In 2018, Naval Ravikant wrote a famous thread about “how to get rich (without getting lucky)”. It’s worth reading if you haven’t yet. One idea from it changed the way I think about how to have more impact:
I think that's true, but it comes with a caveat - you have to read more *good writing*, and ideally spend time thinking about what makes it good. Reading 10 hours of YouTube comments != reading 10 hours of insightful essays.
I think that's great. Reading more gives you ideas and clarifys misconceptions and even strengthen confidence.
If we can read highest quality that would be great but even if we get access to mix quality content and know which content is higher quality either by knowing authors or the authors have given qood explanation of their choices, bad content will act as examples to avoid.
In my case, my outline goes to chapter titles as the high-level storytelling. Then, I write two paragraphs to tell what I want in each of them. This makes me being more productive, no hanging around with blurred topics, and writing what I want to write about.
That makes sense. Sometimes, for abstract topics I just start writing without an outline or structure. After writing for a while you discover your outline. And then write the actual article.
+1 for Hemingway! I'm always surprised that more authors haven't come across the tool before. I've saved a lot of time in my rough draft step by using Audiopen to record voice notes and transcribe them. Then I'm free to start polishing the final draft.
The most effective approach to writing is to write more, and I resonate with that sentiment. Additionally, I believe it's crucial to engage in reading and immitate the writing styles of those who excel in the craft.
The magic formula I've discovered, employed by experienced writers, includes the following principles:
- Write in a conversational manner, using simple words.
- Craft compelling titles that encourage readers to read your content (avoiding click baits.)
- Incorporate subtitles to enhance readability.
- Employ bullet points, short sentences, and small paragraphs.
I find this fascinating because my writing approach is the exact opposite - I spend maybe 80% of the total time on an incredibly detailed draft and then have a relaxed time in the edit.
That said, my writing skews heavily towards purely technical deep dives so tends to be a lot more straightforward to write when it comes to prose
Hey Ryan, thanks for writing this post! Writing more has been a goal of mine, I just wasn’t sure how to get started. This post clarifies that.
I was curious about incorporating AI into my writing process and ended up creating a GPT based your process. I’m still iterating on the prompt, but thought someone might find it helpful, so why not share it?
Just curious, can you share maybe how long you spend on this article in total, maybe how long on each of the steps that you mentioned. I think that would be really healpful for someone who is considering to start writing.
It depends. If I know exactly what I want to write about, it takes me 2-3 hours. Most of the time though, I wander and scrap things until I find something I want to write about. So maybe 4-5 hours on average per post.
Great tips on the workflow! These days I found good LLM prompts can replace Grammarly and Hemingway. Self-plug [Wordflow](https://poloclub.github.io/wordflow/), a highly customizable and social LLM-based writing assistant.
An alternate view:
The best way to get better at writing is to read more.
Then after reading more, write more.
I think that's true, but it comes with a caveat - you have to read more *good writing*, and ideally spend time thinking about what makes it good. Reading 10 hours of YouTube comments != reading 10 hours of insightful essays.
That depends what you want to get good at writing.... :)
I think that's great. Reading more gives you ideas and clarifys misconceptions and even strengthen confidence.
If we can read highest quality that would be great but even if we get access to mix quality content and know which content is higher quality either by knowing authors or the authors have given qood explanation of their choices, bad content will act as examples to avoid.
Yes, read and write are input output cycle
In my case, my outline goes to chapter titles as the high-level storytelling. Then, I write two paragraphs to tell what I want in each of them. This makes me being more productive, no hanging around with blurred topics, and writing what I want to write about.
That makes sense. Sometimes, for abstract topics I just start writing without an outline or structure. After writing for a while you discover your outline. And then write the actual article.
+1 for Hemingway! I'm always surprised that more authors haven't come across the tool before. I've saved a lot of time in my rough draft step by using Audiopen to record voice notes and transcribe them. Then I'm free to start polishing the final draft.
Interesting idea to use AudioPen. Might play around with that. I often read my writing out loud anyway to make sure it sounds like I would speak
The most effective approach to writing is to write more, and I resonate with that sentiment. Additionally, I believe it's crucial to engage in reading and immitate the writing styles of those who excel in the craft.
The magic formula I've discovered, employed by experienced writers, includes the following principles:
- Write in a conversational manner, using simple words.
- Craft compelling titles that encourage readers to read your content (avoiding click baits.)
- Incorporate subtitles to enhance readability.
- Employ bullet points, short sentences, and small paragraphs.
Writing is a tool to implant an idea in someone’s head. And make sure the tool doesn’t come in the way of that.
Thank you for this good tips. Constancy is key to writing more
indeed
I find this fascinating because my writing approach is the exact opposite - I spend maybe 80% of the total time on an incredibly detailed draft and then have a relaxed time in the edit.
That said, my writing skews heavily towards purely technical deep dives so tends to be a lot more straightforward to write when it comes to prose
Hey Ryan, thanks for writing this post! Writing more has been a goal of mine, I just wasn’t sure how to get started. This post clarifies that.
I was curious about incorporating AI into my writing process and ended up creating a GPT based your process. I’m still iterating on the prompt, but thought someone might find it helpful, so why not share it?
https://chat.openai.com/g/g-xo3Rsv4Rx-word-craft
>For making my writing easier to read → Hemingway (I aim for ~6th grade readability)
Thanks for sharing this. This is something that I am looking for
Happy to, it's a great free tool
Where do you find part time jobs or oppurtunities for writing around software engineering? Do you cold email companies for this?
Just curious, can you share maybe how long you spend on this article in total, maybe how long on each of the steps that you mentioned. I think that would be really healpful for someone who is considering to start writing.
It depends. If I know exactly what I want to write about, it takes me 2-3 hours. Most of the time though, I wander and scrap things until I find something I want to write about. So maybe 4-5 hours on average per post.
Great tips on the workflow! These days I found good LLM prompts can replace Grammarly and Hemingway. Self-plug [Wordflow](https://poloclub.github.io/wordflow/), a highly customizable and social LLM-based writing assistant.