John Steinbeck approached writing with the discipline of a professional athlete. Regularity of sessions. Persistence during difficult periods. Obsession for the final goal.
And systematic warm up.
Every morning, before working on his novels, Steinbeck would start his writing session by a couple of pages of warm up. To get into his flow, he would write about his daily life, and about the book he was working on.
Some of these notes have been published:
The notes taken during The Grapes of Wrath have been published under the title Working Days;
The notes taken during East of Eden have been published under the title Journal of a Novel.
The first one is boring. The second one is fascinating. Why such a difference? Same format, same topics, same style — what could distinguish them so strikingly?
The answer is simple.
During The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck was just holding a personal diary. He was writing for himself. But during East of Eden, he was writing to someone — his editor, in fact. And that changes everything. Aiming to be understood, Steinbeck was forced to explain his thoughts, to untangle his sources of worry, to clarify his ideas. The obscure mumbles of Workings Days became eloquent anecdotes in Journal of a Novel.
Reading those two pieces of work is a great reminder of a well-known writing tip. The best way to make sure you are clear is to write with a specific reader in mind.
(…)
For ten years, on a private blog, I wrote about the things that had my attention. It was useful for me, no doubt. How clear was it for anyone else? I’m not so sure.
Oh, I’m no Steinbeck, but the time has come for me to start writing for someone. Hence the launch of this newsletter.
I am struggling to narrow down its concept to something smaller than: daily observations about the human mind. Maybe time will reveal a better theme. Maybe you will see it before me.
In the meantime, I suspect this newsletter will cover topics like education, connecting unrelated domains, creativity, team management, obsessions, raising kids, constraints, options and decisions, exploration, autonomy, habits and addictions, design process, memory failures, product development, simplicity, solitude, habits, communication, logic vs intuition, focus, etc.
When it strikes a chord, feel free to reply. If it's boring, consider unsubscribing.
Thanks for reading along.