I started this blog partly as an attempt to improve my writing. Written communication has never been one of my strengths, it's always been a bit of a struggle to say what I mean. The things I've written that I consider successful have always involved a lot of time and effort, and a lot of rewriting.
Written communication is a high leverage medium - you can reach a lot of people while also going into great detail, and can continue reaching people for years. It's hard for other media to match the ease of output (just write it down) with the speed of input (you read way faster than you hear).
During my deliberate practice I've found a couple things that have really made a difference. This post focuses on removing barriers, in a later post I'll talk about refining drafts.
Write the thought before it's fully formed
For a long time I would try to craft sentences in my head before writing them down. I would write three words and then wrestle with myself for 5 minutes over the rest of the paragraph. Somewhere along the line I got it in my head that the idea has to come fully formed out of your head.
Turns out it doesn't!
Agonizing over the words and structure before I've even finished the sentence was really holding me back from saying what I was trying to say. When it finally came out it was strained and overwrought. When I stopped doing that I noticed a huge difference.
Now when I write I try to form a direct conduit from my brain to my hands. The thoughts come out as sort of a mess, but when the words are on paper 1 it's easier to work with them until they're right.
Spell thigns wrong
A few years ago I was watching someone take notes in a meeting (on the conference room TV - I wasn't looking over their shoulder like a creep). They would power through spelling mistakes until they captured the thought, and then would go back and make fixes.
The thing I noticed was how fast they were taking notes.
So I tried it. I got into the habit of ignoring mistakes while writing (It's harder than it sounds!) then going back and cleaning up. This small shift made a big difference both in how quickly I can get my thoughts out.
I'm not sure any of this has improved the quality of my writing yet, but it's certainly made it easier to gain momentum. More momentum means more words. More words usually means more of the wrong words at first, but sprinkled in there are some of the right ones... then it's just a matter of digging them out of the rubble.
It's a lot like coming up with a good idea: It might take you ten ideas to come up with one good one. It doesn't matter that you came up with nine bad ideas (it's not like you have to do anything with them) but you might never get to the good one without them!
Next is Part 2: Writing clearly!
1: Well, usually screen, but sometimes paper!
