Learning to write requires consistency. You can’t learn if you write only once a week.
Commit to writing, like you commit when you jump out of an airplane.
Prepare to write like a long-distance thru-hiker before venturing out into the wild, or you might come back
When you show up at a dentist office, everything is already set up for you. The place is clean, and every tool has its place. The same should be when you arrive at your writing desk.
Preparing to write is not writing. First you prepare(clean your desk, gather the materials), and then you start to write.
When you open your laptop to write, you should only see the text editor and nothing else.
Be your own “secretary”. The “secretary” cleans the desk, opens the text editor, selects the playlist you will be listening while writing. Do these tasks quickly. The writer is coming in any minute.
Be a collector of ideas. Carry around a small notebook, or use an mobile app, that would allow you to quickly capture ideas, thoughts and fleeting notes.
5 seconds is all it should take to capture the thought.
If you don’t know what to write about, write about why you don’t have anything to write about.
Have multiple writing projects going on at the same time.
You don’t have to write in sequence. Start in the middle, if you feel like it. Move to conclusion and jump to introduction.
Don’t worry about the details too much. You will revise it anyway.
Leave the biggest decisions until the end. By then you will have more information to work with.
If you don’t feel like writing, write outlines for 10 articles you would like to write in the future. Then start writing one of these articles.
Before starting, create a list of things you want to say. “Everything I want to say about this subject:” and proceed to list out everything you have on your mind.
Move these points around until you have a good-enough narrative.
You don’t have to finish everything you start. Some things are not meant to be finished. You can cut them up and use the leftovers to create something new.
Write crap to ease into the flow. Make a conscious effort to write as horribly as you possibly can.
Remember Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of anything is crap.
Each sentence is like a guitar string. You have to tune it separately from the rest. Paragraph is like a chord, you need to hit all the strings to make it sound good. Written piece is a chord progression.
Writing is also like searching the radio station. You have to turn the knob left and right until you get rid of the static noise. And even then you might not get the best reception.