Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

To write better, develop a habit of writing

bookpub.club

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 81 posts

Re: To write better, develop a habit of writing

#71

Post by jasonv »

SiVal wrote: post #63
jasonv wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get up at 430am. It's possible, even with a baby/toddler. Having read about the habits of writers, a lot of writers limit their "writing" to a few hours/day and spend the rest of their time in the business of being a writer. If you're just starting, you mostly need to do the writing part.

Getting up at 4:30am is possible if you have a baby? Not only is it possible, in my experience it's inevitable.

Babies are different of course.. mine slept in a bit longer, but I definitely felt more capable in the all consuming parenting zone if I had a bit of my own locked in, too.

Re: To write better, develop a habit of writing

#72

Post by markc »

thotsBgone wrote: post #29
chrismeller wrote: post #5

For anyone interested in writing “for real” (professionally or as a hobby) I highly recommend John Scalzi’s blog [1]. He’s cynical, he’s funny, and above all he’s practical. Among his advice over the years a few things have really stuck with me: 1) Don’t get an MFA, it’s a waste of money. If you need a grammar class, take one. If you need more of a basis in x literary genre because that’s what you want to write in, t…

Note to self: don't get a Multi-Factor Authentication By checking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MFA , I presume you meant Master of Fine Arts.

I have implemented multi-factor authentication systems and have given public presentations on the topic, but I didn't jump to that as the first association for the acronym MFA. Guess I need to work harder on my geek cred!

Re: To write better, develop a habit of writing

#73

Post by markc »

NewOrderNow wrote: post #8

I have been doing morning pages for 10 years and have been attempting to to force the habit of writing for longer. I don't like writing. You definitely get better at writing, but some things just don't get easier. Same for running. Daily runner. It is the best thing I have ever done. But it sucks and never gets easier. Is there anything to get rid of this feeling of suck?

I despised running as long as I was doing under 3 miles per session. Once I pushed to 5 miles it was a very different experience. No more oxygen deficit, almost effortless, with all those lovely endorphins telling you you're awesome.

Re: To write better, develop a habit of writing

#74

Post by markc »

iainctduncan wrote: post #64

Personally, I find this overly simplistic and I believe it's misleading. I write, review, and edit professionally as about 1/2 of my current job, and I see tons of awful writing by people who write every week. Believing you just need to write regularly to improve is like believing that if you play tons of gigs on your instrument you'll get better. How many really bad musicians have you seen who have been stuck at bas…

>Read really good writing

Any favorites? I like the writing style of some authors in your study books (Pinker, Le Guin, Zinsser) but what books really inspire you in terms of sheer writing genius? (in both fiction and non-fiction)

Re: To write better, develop a habit of writing

#76

Post by AlwaysRock »

pier25 wrote: post #25
AlwaysRock wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a lot of free time in the past and spend a lot of it writing. 99% of what someone writes will be crap. That is like 1% of the code you write actually running. It is really difficult to feel motivated to keep writing when your normal output is at such a low quality. I'd argue that this is the number one hurdle to writing more and writing "better".

IMO that's the wrong way to think about it. As I see it, it's not that what you write is 99% crap and 1% good stuff. It's more like you're sketching before producing the final painting. It's not crap, it's just an unavoidable part of the process you need to go through. Also, thinking that 99% of what you write is crap must be super demoralizing.

I think it's the only realistic way to think about it. It's not sketching an outline then producing a quality piece of writing. It's sketching an outline then producing something that is very mediocre. Even after revisions. 99% of the time.

If you can accept that and still show up to write every day you will eventually produce some good work. If you cannot then you will very likely be demoralized and quit.

I'd argue some greats and naturals may have a higher quality output rate up to something like 5% but that's still 95% shit.

Re: To write better, develop a habit of writing

#77

Post by usernameanother »

themarkn wrote: post #32
usernameanother wrote: post #28

If I had to optimize good writing, choosing between reading and writing, I'd prefer reading.

The translation of thoughts, ideas and intentions into unified written works that have the desired effect on a reader is not something you can read your way into. Obviously you can’t _not read_ but to get good at writing you have to practice. How do you organize your thinking to end up with writing that works for you? What are the invisible things you need to figure out, that the people who wrote the work you like di…

Thank you for your comment, I agree btw. It's just that I see reading as having more benefit for me than just writing (without reading as much). As in, the relative importance of reading to writing is higher.

By reading someone I can implicitly understand how they structure their thoughts and how they think (where and when they stop to explain something.) This, opposed to me experimenting how to structure my own thoughts as to make sense for someone who might then be reading (which might be myself). It's in this sense that I prefer to have various inputs as to how different people write their thoughts rather than just experiment on my own (with the corollary that when I have to write something, when I really have to explain something -- it will just come up in the page without giving too much thought to the structure of the text. The structure is inherent and can be traced back to me reading different authors.)

Re: To write better, develop a habit of writing

#78

Post by pier25 »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #76
pier25 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO that's the wrong way to think about it. As I see it, it's not that what you write is 99% crap and 1% good stuff. It's more like you're sketching before producing the final painting. It's not crap, it's just an unavoidable part of the process you need to go through. Also, thinking that 99% of what you write is crap must be super demoralizing.

I think it's the only realistic way to think about it. It's not sketching an outline then producing a quality piece of writing. It's sketching an outline then producing something that is very mediocre. Even after revisions. 99% of the time. If you can accept that and still show up to write every day you will eventually produce some good work. If you cannot then you will very likely be demoralized and quit. I'd argue…

I don't know. To me there is a fundamental difference between something that needs more work and something that is shit. Maybe it's just a perception thing since writing is so malleable compared to other mediums where there is no fixing anything (eg: watercolor).

Re: To write better, develop a habit of writing

#79

Post by NewOrderNow »

markc wrote: post #73
NewOrderNow wrote: post #8

I have been doing morning pages for 10 years and have been attempting to to force the habit of writing for longer. I don't like writing. You definitely get better at writing, but some things just don't get easier. Same for running. Daily runner. It is the best thing I have ever done. But it sucks and never gets easier. Is there anything to get rid of this feeling of suck?

I despised running as long as I was doing under 3 miles per session. Once I pushed to 5 miles it was a very different experience. No more oxygen deficit, almost effortless, with all those lovely endorphins telling you you're awesome.

This is fascinating as my typical session is around 3 miles. I will have to try this out for a month to see results. Thanks

Re: To write better, develop a habit of writing

#80

Post by mr_overalls »

markc wrote: post #74
iainctduncan wrote: post #64

Personally, I find this overly simplistic and I believe it's misleading. I write, review, and edit professionally as about 1/2 of my current job, and I see tons of awful writing by people who write every week. Believing you just need to write regularly to improve is like believing that if you play tons of gigs on your instrument you'll get better. How many really bad musicians have you seen who have been stuck at bas…

>Read really good writing Any favorites? I like the writing style of some authors in your study books (Pinker, Le Guin, Zinsser) but what books really inspire you in terms of sheer writing genius? (in both fiction and non-fiction)

Not the person you're replying to, but try to at least read award-winning works in the genre of interest. E.g. if interested in sci-fi, read the Hugo and Nebula award winners going back a few years. Read Pulitzer winners for non-fiction. Etc.
Post reply on HN