How to Write Well?

Last updated May 31, 2023

It’s hard, it’s painful as Stephen mentions in On Writing - Stephen King (especially On Writing - Stephen King) and The Elements of Style - William Strunk Jr.

Writing when you have some notes and starting is the hard part. Starting out there is lots of enthusiasm, but after a while when this goes away, it’s tough.

It’s easiest to postpone or do other things.

What I try to do is to turn off the Wifi and turn off the phone and force myself for two hours on writing straight (go to a library/outside when you can). It’s so painful, and it doesn’t matter the quality of the writing. It will be bad. But just that in a second phase you can go through and cut out the bad and leave the good.

As many say, just write on, some days you write poor some days better. Don’t worry you will filter them out later.

When I spend a lot of time optimizing an article, and I can see the changes and how the article improves with each edit, that makes me happy every time and is just a magical moment as you never know how it will end up before you do the hard work.

It’s also very much connected to Atomic Habits - James Clear and Optimize My Sleep where you have a good mind and maybe you get up early to write first thing in the morning without distraction!

Focus on the Audience and tell a story, here are some pointers on How to not be terrible at writing:

Takeaways:

• Always think who is your audience, you can write to them with more specific
• Storytelling: Do things like “Imagine you are a DE at a large company”

“Write like you talk” embodies a polite fiction that sometimes confuses people. What if someone talks in monosyllabic grunts, like some teenagers do? A more precise version would be “write like someone who talks well talks.” [[Paul Graham ]] in Tweet

• Grammarly for checking Grammar
• ChatGPT and other AI to brainstorm, fix errors, and ask for missing content. Never let it generate the text, always submit your text with each request.
• Hemingway Editor highlights long parts and makes it enjoyable for the readers
  

More on:

• How to get a Better Writer
• Writing Handbook by Julian Shapiro
• Writing Advice From A16z’s Andrew Chen.
• 10 Years of Professional Blogging – What I’ve Learned at Andrewchen
• Showing by example: How to Write Better Stories in 4 Easy Steps
• The Developer Voice Guide: How To Write Articles Engineers Want To Read

Origin: Writing
References:
Created 2022-08-19