[HN Gopher] Riding the Writing Wave ___________________________________________________________________ Riding the Writing Wave Author : kkoncevicius Score : 48 points Date : 2021-10-27 19:21 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (perell.com) (TXT) w3m dump (perell.com) | luxpir wrote: | Incredible lack of editing in a post on writing. | | Otherwise sound advice, but of course the old tenet still | applies: learn all the rules, then discard them. | munchbunny wrote: | _clear writers are clear thinkers_ | | In my personal experience, this is doubly true in work contexts, | even for/especially for disciplines that don't typically involve | writing. | | My personal anecdata is that there is absolutely a correlation | between how well a product manager or engineer writes and how | well-thought-out their ideas are when you start to drill down | into what they are saying or asking. | mmaunder wrote: | Many want to be seen as a writer, filmmaker or programmer or they | want the rewards. If you don't love it, don't do it. Writers | write because they're compelled to do so. Shonda Rhimes says | exactly this. She is compelled. Same with the other disciplines. | PG? I'll bet you don't write until you can't hold it any longer. | | All this talk of establishing a writers routine or finding | motivation is trying to persuade non writers to write. Tough to | hear, I know. Yes indeed downvote me because I'm denying your | dreams of wearing black rimmed Tom Ford glasses. But know it's | true because right now, you're not writing. | blairbeckwith wrote: | This feels like gatekeeping writing unnecessarily. | | It's a fairly common sentiment among writers that writing is | painful. "I don't enjoy writing, I enjoy having written", etc. | dexwiz wrote: | Birth is a painful process. | nfw2 wrote: | Although it seems contradictory, I expect many writers would | say writing is often painful, but they still feel compelled | to do it because keeping their ideas inside is more painful. | Pain and motivation aren't mutually exclusive. | omarhaneef wrote: | That is true. However: | | -- You can get your writing (or coding or film making) itch | scratched in many ways. You may write fiction, or write long | memos at work or write elaborate notes here on HN. What you | aren't doing is deliberately writing the thing you want to work | on or think about. It isn't directed. | | -- Even if you do write a lot, you may (you almost certainly | do) think your stuff (at least the first draft and perhaps the | fifth) is not worth putting out there. | | So there is still something to be said for encouraging and | directing even natural writers. | Hammershaft wrote: | For me isn't about getting some desired perception, its about | having ideas that are bottled up in my head but struggling to | find the focus to write them down and share them. I know I'm | not alone in this. | cratermoon wrote: | Cynical take: it's in the interest of publishers (not the | author of this post, but internet sites in general) to get as | many people out there as possible as "writers", because that | allows them to pay them $.02 to $.05 per word. Race to the | bottom. Same thing happened to photography with the rise of the | iPhone and cheap prosumer digital cameras. Nobody wants to pay | photographers (or other visual artists), they just offer | "exposure" or go on UnSplash and find a free image. | Multiplayer wrote: | Optimistic Take: Crypto and NFT markets are opening the doors | for photos, writing and creativity of all stripes to get | valued far more than ever before. | nkingsy wrote: | As far as I can tell NFT relies on social proofing in | forums. I'd ask the rhetorical "how does that scale", but | we all know the answer already. It doesn't. This will be | ruined by spam in 5... 4... | ghaff wrote: | And one needs to decide what makes sense for them in terms of | writing. For me personally, it's either doing something for | free because I want to or I'm getting paid at least $1/word | or so. | nkingsy wrote: | I'm a happy commenter and code writer. | | My big issue with writing prose was that the only good stuff I | produced was confessional. I shared it with trusted friends who | encouraged me, but I was terrified to make anything public. | | I'm so glad I never published any of it. It could literally | have cost me my career in tech. | | I don't have an edgy life anymore, but I don't think I'd risk | baring my soul to the world even now as a boring programmer | dad. | mmaunder wrote: | Writing can be a process of excavation if you choose to go | that route in fiction or non-fiction, and it can be deeply | personal and deeply risky and rewarding. But there are other | paths. Try writing on a subject you're passionate about and | follow the journalist's rule of never injecting yourself into | the story. Having that red line may create a safe outlet you | might enjoy. | jacobr1 wrote: | There is always the route of "fiction inspired by real-life." | Use your stories, but change them. Maybe add a more coherent | narrative that doesn't exist in the vignettes of a lived- | life. | themadturk wrote: | But there's nothing wrong with writing and not sharing. If | the act of writing is the fundamental point of writing (the | journey is its own reward), it doesn't matter whether you | share it or not. It doesn't need to be shared, it doesn't | need to be good. It can be destroyed as soon as you finish | it. | prionassembly wrote: | My parents are classical musicians and always told this to me | about going into the arts as a career. I even went briefly to | film school, but backtracked because the career needed already- | mature social skills to a level that I didn't develop for | another 10 years. So I went STEMmish instead. | | Now: I write because I can't not do it. I write to an audience | of approximately zero readers, give or take fifty-ish a month. | Even my Wordpress stats are way overstated as people probably | just look at weird words and bounce -- I do long philosophical | essays that very much depend on you having read my previous | essays. I spend uncounted hours on it; I shirk from work and | end up not looking for supplemental sources of income. Even | with a baby, now that I barely have time to brush my teeth, | whatever "me" time can be scraped is directed to my writing. | | Sometimes I think I'm overtaken by delusions of grandeur, but | surely I'd have been discouraged by now. | heavyset_go wrote: | There's no shame in having a hobby you enjoy. | nfw2 wrote: | I agree that writers need to be motivated by something other | than their own ego. But I disagree that routines aren't | tremendously helpful, even for those uniquely inspired to | write. People suited to write face the same challenges with | self-control and time-management as everyone else. | | For example, consider this interview with David Foster Wallace: | | DFW: If past experience holds true, I will probably write an | hour a day and spend 8 hours a day biting my knuckle and | worrying about not writing. | | CR: Not worrying about what to write? | | DFW: Worrying about not writing. | TeMPOraL wrote: | This. I'll also add: people suffering from various levels of | executive dysfunction, e.g. from ADHD. In those cases, the | routines externalize executive functions, helping people | who'd really love to write, except their own brain isn't | cooperating. | nfw2 wrote: | I also expect, just from my own experience, that starting a | writing routine can actually cause the obsessive motivation | to write, rather than vice-versa. | | I started writing a musical last year while stuck in my NYC | apartment during the COVID peak. At first, it was just a way | to cope with the boredom. After a few weeks of writing every | day, it became more and more difficult to think about | anything else. Eventually I stopped, not because writing was | too hard, but because it too hard to get through my day job. | | I'm not implying that I have the necessary talent to succeed | as a writer, but I expect successful writers feel similarly | about their writing process. | bachmeier wrote: | Just as there are many ways to be a programmer, there are many | ways to be a writer. I'd estimate that for the vast majority of | people in the US, writing of some kind would be a good thing. | Everyone thinks. Writing is a different form of thinking. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-10-27 23:00 UTC)