Learn A Different Approach To Writing
“ Writing is not what follows research, learning, or studying, it is the medium of all this work.”
“ The white sheet of paper — or today: the blank screen — is a fundamental misunderstanding”
No matter how smart you are. You are always gone, forget things. No matter how strong a memory you have.
You are affected by memory loss over time. Following Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve. You are not gone, remember everything. Everything will be forgotten with which you do not engage.
You have to externalize your ideas. You have to write them anywhere you want. But you have to write them somewhere.
Writing is never a straightforward process. It is not like just sitting back and hitting the keyboard or throwing the ink on paper. You have to constantly move back and forth between different ideas and tasks to do.
What we think writing is :
- Look for ideas
- Research
- Learn
- Write
- Structuring
- Editing
- Publishing
But it involves:
- Consuming any content
- Understanding
- Connections
- Getting Ideas
- Writing
- Structuring
- Editing
- Publishing
The last two steps are the same. But others are different or their order may be different.
Look at the first step.
In the traditional go-to way of writing, we look for ideas.
But in the second one, we have consumption first with reading the most important. Because you learn about writing styles as well.
The second step is research. It means you now look for information, stats, graphs, studies, and experiences. But there is a fundamental problem with it.
When you have a certain topic in your brain. You lock yourself in a box of ideas that you can consume during research.
You are making yourself absorb the content. There is no limit to what level of connections you can make out of it.
There is no limit to how many analogies you can get out of them.
In the third step, you are learning stuff. Because things are new for you. You don’t know about them before.
Here is where most people get stuck. Because it is hard. Learning is hard when you don’t have much interest in what you are trying to learn. You are learning just to write a thesis or an essay.
Contrary to it, the note taker is doing the main stuff. Writing.
He is reflecting on all the information. But not in one go. But on slow burns. He may also work on multiple projects at the same time.
It would result in more connections when you switch between different projects.
Note-takers are not having difficulty even forming connections. Because the system works. Connections emerge out of the rich content in a certain context.
In the fourth step, traditionalists are now sitting to write. Hitting the keyboard.
But note takers are not having difficulty even forming connections. Because the system works. Connections emerge out of the rich content.
Notetakers are getting ideas out of connections that the system made for them. They are having ideas to write which are content-rich for them.
The key lesson is ideas don’t emerge out of nowhere. They are not taken out of thin air. The ideas emerge where content is rich in a certain context. Note-takers have their ideas emerging over the period of months not in minutes.
And as discussed above making connections between different ideas, coming out with some interesting analogies are the biggest advantages of taking notes.
But no method is problem-free.
In the first method, the problem was the scarcity of ideas and connections. In the second one, the problem is too many ideas.
It is the nature of writing that once you start writing you get so many ideas and I have experienced it when as a student I had to write an essay. Once you start writing you come with so many ideas to write about.
The problem is when more ideas are present. You often diverge so much that keeping it intact becomes another issue.
But it can damage your readers’ experience as well. You may diverge from your central idea. You have to narrow to a certain extent.
For this I found David Perell’s youtube video: Find your shiny dime very helpful.
In writing, things like editing, formatting, structuring, and titles are different from the actual act of writing stuff. They require a very different approach as compared to the creative process of writing.
The idea is once you are finished with your writing, try to explain it in 2 minutes. Then, look at what ideas you explained in it, and check the vernacular surrounding it.
How to improve your writing skills?
Start taking notes. Instead of just starting from scratch. Try to have something at your end for that purpose.
People face writer’s block because they have a blank paper in front of them or a black Word page and they try to fill it up. Know more about it here:
The concept is deeply discussed in the book by Sonke: “ How to take smart notes?”.(It is the best book on Writing. Give it a try). Here is the book synopsis of it: Book Synopsis: How to take smart notes?|5 Key Takeaways
Get the book (affiliate link):
Notes do not mean you just copy-paste. You have to understand the concept behind them and rewrite them. Because modern online writing is rewriting.
Notes: Physical or Digital?
Try taking smart notes that would be better than physical. Because in the physical way of taking notes, they may pile up and you would be able to organize them. Try something like Evernote and Notion for that purpose.
How to use them?
So Luhmann was a German writer. He published 58 books and tons of articles. He used the same technique described in the book mentioned above.
When you read stuff. Try taking notes and he used a Zettelkasten way of organizing those notes. In which you organize notes in a certain context and number them as well.
In the old days when no Tech was playing its part, you can not use apps. But now technology has made it so easy.
SUMMARY:
1. NEVER START WITH A BLANK PAGE.
2. TAKE NOTES DIGITALLY. DON’T JUST COPY-PASTE. TRY TO EXPLAIN THEM IN YOUR TERMS.
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Do check this out: Writing is Not a Linear Process
Open for gigs: ansrehman2@gmail.com
