#53: How I'm Redesigning My Writing Process

From one thinking junkie to another, if you are as obsessed with thinking as I am, you will love this

Jan 15

In the last few weeks, I have been deep into my research on this topic called, ‘Digital Writing’. I wanted to drastically improve my writing for two compelling reasons:

Elevate the clarity of my thinking—Simple, writing well has a proven compounding interest which is a vast improvement of the quality of one’s thinking. As such, this, almost always, leads to a better, more meaningful life. I want more of this energy in my own life.
Boost my social capital—In terms of any resemblance of a decent social life, I have a lot of things going against me: I’m shy, I’m an immigrant, I currently live outside of a city. If I want to meet like-minded people, improve my luck quotient and live a more fulfilling life, consistently writing well is my best bet towards that.

This is in addition to what I’ve already written out in the past about this. Please see: Chasing the Flow State Through Writing and More and #49: On Writing Everyday

Five new things I’ve learned about writing* from reading about writing:

*Non-fiction / business writing

Digital writing is conversational. The best and most effective ones are the most natural.

Similar to public speaking, or oral communications, in general, it is incredibly hard to learn from someone if they aren’t good conversationalists. Speaking the language of your reader shows real empathy— as a writer, you care about them enough to connect effectively. This is not as easy as it sounds. This takes brevity, this takes humility, this takes courage. You have to be comfortable with taking out all the fluff and just going straight to the point with your writing.

Most of the time, it means if you can do one thing right with your writing, tell the truth. Everything else comes secondary.

To write faster, break your thinking down into outlines.

I’ve learned this from Nicolas Cole’s fantastic book, ‘The Art and Business of Online Writing’. Get to the point quicker by breaking things down in a digestible, hierarchal format. It makes a lot of sense. For those who are familiar with design systems, particularly with type scales, this is nothing new. The most important elements are visible and are elevated for a better user experience. The same principle applies with writing— specifically for digital / business non-fiction writing.

One of the best examples of this is Sahil Bloom’s newsletter, Curiosity Chronicles, as well as his Instagram account.

Deep work is the prerequisite to good writing.

Personally, I find it impossible to produce good writing without deep work. It is not an activity that can be done alongside other tasks. It requires focus. There’s a reason why it is grueling to write everyday: it takes a lot of mental energy to do this right, and to do this constantly. This is a small price to pay for the tremendous benefit it’ll bring to your life.

Writing well is a skill, which means it can be developed, constantly. Everyone starts from scratch.

It took me a long time to realize that writing well is not a talent. It is a skill, it’s a discipline that gets better with time. It’s a principle that you can apply to pretty much every other discipline. You just need to put in the work—this is the hard part.

“Writing everyday is supposed to be hard. There are multiple reasons why you shouldn’t do it, especially if you prefer to live a comfortable and untroubled inner life as it is. It is equal parts pain and pleasure with no certainty other than discomfort for the writer. It can be brutally unforgiving.” - from the post #49: On Writing Everyday

If your writing is good, it solves problems. To develop your intuition for good ideas, write well. (And vice versa)

This is one of the strongest points from the book, Write Useful Books from Rob Fitzpatrick and one I certainly can’t stop thinking about. Nonfiction writing is an excellent use case of this. If you can help other people succeed in some way with your writing, you are doing it right. Obviously, the goals would vary. In the book, he describes the outcomes as any of the following:

Achieve a goal or undergo a process
Answer a question or understand a concept
Improve a skill or develop a toolkit
Resolve a fear or inspire a change
Adjust their perspective or improve their life

from Rob Fitzpatrick, Write Useful Books

And so, given what I’ve learned so far, I’ve decided to redesign my writing process.

Like many writers, I was—I still am—prone to ‘writer’s block’. There are days wherein I would blame my lack of inspiration as an excuse to simply not do it. I am learning and by far, this is one of the most effective experiments I’ve done to combat this. Effective in the sense that:

I’ve been writing everyday for months now
I’m able to set a good system for how and where I’m doing most of my writing (See: #51: Writing In Public, Thinking About Thinking & More Insights on Launching a Newsletter Platform)
I was able to start and launch a few writing projects (see: #48: The Highs and Lows of Creating and Living)

Also, did I also mention I was late into my pregnancy when I started this?

Write everyday— even if it results to bad writing. Bad writing is just one step closer to good writing. Don’t overthink your tools or platform. Design an environment that allows for deep thinking. Put those thoughts into paper, constantly. Test the good ideas publicly.

Publish, when you are ready.

Keep working on this until you hit the jackpot (series, ebooks / books, community etc).

Sure, the end goals are, I imagine, as fulfilling as they sound like. The magic is still in the journey. This right here has to be fun and satisfying, otherwise you’re missing the point of it all.

‘What would you do if you can retire right now?’, a question I asked myself when I was doing my personal yearly review last December.

This.

Write, design, build products, learn and teach. Good writing is the foundation for everything I do (and want to keep doing).

It’s a gift I don’t intend on wasting.

Happy 2023, everyone and thank you for reading,

Nikki

An ode to good ideas

Good ideas aren’t just about ideas. It’s also about competency.
Good ideas are ideas that stick. They’re also a living paradox; They can stand alone and in a crowd.
They’re a combination of many things.
Good ideas are written with an audience in mind. They can’t just be a ‘he said, she said’.
Good ideas are seeds. They grow exponentially the first day they’re planted.
They nurture the land they’re planted on. They carry the foundation for the future of that environment.
Good ideas stand on the shoulders of other good ideas. They’re a fine way of passing torches and keeping a legacy alive.
Good ideas encourage creative thinking. They have the tendency to hook you up, take you to a completely different POV & make you question everything. Then leave you wanting more the next day.
Good ideas have no loyalty to anything besides the truth*. Every good idea is an exploration of it.

As long as there are still truths left to be uncovered, the world will never run out of good ideas.

Resources that are helping me think deeper about this topic:

Thank you again for reading Working Title. Want to help me improve the quality of this newsletter? Leave me some feedback or send me a quick note: nikkiespartinez@gmail.com. I will reply within 48 hours.

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