How to write like you give a shit
I am a terrible writer who from time to time produces something decent. That‘s how I feel about what I create. That‘s impostor syndrome for you. I suffer from it as much as the next guy. But I won‘t let it stop me from writing as much as I can. I write every day. I have to. I‘ve been doing this shit for years, and I certainly won‘t stop because my brain tells me to.1
Believing to be terrible at what I do has one benefit though: I need to try extra hard. I go the extra mile to create something meaningful. Over the years I collected different pieces of advice and rules to help better my writing.
I‘ll publish them here as a sort of reminder. Consider this to be my style guide. Maybe you find it helpful and learn something new.
- „It is only by going through a lot of volume of work that… your work will be as good as your ambitions.“ by Ira Glass. Which translates to: Read a lot and write a lot
- „You don‘t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.“ by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Let me add to this quote: Live a life worth writing about.
- Don‘t wait for inspiration or you‘ll die waiting
- Write every day as if your life depended on it. Because it does
- „This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard, and you put one word after another until it‘s done. It‘s that easy, and that hard.“ by Neil Gaiman.
- Create an outline for whatever you have to say
- „All good writing begins with terrible first efforts.“ by Anne Lamott.
- Finish your first draft and let it rest for a few days
- Edit for flow, not for grammar. And: Write for yourself, edit for your readers
- You shouldn‘t have to care too much about grammar. Use tools and auto-correct
- Shorter sentences, even shorter paragraphs: „Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.“ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Never dress up your vocabulary. Don‘t use fancy words to impress someone
- Don‘t steal someone else‘s voice. Create your own, regardless of how long it takes.
- Delete the word „that“. You won‘t need it in at least 90% of cases
- Delete „I think“. It strengthens your point
- Delete words ending in „-ing“. It simply sounds better
- „The adverb is not your friend.“ by Stephen King.
- „Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler‘s heart, kill your darlings“ by Stephen King.
- Make people angry. If half of your readers love what you wrote and the other half hates it, that‘s when you know you created something meaningful
- Publish. Don‘t let perfectionism get into your way. Sometimes good enough is good enough
- Break these rules
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I do know that I am not that terrible. But I try to stay humble by reminding myself that I still have a lot to learn. And a healthy amount of self-doubt helps a lot. ↩