under the MIT (Expat) License.
I use Mark Text as an alternative editor to Joplin.
Standard Notes
“A free, open-source, and completely encrypted notes app,” available under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPLv3). Listed (@Listed) is a public blogging platform from Standard Notes.
Note: I specify Expat when referring to the MIT License based on a recommendation from the Free Software Foundation:
Some people call this license “the MIT License,” but that term is misleading, since MIT has used many licenses for software. It is also ambiguous, since the same people also call the X11 license “the MIT License,” failing to distinguish them. We recommend not using the term “MIT License.”
Tangential
Building a digital garden (Tom Critchlow)
Tom describes “a blogging product without a publish button,” which is simply “a less-performative version of blogging — more of a captain's log than a broadcast blog.”
Drawing from the idea of “a captain's log,” note Chris Beckstrom's use of a personal wiki as “a digital garden, a personal knowledgebase, a commonplace book.” In other words, Chris uses it as “an all-purpose notebook.”
Transactional writing: Letters that heal
With all the other ways of communicating digitally, we may have lost touch with the power of letter writing to change our lives, but it is still a powerful tool, even in the form of an email. So ask yourself: Do you owe someone a letter? Or maybe you are waiting for a letter that is never going to come? Maybe you should sit right down and write yourself a letter. Letter writing can be therapeutic for the writer as well as the recipient, and it may be just the thing to help you change perspective.
You can visit my personal website at ethanyoo.com.