What advice would you give to people who think that theyâre bad writers? Or people who are worried that their writing not being âgood enoughâ for the forum?
Good question! That is one worry I have about this post, that it discourages people. On the other hand, there have been a bunch of comments saying that they find it motivating, because it makes it so that writing can be fun instead of a scary serious thing you ought to do.
I think if youâre capable of being interesting in conversation (which the vast majority of people are!), then you can write engagingly. Robert Milesâs quote really resonates with me:
âA single datapoint, but I donât think I really try to be engaging in my writing. Or like, itâs one of the things Iâm aiming for but itâs not effort, itâs not work. Itâs the default. I donât think I âadd jokesâ, or âadd flourishesâ or âadd emotionsâ, I just leave in the ones that come up naturally while explaining the idea. And I donât think this is anything special about me; I think most people are pretty engaging when they talk about their ideas, and pretty boring when they write about them. So for most people I wouldnât say âadd jokesâ, I would say âstop taking out the jokesâ. My advice is more like âget out of your own wayâ, or âstop trying to be serious and respectableâ.â
Also, growth mindset is definitely good in this situation. If your writing isnât currently engaging, that doesnât mean youâre a âboring writerâ. That just means you probably havenât put a lot of time into practicing getting better at it yet. And the only way to improve is to practice and get feedback.
Great recommendations for making it more interesting, btw.
Unfortunately donât have the time to answer all the other questions, though theyâre also good.
Good question! That is one worry I have about this post, that it discourages people. On the other hand, there have been a bunch of comments saying that they find it motivating, because it makes it so that writing can be fun instead of a scary serious thing you ought to do.
I think if youâre capable of being interesting in conversation (which the vast majority of people are!), then you can write engagingly. Robert Milesâs quote really resonates with me:
Also, growth mindset is definitely good in this situation. If your writing isnât currently engaging, that doesnât mean youâre a âboring writerâ. That just means you probably havenât put a lot of time into practicing getting better at it yet. And the only way to improve is to practice and get feedback.
Great recommendations for making it more interesting, btw.
Unfortunately donât have the time to answer all the other questions, though theyâre also good.