⇥ Writing less to write more

How do people who have a seemingly unending ability to write do it? Is there a secret that the all-powerful cabal of professional authors is conspiring to keep from the rest of us?

The answer is surprisingly simple: they put themselves in the situation that is best conducive to writing.

This may seem obvious, but it apparently baffles a great many people. The truth is, it doesn’t take much to write¹, so long as you actually want to write.

The most important, and first, thing to do is to eliminate all distractions. Despite the recent onrush of apps whose authors seem to think otherwise, this doesn’t mean writing on a white screen with zen graphics slowly flowing across your screen and a soothing New Age soundtrack of gurgling brooks and seagulls calling in the background.

Eliminating distractions means getting rid of all those factors that give you an excuse to stop writing—remember, you are the one who is not doing the writing, so there is no point blaming externalities for your lack of discipline.

If you find yourself aimlessly browsing the Web, checking e-mail, or reading your Twitter feed, you should turn all those infernal contraptions off and write. If your phone keeps ringing, turn it off. If there is an army of kids shouting in the next room, close the door, move outside, or do the hip thing and drive to your nearest coffee shop.

Most importantly, use a writing app that keeps you focused on the act of writing. Remember that the Odyssey was composed on sheepskin with a stylus, and that The Old Man and the Sea came to life on the kind of clunky mechanical typewriter that these days can only be found in an antiques shop. The lack of choice in fonts, or the inability to underline, emphasize and bold words have never been a problem for authors until word processors made them one.

Next, try to stick to a formula that works for you. Journalists have been doing that for hundreds of years: notice, for example, how many news reports start with a lede that clearly summarizes the entire article in a single paragraph, followed by whatever additional information that the author feels necessary.

Besides the obvious practicality of helping a rushed reader get the gist of the article without having to read through its entirety, this setup also helps the writer adopt a checklist approach to getting the story written. You’d be surprised how effective it is.

Finally, you should set a word limit, which has two important roles. The first is to act as a deadline of sorts: when you’ve reached it, you’re done. The second is that it forces you to make your writing concise and effective—and that results in a more engaged audience.

For example, I am (apparently) known for the legendary length of my blog posts and e-mails. This stems from the engineer’s mindset of exploring every possible nook and cranny of an argument to make sure one has not overlooked anything, but it doesn’t work well in this context.

Thus, I have decided to try and keep posts down to five hundred or so words. I don’t always succeed, of course, but it’s definitely helped me refocus my writing and get to the point more efficiently. After all, it’s a basic form of respect for whoever decides to invest their time reading what you have to offer.