We humans are obsessed with easy and free.
The five minute workout. The sweepstakes giveaway. The 10 simple ways to increase your productivity. Seven habits of highly successful people. Three core rules of effective leadership.
All of this is a result of our biology. Read More
How much energy does it take to fuel an electric car? And is it really all that environmentally friendly?
Turns out there are studies of this, and the results are somewhat surprising. Check out the “energy needed to bring the electricity to the car” column… Read More
Start by writing what you enjoy reading.
It’s usually the easiest way.
You’ll need to learn, and how fast you can quit your day job depends on how fast you’re willing to learn, which in turn is a function of butt-in-chair time. The more you’re willing to work, the faster you’ll accomplish your goals. This is true in any field.
Translation: less dreaming, more writing.
Secondly, be prepared to test a lot of things, and abandoning them fast. Learning to write is a series of try-fail cycles until you figure out how your brain works so that you can develop a system of writing that works for you.
Corollary to the above: read lots of craft books. Try what they suggest, but be prepared to abandon it quickly if you feel that it doesn’t work for you.
Corollary to the corollary: you need to give each method a serious try. It’s not enough to read a book and spend 15 minutes “testing” the method. Try writing a complete story using it (short story if you work that way, but some people can only do novels – you’ll notice how your writing turns out.)
Formal training isn’t necessary. Practice and an overview of craft is.
Translation: read craft books, watch craft videos on youtube, listen to writing podcasts.
Once you got the basic aspects of craft down (shouldn’t take more than a few months/years, depending on how much time you’re willing to invest), start trying advanced methods. Don’t try to become an expert on any given level, be it grammar or the hero’s journey, before moving on. The key is to know enough to use it, not know it well enough to write craft books on it.
Translation: don’t get stuck in perfectionist mode.
Other than that, there are no real rules for how to become a writer. Well there are two:
BICHOK and WIBBOW
BICHOK – But In Chair, Hands On Keyboard. Translation: there is no better way of learning to write than by writing. Practice, practice, practice. Never give up, never surrender, stop doom-scrolling the news and watching 1970’s TV Sitcoms all night. Write. It’s the way.
WIBBOW – Would I Be Better Of Writing? Translation: you will get distracted. By craft books. By marketing books. By morons telling you to build your platform before you’ve even written your books. Don’t. Always ask yourself, would you get more out of this activity, or more out of writing and practicing? WIBBOW. It means Write.
That’s the only way.
I’m not going to ruin this one for you. Just watch. It’s only 3 minutes.
Also, scary thought… Read More
This is a long story.
It spans 10 years, a million words and about six kilograms. But first some background.
I am a middle aged gentleman on the wrong side of the middle. I’ve got two jobs, three kids have no time.
When I started being serious about my writing, wanting to take it from a dream to a career, I had to cut out something from my day. So I don’t watch TV anymore. I used that time to write.
I cut down on useless web surfing. Or I try. I do spend a bit too much on the YouTube science and writing channels. But I found those things that I could trim from my schedule, and used that time to write. Read More
A particular dream of mine, to read thousands of words per minute, breeze through the mounds of books I want to read. I could – if I didn’t care for knowing what the books said. The explanation is in the video. Read More
I can’t code and write.
I can code well enough, and I can write well enough. But I can’t do it on the same day. Coding and writing fill up the same creative well in my mind.
It doesn’t really matter if I’m writing fiction or non-fiction, or whether I’m coding JavaScript or Visual Basic, or any other language. If I code I get the same creative kicks that I get out of writing. Read More
When reality beats movies. Old geezers, World War II, spies, everything you need from a good story, and then Lindybeige, the master of WWII storytelling, to make a good story great. Be warned, it’s 1,5 hours long, but there are pictures.
The Last Charge of the Calcutta Light Horse – how middle-aged amateurs defeated the German navy Read More
Everyone has doubts. It comes with the territory – you’re a creative, you are able to imagine things, thus you are able to imagine horrible things.
Like “I am not a writer.”
It sounds true. Your doubts tell you it’s true. Your internal editor tells you it’s true. If you’re very unlucky, your friends and family tell you it’s true.
But is there a way to know? Read More
This is the most important writing and craft related article you will ever read. Allow me to quote from it:
So I change my students’ mindset to a reader/editor mindset. How do I do it? By giving them only three valid responses to something they’ve read:
- I liked what I read.
- I quit on page [insert number here].
- I liked what I read and I would have bought this.