Big Ideas From Everything I've Written About Writing and Creativity
Dear Everybody,
This week I attempted a crazy experiment: I took everything I’ve written about writing and creativity, threw it into a doc, and summarized my own stuff (a self-summary!).
I used the same process I use for other big idea summaries, and it was eye-opening. Behold: a big idea summary for readers and thinkers, creators and artists, looking to get above the noise and live in a magical way.
It’s not about you…
It’s about ideas
It’s about the message
It’s about how you send it
Creating is like…
Having your ego surgically removed one day
Replaced the next
And then removed the day after, in a continuous cycle
Don’t waste your audience’s time…
Create a worthy product before you show it
Ask yourself whether you can make it any better
Enjoy what the work itself is teaching you
Don’t write words, play with ideas…
Concentrate on themes
Consider how they’re organized
Recognize images people use to express them
We don’t will ourselves to like a subject, we’re simply aware of it at first…
The closer we observe the more we learn
The more we learn the more interested we become
The more interested we become the closer we observe, in a virtuous circle
Don’t write about new interests; write about new forms of old interests
The only way to create something new is to go through a painful, deliberate creative process…
Organize your thoughts
Reflect them back to yourself in written form
Resolve and structure ideas in a logical order
Repeat stages 1-3
Note: the strategy that works in one stage of the creative process causes failure in the next
Make new parts (create)
Remove favorite parts (delete)
Publish and get feedback (stop deleting and share)
Repeat stages 1-3
Keep your creative process simple:
Build on the ideas of others
Put something new into the world
Repeat stages 1-2
Need creative assistance?
Print Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”
Cut out one sentence and tape it to your desk
“Let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way around”
Look at it every time you’re stuck and need to find the right thought
Creating is a process of “discovery by deletion”
Figure out what you want to say by deleting what you don’t
To create something compelling…
Put bigger ideas in a smaller package
To create something attractive…
Make the ideas simple and universal at the same time
Be systematic about creating…
Clarify and order ideas
Accumulate intellectual confidence
Put something new in the world!
Focus on process more than output…
Refine what you create to the asymptote
Throw the output back into the process
Create things. Create more things from those things (the more products you refine, the more products you combine, in a cycle).
No one cares about the last thing or the thing before that…
The main thing is the next thing
Simply make outputs faster than you deplete inputs
A product is not refined from crude oil to super premium in one step…
Your first draft is the product of extraction (i.e. drawn from rich sources).
Your published draft is the products of editing (i.e. refined products).
Your masterpiece is the products of refined products (i.e. premium products).
Convert content into a format you love
Force choices
Structure ideas
Reward quality
Constrain yourself
Mandate discovery
Strip away distractions
Don’t think about what you’re creating…
Think about leaving a message
And then *discover* what you’re creating
By resolving underlying ideas into a self-evident structure
Amateurs think about entertaining an audience…
Professionals think about moving an audience from one point of view to another
Remember, reading, thinking, and writing are three *processes* within a larger creative process…
Reading is the process of filling yourself with ideas
Thinking is the process of clarifying and ordering ideas
Writing is the process of reflecting ideas back to yourself in written form
Let one process be in haste and it will stifle the others
Write what you mean…
Don’t overreach
Don’t make a grab for insight
Don’t write something memorable
Don’t write because you like the way it sounds
Don’t search for a phrase at the expense of an idea
Apply these principles of communication…
Convey your intended ideas, and none more
Speak only when you have something to say
Speak such that you cannot be misunderstood
Resolve underlying ideas so your structure is self-evident
Leave your audience with an unmistakable single headline
The only way to do all of these is to use plain English
If the quality of the things you write is compelling, the value of the things you write is compounding…
Share ideas in the spirit of helping others
Apply them in a continuous cycle of learning
Thank you for reading!
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Sincerely,
Justin
