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Does anyone else have the problem where they write a lot, but it all seems to go into the void and never produce any tangible benefit? How do I produce writing that people want to read?
2017 I had the new year's resolution to write one blogpost a week. Now, I'm making all of my income from technical writing. Consistency is key. With that said, less is more. Stephen King said, he writes 6 pages a day, which is probably too much for most people. But one page a day should be doable.
Stephen King answers basically with the same advice he's always given, as you said, he tries to write 6 pages a day.
In the video, he says he tries to get 3-4 hours of work a day, and get to that 6 pages. He breaks it down, "if the manuscript is x length, it will take y months to finish." George RR Martin goes on to ask essentially, "but what if writer's block? What if internet distraction? What if something comes up?"
He goes on to tell a story about Rowling that basically resolves with "nobody really understands what writers do," but based on King's own "On Writing," I think he does claim to understand, and his tips are not really any different from how you generate content in any other medium, methods that those of us terminally online HN types are at this point experts via headlines alone, we see so many posts on the subject.
The method is demonstrated in the "6 pages" quote that gets thrown around: define the objective (write a book), break the objective into estimable and achievable goals (write 6 pages a day: this allows for book length x to be finished in y months), and set dedicated, distraction-free time to achieve the day's goal (as I recall from "On Writing," King has a dedicated writing office and doesn't bring his phone into it, and doesn't have internet access in there. I may be remembering incorrectly or mixing up my absurd breadth of reading I've done on the general topic of staying focused).
Meanwhile GRRM, for all his undeniable success, talent, and skill, talks about the act of writing in kinda the same way an amateur might, or maybe just the way an artist might, a sort of mystical "waiting for the muse" type style. "What if I just don't wanna write?"
King's answer, and the answer of many prolific artists, programmers, etc, that I've read, would be "why are you whether you want to write or not? You have today's goal already, so, achieve it." The wanting is irrelevant, the muse is unneeded, you've broken down the task, go do today's TODO list. Are you going to re-justify for yourself every single day the overall objective? Well, tbh, I do like that as a mindfulness self-affirmation exercise sometimes, but the point is you can't just sit around waiting to want to do the small part of the larger objective, you gotta just put the hours in day after day.
I think a lot of us across all disciplines are missing that key skill in production: project management, I think I'd call it. The most prolific artists are the ones who grabbed that skill and added it to the toolset as a discipline-agnostic ability. Hence why when King talks about his method it sounds the same to me as what I've read here from programmers, what I've seen on youtube from animators, and what I've heard on podcasts from musicians.
Does anyone else have the problem where they write a lot, but it all seems to go into the void and never produce any tangible benefit? How do I produce writing that people want to read?
What do you write about?
Does anyone else have the problem where they write a lot, but it all seems to go into the void and never produce any tangible benefit? How do I produce writing that people want to read?
Does anyone else have the problem where they write a lot, but it all seems to go into the void and never produce any tangible benefit? How do I produce writing that people want to read?
For me, the hardest problem is even getting the word out. I’ve used a few different platforms to get my book in front of people. And by and large, the ones who start it also finish it. But even giving away content, it is surprisingly hard to connect to an audience of any size.
Pick any kind of writing, and you’ll find the marketplace is incredibly crowded. There is so much content vying for a finite set of eyeballs. And it’s not just other writers; you’re competing with all other uses of leisure time: Netflix, Fortnite, Twitter, TikTok, hell, even Tinder
I think you have to enjoy writing because it scratches your own itch. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll attract a few like-minded followers. If you’re hoping for a more sizable audience, you’d better enjoy marketing.
2017 I had the new year's resolution to write one blogpost a week. Now, I'm making all of my income from technical writing. Consistency is key. With that said, less is more. Stephen King said, he writes 6 pages a day, which is probably too much for most people. But one page a day should be doable.
One of my favorite videos is when George RR Martin asks Stephen King on stage, "How the fuck do you write so many books so fast?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR7XMkjDGw0 Stephen King answers basically with the same advice he's always given, as you said, he tries to write 6 pages a day. In the video, he says he tries to get 3-4 hours of work a day, and get to that 6 pages. He breaks it down, "if the manuscript is…
2017 I had the new year's resolution to write one blogpost a week. Now, I'm making all of my income from technical writing. Consistency is key. With that said, less is more. Stephen King said, he writes 6 pages a day, which is probably too much for most people. But one page a day should be doable.
One of my favorite videos is when George RR Martin asks Stephen King on stage, "How the fuck do you write so many books so fast?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR7XMkjDGw0 Stephen King answers basically with the same advice he's always given, as you said, he tries to write 6 pages a day. In the video, he says he tries to get 3-4 hours of work a day, and get to that 6 pages. He breaks it down, "if the manuscript is…
I wonder though if there is a reluctance to adopt an approach similar to King's because people are wary (possibly subconsciously) of killing their enjoyment of the process: 'Don't turn your hobby into a job' is advice that you hear a lot.
Perhaps those who are prolific have their eyes more on the end result (a good book in 3 months) rather than the act of writing and that helps them deal with this as well as being more generally motivating to produce good work.
2017 I had the new year's resolution to write one blogpost a week. Now, I'm making all of my income from technical writing. Consistency is key. With that said, less is more. Stephen King said, he writes 6 pages a day, which is probably too much for most people. But one page a day should be doable.
One of my favorite videos is when George RR Martin asks Stephen King on stage, "How the fuck do you write so many books so fast?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR7XMkjDGw0 Stephen King answers basically with the same advice he's always given, as you said, he tries to write 6 pages a day. In the video, he says he tries to get 3-4 hours of work a day, and get to that 6 pages. He breaks it down, "if the manuscript is…
It’s basically that distinction between a Pro and an Amateur that you are making. The Pro sits down and does the work, the Amateur waits till they feel like it.
Does anyone else have the problem where they write a lot, but it all seems to go into the void and never produce any tangible benefit? How do I produce writing that people want to read?
Things I've heard writers / bloggers / etc. in my life say about writing:
- There is no magic bullet; you just have to practice, practice, practice and be willing to throw away large sections or even entire drafts. Most people, including famous authors, write large volumes of crap. - If you're explicitly looking for an audience, you have to test with that audience! Get feedback early and often, and use that feedback to improve what (and how) you write. (If you have any product / design / UX training, you'll notice how similar this advice is to best practices in those fields!)
(On the second point: using Notion, Google Docs, or any other tool that gives you an easily shared link and allows inline commenting is a great way to get useful feedback!)