ANDIKA CHALLENGE

You Get Better at Writing by Writing

First, focus on build a writing habit. Style improves with practice.

This is a thinking ape. Unlike our cousins, humans invented a tool called writing that helps them think more clearly. Photo by Rob Schreckhise on Unsplash

This piece begun life as this thread on Twitter. I have made one addition before publishing it as an article: a sprinkling of relevant Stephen King quotes.

The world could always use another writer. Your voice is different. And if you practice long enough, you’ll refine and strengthen it. Your thoughts and perspective are always in demand. Write often and you’ll clarify them.

Right now, you think that the people who express themselves better than you are naturally better than you. They’re “built different.” You’re wrong.

Who’s your favorite thinker?

Who’s your favorite writer?

Who writes more often between the two of you?

Who has practiced and practiced and practiced the art of thinking clearly until it has become second nature?

Well, not you.

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

— Stephen King, in ‘On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft’

Practice improves things:

We get better at the things we do often. We strengthen the muscles we exercise. We become masters at the arts we practice. The same practice that shaped Cristiano Ronaldo into the beast of a footballer he is, is the same practice that made

David Perell

a dream of a writer. Practice!

You’ll not magically get better at anything just by wishing for it. You’ll not magically start thinking more clearly and having well-oiled views on things just by hoping really hard. Sit down and write. Then rewrite. Then sit down and write again.

You will only get better at writing by reading and writing.

“Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It’s not just a question of how-to, you see; it’s also a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

This picture both inspired me and called me out. The problem with most of us is that we want Rep 10k results with Rep 1 effort.

The write formula:

If you want to think more clearly, write more often.

Writing is thinking + Practice improves things = Writing more often will improve your thinking.

At this point, you might have realized this isn’t purely a writing thread. It is also a growth mindset thread. You get better at things by practicing them — regardless of your base level of “natural” ability.

Most of the times when you begin, it will feel like you’re wasting your time. You’ll suck the first thousand times. Jack Butcher calls this the paradox of wasted time:

You have to “waste” a lot of time to make your time valuable, by process of elimination.

— Jack Butcher

In writing, this applies even at a more micro level. Your first drafts are always shit. There is no such thing as a good first draft. Write, rewrite. Write, rewrite, edit, revise. Writing is rewriting.

E.B. White says: “The best writing is rewriting.”

Hemingway takes it a step further: “The only kind of writing is rewriting.”

The Andika Challenge:

I started the #AndikaChallenge to force myself to write and publish weekly. Other than two articles, the rest of my stuff here reads more like expanded tweetstorms than what I think of as writing. But it forces me to dump my mind then clarify it.

The #AndikaChallenge lives here on Medium. I started it together with

Sackri Writes

- her voice is now stronger, sharper, clearer than when we began. It’s worth your time to check her out. Thanks to the six of you who’ve joined us already. And to the tens who’ve expressed interest.

You join by writing on Medium and using the tag #AndikaChallenge (tags are added in the menu just before you publish) Then you read what the rest have written.

In the same vein, despite my high praise that Sackri’s voice has gotten sharper and stronger over time… And that the clarity of my own thinking has come with years of practice… We can’t put our foot off the gas. We’ll lose the gains we’ve made if we do.

Write and publish weekly.

Practice improves things. Complacency kills things.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”

— Stephen King, in ‘On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft’