Writing about writing

Ideas to help you write more and better

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A weirdly high percentage of my friends and former co-workers have told me they’d like to become better writers. For the rest of this essay, I make it my job to explain why I believe you should consider writing and how you might go about getting started.

(This is a guest post from Quarter Mile)

1.

If you really wanted to run a marathon, you could do it. All it would take is going outside and running for at least a few days a week until you were capable. And then, a few months from now, you could be racing across the finish line with a half-decent time. That would feel great. And not only would it feel great, it would be normal. People run marathons all the time.

Things weren’t always this way. Half a century ago, running was a weird thing to do if you weren’t a professional athlete. In the ‘60s it was so weird to run that it wasn’t uncommon for police officers to stop you just for running outdoors. But that changed, and now more people than ever run.

Why? Ask runners why they do it and you’ll notice there is a quality without a name to their answers. “It just feels good,” somebody might tell you. “It helps my mental health,” or “I can think more clearly.” People don’t just run because it is good for their physical body (and in fact it may actually be bad for your knees). People run because it can improve other parts of their life. Because it helps them feel better.

But this is not an essay about running. It’s about writing. Funny thing, though, is that writing is in many ways similar to running. Sure, it feels good to write. But writing can also help with other things:

• It can help you think more clearly

• It can land you a job interview at any company you want

• It can help you communicate more effectively and persuasively

• It can give you new ideas

• It can cause you to develop a deeper appreciation for the world around you

• It can be a tool you use to explore new ideas

• It can help you work through complex situations and make more effective decisions

• It can make you a happier, more thoughtful person

• It can be a way you relax, or process emotions, or resolve conflict

• It can be a path to creating beautiful art

• It can even be a career (like it is for Substack writers, or professional copywriters)

Just to reiterate, these are a few of the extra things that writing can help you with. Writing on its own is pretty great, too, and even without any of these benefits it would still be a worthwhile pursuit; there is real value to be found in writing a great essay to learn about a new topic, or producing a fun story.

We think writing needs a sort of revolution, like what happened with running. Writing something like 1,000 words a day should be as common as going on a regular jog in the park. And if you can agree with me on that, then I’ve got some good news: just like anyone can learn to run a marathon with a bit of persistence, anyone can learn to write. You could start as soon as you are done reading this essay.

2.

The trouble with all this is that you probably agree with me and yet you probably won’t start writing.

Disagree? Well, most people at various points in their life (school, work, essays like this) are told that writing is powerful, and most people do not write outside of their basic obligations, like emails at work and texts in their personal life. So, clearly, the argument for writing has not been convincing enough to date.

I have many friends and coworkers who have told me they agree with my argument for writing, but who do not actually write. When I press them on it, I often find they have one or more limiting beliefs about writing. The below are mental viruses that I believe have infected lots of people I’ve met, and unlearning them may be the most effective way to get yourself to write:

• You’re either a good writer or you aren’t (i.e. “I’m just not a writer”).

• It takes a long time to produce good writing.

• Writing is a magical, arts-y process where you have to wait for inspiration to arrive.

• There just isn’t enough time in your day to write.

• Writing is a super-important high art form that has to be approached carefully.

• You need some sort of qualifications or fancy training to write and publish.

• To be a ‘real writer’ you have to write fancy prose, or novelist stuff.

• There’s some objective quality bar you need to meet in order to post writing online.

This is all bullshit. Anyone can learn to write, including you. You can write about anything you want in whatever tone, style, or format you want to. It does not take months or years to produce something worth reading. You do not need to carve out 6 hours a day to write. There is time in your day to write if you really want to, and if somehow there isn’t, you can wake up 30 minutes earlier. There is no objective ruling board of supreme writers that determines what you’re allowed to write about, or what’s worth publishing.

The only valid excuse not to write is that you simply don’t want to write badly enough. And if that’s you, that’s okay. But for everyone else: you can become a good writer and you can write. All it takes is to sit down and write one sentence, and then another, and then another.

Here is a little bit of advice about getting started (or improving, if you are already writing).

3.

While it is true that both of us who write for Quarter Mile have published millions of words, it is also true that we have struggled at times to produce writing consistently. Some things that have helped (which are not all the world’s most novel pieces of advice, but which can actually work):

• Have someone hold you accountable.

• Get regular, consistent, ideally useful feedback.

• Gamify it. Create challenges, e.g. over 30 days, where you write a lot.

• Write at the same time every day.

• Read a lot. (This can be a way to gain inspiration and learn new ways of writing.)

• Create an environment you like. Don’t obsess. Just something simple that works.

• Create a place to publish your writing. Then publish!

• Build an audience with an expectation (e.g. 1 post a week)

• Write first drafts as fast as possible. Try writing a 2,000-word essay in an hour.

• Lower your bar, then lower it even further. You can always fix things later.

• Try outlining before you write. Try not outlining. See what works best.

• Share your writing sooner rather than later.

• Go reread the list of myths in the previous section and make sure you don’t believe any.

This is soft guidance, not a list of hard rules. You should, of course, do whatever is most effective for you. As for how to get ideas, as you write more often you will notice that ideas start pouring in on their own; writing opens a sort of mental door for ideas. We doubt you will struggle with those.

And, if you really want to improve quickly and get feedback from other people…

4.

…then you may want to consider joining a community. (For example you could consider joining Friends of Next Play or join our latest project, Writing Club).

5.

Imagine a world where every human who was capable of it ran for 90 minutes a day. It sounds crazy to say, but almost everything (except for maybe knee cartilage health) could be better. Life expectancies would be higher. Incidences for many kinds of disease would be down. People would probably be a bit more satisfied with their lives, on average; median mental health would be improved. As a result, productivity would likely also increase. We’d hit our goals faster, and so on. You see the picture.

We think that something similar is true for writing. A world in which everyone wrote consistently might be a world with more observant, thoughtful, effective, possibly even happier people. And, as a nice little bonus, we’d also have millions of additional words of wonderful writing to read.

Writing is not exactly a silver bullet to solve all of humanity’s problems, no. But if you are looking to answer the persistent and important question of what to do with your time, we suggest you pick up a pen.