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Tweets from David Perell
MFA programs might be homogenizing novels. @ErikpHoel has written: "Workshop-trained writers are often, not always, but often, intrinsically defensive. This single fact explains almost all defining features of contemporary literature." https://t.co/OO58Z3o0PX
Derek Thompson used to be an actor. Now, he’s a writer at The Atlantic and a published author. What changed? Not much, actually. Derek applied lessons from Shakespeare to the world of journalism. Here are his maxims for writing: 1. Formula for interestingness: Novel + important = interesting. 2. All interestingness arises from the presence of conflict. To make academic ideas interesting, find the conflict… the point of tension. 3. Ignore the A-holes. Find critics who are rooting for you and listen to them instead. 4. The taste of individuals is surprisingly weird. The taste of the masses is surprisingly basic. 5. Many successful people are like good oil scouts: They spend a lot of time searching for their space, and then they drill deep when they find the right niche. 6. Write to be remembered — so, write musically. 7. Repetition is the God particle of music. Rhythm repeats within songs. Verses repeat, and the chorus repeats too. There's no music without repetition. If you want to make your writing musical, add repetition. 8. When something doesn’t make sense to you, it probably doesn’t make sense to a million readers. When something seems kind of interesting to you, it’s probably kind of interesting to a million readers. 9. Writing a first draft is like crawling through 1,000 mud pits of uncertainty, doubt, mental blockage, and uninspiration so you can sprint for a few minutes in the clean fields of flow between them. 10. Some questions to ask if you're researching a subject: Can you explain this to me like I barely know anything about this subject? What, if anything, is actually interesting or new about this story? Is there some angle here that I'm not even seeing? 11. Every great scene in theater is a fight. Think of your favorite scene from your favorite movie. Did the characters agree on everything? Nope. Writing comes alive when there's conflict hanging in the air. ([View Tweet](https://twi...
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Note: writing