⚓️ Hi Matey,
I’m putting together a mega-post for you, which I’ll publish on johnharrison.io.
Something like “222 tips, tricks, and tools to be a better writer”
It’s a beast, and it reminds me how overwhelming big writing projects can be. I find the best way to deal with them is the way I would deal with a jigsaw puzzle—start with the easy bits.
The corners are easily the most distinguishable, as the only 4 pieces with 2 straight sides. In writing, the corners are whatever is easiest for you to just start. It might be the structure, it might be the intro, it might be what later becomes the 17th paragraph.
You’re just looking for an easy win. The corners.
For my mega-post, the corners were a section about the different software tools for writing. I had already been investigating them, so it was fresh. I felt confident about it.
The outer edge of the jigsaw is next easiest—all the pieces with 1 straight edge. Then, perhaps obvious details like a character or a vivid colour.
The same goes for writing. Just write whatever comes easiest, next. The more small pieces you put together, the more obvious the spaces in between become. Just because a reader starts at the beginning, doesn’t mean a writer has to. The picture will soon emerge.
But, before it’s truly clear, you’ll have to knit it together. If you’ve ever done a jigsaw and been left with 437 seemingly identical bits of ‘sky’, you’ll know where the hard work lies.
That’s OK though. Good writing is hard. But we can make it easier by starting with the corners, not the sky.
1/ Quote I’ve been thinking about 📣
"Arguments are like eels: however logical, they may slip from the mind's weak grasp unless fixed there by imagery and style. We need metaphors to derive a sense of what cannot be seen or touched, or else we will forget"
Alain de Botton (Philosopher and author)
This quote is the sidekick to last week’s quote which suggested that good writing comes from stripping sentences to their cleanest components. The danger is that the stripping is too strict leaving functional, but characterless writing.
Yes, every word should earn its place, but some words earn their place by painting a picture or revealing your nature.
2/ Some tweet about writing 🐦
This was my first tweetstorm. Well, not so much a storm.
It wasn’t an engulfing tirade. I wasn’t angry and there are only 7 linked tweets. So, maybe we should call it a tweetbreeze.
But, it is pretty much the basis of all my writing, and what makes it good.
3/ Something that helped me this week 🙏
I was reminded to re-read some of The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. If you find yourself stalling and need a kick up the peach, this book might help.
In it, Steven talks about ‘Resistance’. An invisible, insidious, infallible force that prevents “the pursuit of any calling in writing, painting, music, film, dance, or any creative art, however marginal or unconventional.”
It suffocates any act of political, moral, or ethical courage. Any course or program designed to overcome an unwholesome habit or addiction. Education of any kind. Any activity whose aim is tighter abs. And more.
Steven’s antidote to Resistance is to turn pro. This quote from the book captures the idea.
Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. “I write only when inspiration strikes”, he replied. “Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”
Have a good week 🐒
John
p.s. I really want to help. Real life examples are always enlightening, so why not put your writing in a google doc and share it with me (hello@johnharrison.io). I’ll make some comments and suggestions.