So much writing advice about grammar and punctuation, but the real tricks lie in knowing where to find things worth writing about in the first place.
@david_perell All of work, writing, and life is really just about consistently understanding and solving problems, whether for yourself or others. Knowing what to write about comes from deeply understanding the challenges people face.
@david_perell So much writing advice about grammar and punctuation — but the real trick lies in knowing where to find things worth writing about
@david_perell this is key. grammar and punctuation are the tools, but the heart of writing? it's finding things worth saying. the real skill is in seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary, in capturing thoughts that resonate, in exploring ideas that matter. seek stories, not just words 🖋️
@david_perell Grammar and punctuation can come after. Draft first, edit later.
@david_perell "Salvation often lies not in the writer’s style but in some odd fact he or she was able to discover." —William Zinsser
Consumption becomes key here. Great writers read a lot, it’s the most common advice. That’s how we learn storytelling. While reading a 100 pages a day, I try to consume movies too to understand how a scene is pictured, how the scene plays out. Focusing on screenplay helps in writing intense scenes.
@david_perell Talking is to reading what thinking is to writing. You’d never teach a child to read until they could talk yet we teach writing (and expect it to be good) without helping people learn to think or to even just care about the ideas they are writing about.
@david_perell Many years ago my golf coach’s first demo was kneeing down hold the in middle of the club and still hit the coin lying on the floor “Forget about hand position and stance just hit the damn golf ball”