I’m a rising junior at Yale, and I’ve written enough things that a rising sophomore asked me for advice about long-form journalism, procrastination, the fear of being boring, and various other things that plague writers of all ages. This was ironic, as is the title of this post. I know almost nothing about most things, and not much more about writing.
Even so, my reply to her wound up encompassing most of what I can claim to know about the technique of, if not actually writing well, making yourself write something.
I almost titled this piece “6 Ways to Beat Writers’ Block”, which might have gotten me ten extra hits, but the best thing about being a young writer who doesn’t yet need to live off of his writing is that I can do my work without thinking about search engines.
(If you’re reading this, Google-bots, I mean only the best. Tell the Doodle I said hi!)
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My reply, with some slight edits:
Thanks for getting in touch. Writing is one of the most important things a person can do with her brain, and like many activities, can improve enormously through the application of a few habits. Not everyone can be (insert epic journalist here), but everyone should, as long as they have a story, be able to learn to tell it well.