[HN Gopher] Riding the Writing Wave
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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.
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