my writing process
write like lizzo, straight like hemmingway, thinking while speaking, and notion
recently an old friend, a fellow creative, reached out about my writing process. i hadn’t really critically thought about it til then. and i mean, i have a routine and there’s definitely a process. but it’s not really something i’ve put words to. it just sort of been happening organically.
its in answering the question of a friend sincerely and without pretense that i felt like i was able to put to words how i’ve developed a writing habit and how i go about pushing out work. and to be honest, this style of writing, the tone that you adopt when explaining something to a friend, is what i hope becomes my writing style. i want to speak to you, my reader, like i speak to my friends. this article will detail how i’m currently going about building my writing habit. my process is subject to continual improvements, and changes according whatever that i am focusing on. i pray you find benefit from the reflections i provide below.
thinking while speaking
the foundations of my writing process are built on the following axioms that i know of myself:
1. I’m a better speaker than writer.
2. My best ideas are in the shower or on a walk
3. My mind runs faster than I can write or talk.
here, I’ll give you an example. one day I’m on a walk, and I randomly think about about the difference between intuition vs decisiveness vs haste. when i’m thinking through an idea, often times i have a vision of myself inside my head, like a walking day dream, where in it i’m talking about an idea to a group of people or an audience. in that vision, i am my most articulate and clear self.
trying to write whatever was said in that vision into words is really difficult for me because its sort of like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. so while I have this day dream or vision running in my head on any given topic, i bust out an app called Oasis and it helps me dictate my thoughts on the go and transcribe them for me. i do this as soon as possible, and, if i don’t, the idea burrows itself back into my brain only for it to resurface at a random time further down the line.
run to notion
i have a really simple notion dashboard that i’ve set up. honestly, you can probably get setup in 10-15 minutes quickly by watching some youtube videos. i use a kanban board view, which is traditionally used for project management. it’s straight forward:
to be written: 1 liner topics i want to write on in the future, a place where i can dump inspiration (images, videos, articles, etc.) for a given topic, and generally where i place the transcriptions i get from the Oasis app.
work in progress: essays i am currently writing/editing
shipped: essays that i have published on my substack
write like hemmingway
“Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can.” —Ernest Hemingway
i tend to set aside at least 4 hours (ballpark estimate) of writing per week. My best writing comes in at around 2-4 am. These hours are split between writing and editing. sometimes the transcription of my thoughts is subpar (often), and so I rewrite drafts altogether. on a particularly complex idea or piece, i may rewrite anywhere between 2-3 times. i write in the same notion doc, and i use the “divider” feature and just write on top of that.
but its not all exactly linear. some weeks i put in 4 hours, and others i can barely get in 30 minutes of writing. sometimes i feel the flow and i’m able to jot down exactly what i’m thinking, and its literally a hop and a skip away from being published. sometimes an article is ready to go right away, and sometimes it takes time to marinate. creative visions are seeds that need to be planted and nurtured, and some seeds become fruitful faster than others. in all cases, i tried to avoid writing something flowery or for the sake of presentation. just write the damn thing and be as straight as possible.
overwrite like lizzo
i try to overwrite (or in my case overspeak), intentionally. i got the tip from none other than the queen herself, Lizzo! in her interview with David Letterman, she talks about the challenge for her is distilling her work because she often overwrites.
a💡 goes off in my head! to be successful at anything, you gotta get in the habit of being prolific with the craft + work that you’re doing. don’t just get more reps in, but actually produce and push out work into the world. in the words of buildspace, get the f**k off localhost!
so when i’ve gotten to the point where i’ve written like 1,000 words+, i then try to chop down the essay as best as I can. i like to ask myself, “what’s the quickest way to get this damn thing down to 300 words and share it on the internet?”
even if i don’t hit the 300 mark, i just get as close as i can and then push it out. and, most importantly, i move onto the next thing.
denouement
A lot of my writing process boils down to consistency, manufacturing my own inspiration vs waiting on it, and pushing things out even when it doesn’t feel “perfect.”
The object isn’t to make art,
it’s to be in that wonderful state
which makes art inevitable.
Robert Henri
The end goal of my writing process is to create a throughline between the fuzzy, abstract ideas in my head to actual words on paper. I don’t give a damn about who reads it. if it resonates, it resonates. if it takes off, it takes off. if it flops, so be it.
the map that i have for my writing journey is broken into the following stages
Jan-April (4 months): Prolific - my goal in this stage is to write. write straight, write often, voice my thoughts, find what i am excited to write about and that which flows naturally from my hands and voice. in this stage, i could care less about polish or even an ounce of respect for my reader (lol my bad). i am utterly selfish in this phase. i will write like a madmen into the depths of the night, on topics that few will ever care or want to read about.
May-August (4 months) Focus - i have yet to reach this stage, but in this stage i plan to focus on a just 1 to 2 topics and continually iterate on them. i will reduce my focus to these topics solely, and drop all else if i can (any fun ideas, i can always save in my notion board and work on later). in this phase i will work on the Making Friends series and Building an Event Collective.
September - December (4 months) Polish - here is where i will focus on the craft of writing. this will be where i will make sure my work has 0 typos, where i decide stylistic decisions, and where friends will review before publishing. it’s my hope that here, versus series, i can work on longer form content and greatly slow down my output.
i don’t know if these stages will be strictly adhered to, but they’re serving their purpose for now as guideposts along this journey. i hope by following this roadmap, that this can serve as a higher order playbook of what i can focus on year to year. and that by following this roadmap, i hope that i can improve not just in output but also in quality over the years.
sincerely,
haroon