Writing4 min read
The first draft is a conversation with yourself
Nobody writes a good opening paragraph first. You write four bad ones and the fifth one tells you what the piece is actually about.
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Notes on writing, reading, and finishing what you start.
Short essays about the unglamorous habits behind good work. New pieces land every few weeks, whenever there is something worth saying.
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Notes5 min read
Keeping a commonplace book
A quiet, unglamorous habit that has done more for my thinking than any productivity system I have tried.
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Craft3 min read
Write in the morning, edit at night
Two kinds of attention, two ends of the day. Matching the work to the hour beats trying to force focus.
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Reading4 min read
Notes on reading slowly
I read fewer books last year than any year of the past decade, and remembered more of them than all of the others combined.
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Craft5 min read
On finishing things
The last ten percent is boring, unglamorous and unrewarded, and it is the entire difference between a draft and a piece of work.
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