How to Write? Longhand on paper? Typewriter? Word Processor? Scrivener or Obsidian?
“Each tool creates a separate set of constraints on your creativity.”
Writing is power
Writing craft, persuasion, and the influence of prose.
32 records updated
Craft
6 RECORDS
28 slightly rude notes on writing
“If you want that perfect brush stroke or that exquisite shot, then you have to squeeze your neurons until they scream.”
An analysis of 200,000 similes from popular fiction
“As dry as ... my humor?”
How I learned to just fucking write
“That pattern would follow me through my creative life until I found a way to write or make art that allowed me to bypass my inner critic.”
More links
- Why the best writing advice is often the weirdest The New Yorker Saved #184
- Why writing still wins Medium Saved #179
AI & voice
11 RECORDS
Please Use AI
“because no one wants to hear your words, the actual poorly written words of a parent (you) who changed hundreds of diapers for said child or fed them in the middle of the night from your actual body”
If you let AI do your writing, I will come to your house and kill you
“Nice little personal essay you’ve got there, lady, but I know what you really are; time to get my knife out, time to start digging around under your skin until I find the wires.”
After AI stole his clients, one Big Tech ghostwriter is using AI to get them back
“What can the future look like for me?”
AI learns language from skewed sources. That could change how we humans speak – and think
“Machine-generated text reads as smooth and polished, but it loses the meanders, interruptions and leaps of logic that communicate emotion.”
The Great Flattening: Corporate AI Language and Brand Voice Opportunity
“Corporate America is converging on a single voice. The brands that opt out will own the next decade.”
Using AI makes writing more bland, study finds
“The LLMs are pushing the essays away from anything that a human would have ever written”
Why wouldn't you use AI to publish a book ??
“What does it mean that to publish a book with as little labor as possible is the system working at its efficient best?”
AI Style Guides: How to Help AI Write Like You
“It takes what you know instinctively about your own writing and makes it legible for a machine to use.”
The Science of Why AI Still Can’t Write Like You
“Most people are wildly inconsistent writers.”
More links
- On the existential terror of AI-generated music The Red Hand Files Saved #181
- Writers Are Going to Extremes to Prove They Didn’t Use AI The Wall Street Journal Saved #181
Publishing
2 RECORDS
The Profession That Does Not Exist
“Young man, you don't understand. You've chosen a profession that doesn't exist.”
Should you write a Substack instead of a book?
“For many authors, particularly those with a pre-existing platform to work from, hustling to convert a new newsletter subscriber is likely much more profitable (again, on a single-customer basis) than working on a new book.”
Persuasion
3 RECORDS
How to write an artist statement that doesn't suck
The point is not to sound smarter. The point is to say what you mean clearly enough that the work can arrive with its force intact.
Anti-Dystopia
“That is anti-dystopian action at its core: doing what makes the world more human, even when you cannot prove it matters in the grand scheme.”
The Narrative is the Business
A Substack post exploring how narrative and business strategy intersect in modern organizations
Creative identity
3 RECORDS
Strategy needs good words
“Strategy is the art of getting other people to do something. In the pursuit of that, narrative is the strategist's tool.”
More links
- Developing creative identity Michael's Notebook Saved #181
- We'll soon find out what is truly special about human writing Psyche Saved #178
Reading culture
1 RECORDMore links
- American Time Use Survey iScience Saved #177
Not yet filed
6 RECORDS- How to remember everything you read (stop trying) X (Twitter) Saved #189
- Email is a more important channel than any single social media company Josh Nelson Saved #188
- The End of Reading Is Here The Atlantic Saved #187
- Uncovered Uncovered Saved #186
- The year literary publishing learned the power of fandom Substack Saved #185
- https://resobscura.substack.com/p/what-is-happening-to-writing resobscura.substack.com Saved #171