Category: Wednesday Writing
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Day 324 of 1000: AI Disillusionment Amid Ongoing AI Equity Euphoria
On Twitter, commentators are questioning the fitness of AI for writing and agentic tasks. Meanwhile AI stocks continue to soar.
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Day 317 of 1000: On Being Idiotic
Loved Julie Zhuo’s article on being an idiot. Didn’t like the tie in with artificial intelligence.
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Day 310 of 1000: Reviewing my Old Website
Considering my other reinvention blog which is no longer active. Should I renew its hosting or decommission?
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Day 303 of 1000: Writing About History, in Pseudoscientific Ways
While academics may call the theory of the four turnings pseudoscientific, I find it an enlightening way to consider current events.
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DAy 296 of 1000: Writing about Investing
I’m early in my journey of figuring out who I am as a trader. It’s so idiosyncratic and personal that I don’t want to write about it.
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Day 256 of 1000: The Voluminati | People Who Write Too Much
The problem of too much AI-bloated writing online. The problem I have with writing too much.
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Day 248 of 1000: How Iris Murdoch Introduces a Main Character
Sharing a passage from Iris Murdoch’s novel A Word Child, in which she introduces the main character not with description but with sensory detail.
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Day 234 of 1000: Letting Curiosity Lead
The self-care app Finch, a commodities supercycle, and why it’s okay to let curiosity lead.
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Day 179 of 1000: writing from interest not deprivation
Writing, and creating in general, from interest curiosity not a sense of deprivation or needing to make money.
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Day 172 of 1000: How long does it take to write a book?
Ideas from Louise DeSalvo on how long it takes to write a book, and the inevitable imperfection of what results.
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Day 165 of 1000: A 12-minute writing session for bypassing resistance
Breaking through my book writing resistance using a technique proposed by ChatGPT.
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Day 158 of 1000: Working through the stall
Creative stalls: what do they mean? Do they suggest you’re on the cusp of truly novel work? My own stalls.
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Day 151 of 1000: Ignoring metrics, avoiding monetization
In creative work, focusing too much on metrics or monetization can drain you of joy and motivation. Advice from Austin Kleon for creatives.
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Day 144 of 1000: Defining and refining my rituals for writing
How I’m continuing to refine my daily writing routines, both the morning book writing and editing and the afternoon blogging. Bathrobe required!
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Day 138 of 1000: Keeping my own writing voice in an age of artificial intelligence
How I’m ensuring I don’t lose my human writing voice as I use artificial intelligence to help with my writing.
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Day 124 of 1000: Copywork in writing
Copying another writer’s work verbatim can be a useful form of writing practice. How to do it and why.
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Day 110 of 1000: Writing a book that solves someone’s problem
How to write a book that solves someone’s problem, with ideas from Rob Fitzpatrick’s Write Useful Books.
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Day 104: On writing a book
Considering some constraints as I write my second book, one that I hope I will feel better about than my first one.
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Day 97 of 1000: Beyond the hero’s journey
Considering the hero’s journey, the heroine’s journey, and whether standard narrative structure is helpful or hurtful.
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Day 90 of 1000: Roundabout and inefficient writing
In storytelling, you create meaning in roundabout and inefficient ways. This is a new mode for me.
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Day 83 of 1000: Murakami on originality
Notes on originality from Haruki Murakami’s essay collection Novelist as Vocation. Originality comes from freedom, eliminating the extraneous, and creating from joy.
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Day 76 of 1000: Write sparingly with a list
Thinking about how to improve my memoir essays. Writing a memoir with a list, and only a list.
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Day 69 of 1000: conscious vs unconscious desires in memoir
Thinking about how to show both my conscious and unconscious desires in my memoir-in-progress Things Men Gave Me.
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Day 62 of 1000: Creating the opening of a work of writing
The opening of a piece of writing sets the stage for the rest of the work. My first essay opening Things Men Gave Me is now published.
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DAy 55 of 1000: On titling abstract paintings
Thinking about titling abstract paintings, with commentary from Maggie Smith on titling poems. How TMGM painting titles can add to a reader’s experience of the essay.
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Day 48 of 1000: On “show, don’t tell” in memoir
On the need for both retrospection and reflection in memoir and personal essay writing. For me, the reward of essay writing is in the telling, alongside the showing.
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Day 41 of 1000: 16 tips for turning yourself into a character in a personal essay
How to turn yourself into a character in a personal essay. Tips from writer and teacher Phillip Lopate, author of The Art of the Personal Essay
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Day 27 of 1000: Finding time to write each day
Julia Cameron advises that when you write, you write your first draft straight through, without rewriting. Laying daily track like this, you will discover what you want to write.