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Hey, would it help anyone if I did a series of daily writing tips? Advice for people wanting to write during the lockdown? I& #39;ll try not to disincentivize.
Ok! #1 Go back to a sentence you wrote yesterday and cut out every superfluous word. Make your point in as few words as possible!
I& #39;ve already got tomorrow& #39;s planned! After that I& #39;ve got nothing, but I& #39;ll think of something.
Ok, God knows how long I& #39;ll have the wherewithal to keep this up, probably not long, but here is writing tip #2 (or #5 approx if you count my several connected tweets yesterday). This one is about WHEN you start writing, and it& #39;s complicated, so it& #39;ll unfold over several tweets.
Some people advocate you just start writing, and figure out the story as you go along. I DO NOT AGREE. In fact, I lost months doing this when I was writing Shamed. I wrote a bunch of things before I knew what the book was, and they were so tangential I couldn& #39;t use them. HOWEVER
...If you know exactly what you& #39;re going to write before you start writing, that can be deflating and demystifying too. For me, the mystery is the wind behind my sails. So it& #39;s wrong to know too much in advance, and wrong to not know enough. So, how to solve this conundrum?
So I think you need to know approximately this much in advance: & #39;Okay, I *sort of* know where this is going, and it feels intriguing, so I& #39;ll make a start& #39;. Okay that& #39;s it!
An example! With my book The Psychopath Test, I learned that psychologists think you& #39;re 4 times more likely to have a psychopath at the top of the corporate tree than the bottom. That felt SO interesting. Was it true, or the kind of thing psychologists say...?
I thought, & #39;How do I solve this mystery? I know, I& #39;ll learn how to spot psychopaths and the journey into the corridors of power...& #39; I didn& #39;t know what would happen, but I figured, whatever unfolds will be interesting.& #39; That was the perfect amount to make a start.
Same with my book Them. I thought: Conspiracy theorists believe in the existence of a Secret Room. So I& #39;ll join forces with them and together we& #39;ll FIND the secret room and get in and confront the illuminati red handed going about their covert wickedness...
Again, I had no idea what would happen, but knew whatever unfolded would be interesting. Those were journeys - and we currently can& #39;t undertake those - but you could do the same with your mind!
