It's not just writing.
Being around a group of highly-skilled peers sets the bar. It exposed your shortcomings and gives you a resource to remedy them.
Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster
11–20 of 44 posts
Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster
#12Interesting, seems to prove Paul Graham's essay on how cities influence behavior as correct[0].
Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster
#13I moderate a small writing subresdit and discord. I can't speak to how useful it is for other participants but for me it's been tremendously helpful in keeping my writing front of mind, not to mention the writing sprints that take place there represent a significant amount of my output. Interacting with other writers has been the best way to improve my own writing as well as develop new ideas and inspiration.
What's the subreddit?
Interested as well.
Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster
#14I don't think the clustering needs to be geographic; isn't NaNoWriMo based on essentially the same principle? Seeing how far along your peers are can be a useful kick up the fundament when you're lagging behind.
I agree it doesn't need to be, and the Internet has really helped people get some of the benefits of these clusters without the disruption of uprooting their lives.
At the same time, we are physical beings, and there's nothing quite like the experience of sharing a space with people into what you're into.
Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster
#15I don't think the clustering needs to be geographic; isn't NaNoWriMo based on essentially the same principle? Seeing how far along your peers are can be a useful kick up the fundament when you're lagging behind.
Never underestimate the power of the NaNo forums, or subreddits, or general forums that open a NaNo board. It's not just about pacing, it's about communication.
Online forums are great, but I wonder if they're missing something nevertheless for lack of physicality.
One of the more interesting papers I read last year was "Knitting Community: Human and Social Capital in the Early Transition into Entrepreneurship", Kim 2018 https://goo.gl/1AfwZG on knitting enthusiasts on the Ravelry knitting forums https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravelry - despite being eminently digitizable, participation in offline knitting circles still appeared to be a big predictor of knitting success & innovation.
Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster
#16The major thing I struggled with transitioning to being a writer from the tech world is the challenge of creating feedback cycles. Writing can be a lonely affair, since outside of writing rooms, it's not naturally collaborative, unlike the business world, where you get constant feedback from peers, bosses, customers, the market, etc.
The advice from published authors I know is that the highest correlation with eventually getting published is to have a weekly (or regular) cadence with an intimate critique group of small size. The critiques themselves are useful, but even more important is the social pressure to produce.
I've always wondered how famous authors seemed to all hang out with each other, like C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. I realized the question was poorly formed: famous authors tend to cluster because they got to know each other before they were famous. They improved their craft together, and each person's success levels up the group.
Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster
#17The major thing I struggled with transitioning to being a writer from the tech world is the challenge of creating feedback cycles. Writing can be a lonely affair, since outside of writing rooms, it's not naturally collaborative, unlike the business world, where you get constant feedback from peers, bosses, customers, the market, etc. The advice from published authors I know is that the highest correlation with eventu…
I wrote a tweet thread on building a writing habit:
https://twitter.com/nemild/status/1113441095323492352
Consistency and having social pressure were critical for me.
Also, check out Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (book)
Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster
#18It's much more likely that serious writers cluster and that serious writers are more prolific.
Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster
#19The major thing I struggled with transitioning to being a writer from the tech world is the challenge of creating feedback cycles. Writing can be a lonely affair, since outside of writing rooms, it's not naturally collaborative, unlike the business world, where you get constant feedback from peers, bosses, customers, the market, etc. The advice from published authors I know is that the highest correlation with eventu…
I wrote a tweet thread on building a writing habit: https://twitter.com/nemild/status/1113441095323492352 Consistency and having social pressure were critical for me. Also, check out Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (book)
Good stuff! I agree with everything in that thread.
I think a lot about the comparisons to coding, because both writing and coding are acts of thinking. When we started Parse, for example, we hired folks who were naturally inclined to write. This gave us a huge advantage when it came time to communicate how the platform worked to a wide audience.
Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster
#20Interesting, seems to prove Paul Graham's essay on how cities influence behavior as correct[0]. [0] http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html
I loved that essay. Thanks for sharing