decades of English classes have failed to properly teach us this very simple lesson: that there are various reasons to write!
Depending on your reasons for writing, what constitutes “good” or “bad” work changes.
Your end goal changes. Your relationship to the writing itself changes (View Highlight)
Let us explore the 3 key reasons:
write to think, write to feel,orwrite to connect. (View Highlight)
When you write to think, your goal is to work through some problem and explore the contours of your ideas.
What you are looking for here is new insights or increased clarity — you want to leave the process feeling like you now have a better map of the territory. (View Highlight)
Why does writing help you think?
Because taking whatever is rattling around in your brain and applying it to paper is like squeezing orange juice into a strainer. The act forces clarity.
Laid out in front of you, ideas can be re-read, critiqued, edited, tweaked or straight-up deleted. Writing is like applying a swiss army knife to your thought process. It helps you build a better set of ideas. (View Highlight)
