How to Write Well

Writing is difficult. Putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard is often overwhelming and suffocating. Even at the thought of writing, your heart starts beating fast and you feel clammy. Thoughts flood your head as you wonder, why am I writing? Do I have to reach a certain word limit? How can I get out of this without looking like an idiot?

This difficulty is compounded by the fact that schools don’t teach you how to write (properly). It’s clear because once there isn’t anyone paid to read your writing, your audience disappears. In school, you are taught to write to demonstrate knowledge. Your English teacher is grading to see if you actually read The Great Gatsby. [1] Writing in the real world is about communicating ideas. [2]

Writing is scary because it forces you to think. Clear writing is clear thinking. We live in our minds, often moving a thousand thoughts a second. It isn’t until we are forced to get out of our heads that our thoughts can slow down.

Why should you write? Writing, simply put, is the most human thing one can do.

Writing is a human experience because it’s more than regurgitating words. It’s a collection and culmination of everything you love and live. Many writers are hermits, living on the outskirts of society. This leads them to share ideas and stories that seem otherworldly.

Our lives are fundamentally a function of what we pay attention to. By extension, our writing is a function of what we read and experience. Coming up with new ideas is not so much about having an original thought, but combining novel and unique experiences.

A key distinction is finding novel and unique experiences. Many of my favorite writers aren't just writers. They run companies, become parents, and experience loss. Within their lives are moments that inspire, frustrate, and pique their innate curiosity. By living a life outside of writing, you come up with distinct experiences.

The same goes for reading. While there is nothing wrong with reading every book on the New York Times bestsellers list, you are sharing that experience with hundreds of thousands of other minds. Reading a bestseller from 50, 100, or even 1,000 years ago ensures two things.

First, few other people are reading them. While best sellers like Atomic Habits provide valuable insights to any reader, millions of others have already read (and implemented) those writings. Reading a book few others have read will bring insights you couldn't find anywhere else.

Second, and more importantly, those ideas have withstood the test of time. In our current world, content, and news fight for screen time. Fundamentally, this content is meant to grab your attention in exchange for money. They feed on the human desires and emotions of fear, outrage, and pleasure. Bestselling books from the last 100 or 1,000 years have already been filtered through generations of people, ensuring more insight than any carefully curated algorithm content could. Any worthwhile idea will be valuable in the future because human nature remains the same. [3]

When you write, you may be surprised at how lonely it is. In our world of connection, solitude is our rarest commodity. We can share a home-cooked meal with our family, tell a joke to a group of friends, or cuddle with a loved one while watching a movie. However, the act of writing words out can only be done by a single person. Our lack of solitude and ability to be alone significantly hinder anyone who wants to write.

Solitude itself isn't valuable. But what comes with solitude is a space to think. Taking walks, journaling and meditation are all ways to allow our mind to get in touch with itself. Your mind, if you allow it, is filled with new and exciting ideas. The problem is we drown our minds with the never-ending now. With most urgency being manufactured, everything demands our attention, one swipe at a time. When our minds are given space to wander, novel ideas, and solutions slowly rise to the surface.

This is different from speaking. While speaking our thoughts does get us out of our heads, it also provides lots of handicaps. Our body language, tone, and demeanor communicate more than our words do. Of course, speaking has its purpose, especially when it comes to relationships. But writing is more precise than speaking. The beauty of writing is that you can write and rewrite. An idea can go through multiple iterations before ever entering another mind. [4]

This iteration process is underrated when developing great ideas. Every teacher who told you "there are no bad ideas" lied to you. There are plenty of bad ideas. The world has no shortage of bad ideas. It's a necessary part of the writing process because amongst the haystack of bad ideas often lies a needle of a good idea. Much like Michelangelo crafting David out of stone, great writing comes out of chipping away the bad and sculpting the good.

Once you've written something, you may be tempted to edit and re-edit. This is where an outside perspective, whether a friend or editor, can help. No piece of writing will ever be perfect. Publishing your writing is like packing for a long vacation without a list. As the flight slowly creeps up, small pockets of panic arise. Thoughts like "What if I forgot something?", "Maybe I can pack extra into my bag", or "I can't possibly go out looking like this!" race through our heads. You can re-write/pack all you want, but at some point, the flight is going to leave without you.

Leaping to publish your writing is a scary but necessary step. Especially if you have a place where people can find your writing through the internet, it can now live a life of its own. Writing online can provide the serendipity to make connections that were never possible before. I've never gone viral, but I can confirm that writing online has been the best career move I've ever made. I've connected with people I would have never imagined by sending them a piece of writing. [5]

Learning how to write is immensely difficult. Partially because most of us were taught incorrectly, and partially because our lives aren't conducive to writing. Both of these can be remedied with intentionality. Writing and rewriting will help to unlock the good ideas buried deep with you so you can share them with the world. If I can do it, so can you.

-Derek

Footnotes

[1] I love my high school English Teacher, Mrs. Crockett. To this day, I’ll sing the praises of her and Mr. Jouriles to anyone who will hear.

[2] This isn’t a step-by-step for how to write. There are many people (and courses) that can teach you how to write much better than I could. This is my philosophy for how to write well.

[3] This idea was inspired by the Cultural Tutor, who hasn’t read anything written in the last 50 years.

[4] Paul Graham wrote Putting Ideas to Words, which was a great inspiration for this post

[5] Seriously, for non-technical people, writing online can be the best career move you can make. Being able to connect with people like Jack Raines, Lawrence Yeoh, and Zachary Crockett hasn’t changed my life, but it’s opened my mind to what’s possible. And I’ve only been writing online for three months.