On Writing - by Andrew Smith
Andrew shares his secret sauce for writing non-stop for over half a year while staying sane.
This is a guest post by
from . If you don’t know Andrew, give him a follow. He writes every single day about basically everything. For me, who can barely keep up with a bi-weekly post, that is insane! So I asked Andrew to spill the beans on this trade secrets, and boy did he deliver. Enjoy!— Alejandro Piad Morffis, Editor at
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Why me? What’s so special about me, and why should anyone care what I have to say?
Well, I’ve written every single day for nearly 200 days in a row now, and I have no intention of slowing down any time soon. Is what I write any good? You’ll have to be the judge of that, but there’s no doubt I’m consistent and prolific.
If I’ve learned one thing for certain from my near-daily practice of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for about 25 years, it’s that you get better by doing something every single day. This lifetime of discipline and near-obsession has carried over into my writing, which has evolved a great deal over the last 30 years or so.
My intention with this piece is not to get you writing every day, though—if that works for you, I’m here for it, and I’m excited for you—but writing every day isn’t possible for all of us. I’m cognizant of the privileged position I hold, and I mean to employ noblesse oblige by paying it forward to others.
My view is that growing the pie is better than trying to have a larger slice of said pie.
Mmmmm…. pie…
With all that said, I am excited to help you get better at writing! I don’t know everything, and not every idea will work for every person. If these ideas don’t help much, that’s okay—but there’s a good chance something in here will help you out a bit. Let’s dive in.
Idea Repository
Probably one of the most crucial elements to what I do every day is the idea repository. If you ignore everything else and add this, it will change things for you.
Ideas, for me, come easily. I’m a curious person, and I get excited about a lot of things. I enjoy sharing those things with my readers. However, the ideas are often fleeting. They last maybe 30 seconds, or maybe 30 minutes, and then they’re just gone. Poof!
Not every idea disappears, but more do than don’t, so every time I have an idea, no matter where I am, I write it down quickly. Writing on paper with a pen isn’t usually possible, but I almost always have my phone with me, and I can usually articulate something like a title or a very, very brief reminder of what I want to write about.
And… that’s it. I might get 5 ideas in a day, then nothing for a couple of days, but there’s almost always an average of more than one idea per day. That’s good, since I write every day. The trick, for me, is to write the idea down immediately, and then to keep all of these ideas in one document, preferably cloud-based, although I will frequently simply email myself the idea, then add it to the repository.
The Routine
So, I write every day. Why has this been possible, and how could it work for you?
I wake up pretty early nowadays, usually between 6 and 8 AM (okay, it’s early compared to most of the rest of my life!). I like to do this because I have the house to myself, or at least a nook of it. I need some “me time”, so I have this time carved out every day.
I begin writing after about 30 minutes of listening to news, brewing coffee, and reading a little bit. I always dive right in first thing, when my mind is at its sharpest—it’s warmed up now, but still very fresh, like a boxer coming out for round one with a little sweat going.
This is often the best part of my day! I am sharing something from inside my head with the rest of the world, and it’s pretty likely that someone intelligent will have some things to say about my observation. I love that interplay, and I get a lot smarter every day by interacting with folks in the comments (or via email).
Being excited and remembering why I’m doing this is important, but even more important is to turn this ritual into a routine. If you simply start writing every day (or however often you can) without having to plan for it—without having to move stuff around on your calendar or even physically moving stuff around—something will start to feel “off” if you don’t write.
That’s what you’re after.
Make it boring. Make it routine. The exciting part should be exploring the ideas and releasing them for folks to see, not amping yourself up to write, or making time for it, or anything else, really.
The Outline
You probably learned how to use an outline around middle or high school, so I don’t want to act as though I’ve discovered a new exoplanet or anything. At the same time, I don’t want to take for granted that you’ve been exposed to all of the same information I have, and even if you know what an outline is and how to use one, it might be good to remind ourselves of how valuable they are.
If you assume I’ve gotten today’s theme for the piece from my idea repository, you’d be right most of the time. Once I have that idea ready, though, the piece doesn’t exactly write itself. Not quite, anyway.
Instead, I need an outline. Usually, I have a title in mind, and I really enjoy flowing from the title into an intro. But as I’m starting to craft the intro, I need to pause to work on the outline for the whole piece, so I can get an idea of the 30,000 foot view.
Ever try drawing a face when you’re up close to the face? You can really focus on one detail at a time, but pretty soon, you have some kind of inhuman looking mess on your paper. Why? Because you didn’t start with an outline, or at least a rough sketch of where everything should go first.
Writing is exactly like this.
Think of an outline as a way to divide what you’re working on into three distinct parts: the intro, the body, and the conclusion.
Is that oversimplifying? Does that limit the world of prose available to you? Yes it does! And, that’s a very good thing, unless you’re deliberately trying to make this about how weird you can make the format.
Still, virtually every piece functions well with some kind of opening salvo and a conclusion that ties everything together, perhaps summarizing (but not too much). The body is just the stuff in between.
The journey to becoming a better writer is both deeply personal and widely relatable. It's a blend of discipline, inspiration, and methodical organization—traits I've honed over years of daily writing and other long-term commitments like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
On one hand, the outline and idea repository allow me to plan and prepare. My OCD brain really likes that! On the other hand, I get to be spontaneous within that framework, and my ADD brain loves that!
Whether you're someone who has the luxury to write every day, or someone who can only find pockets of time here and there, the most important thing is to get started and keep going. If you can’t write every day, write every week! Use the repository to keep track of ideas as they pop up, and use outlines to plan.
I’m here to encourage you to take that next step. Carve out a routine, create an outline and write! If an idea seems silly or fleeting, jot it down anyway and look at it later.
The path to becoming a better writer is a lifelong journey, one that thrives on discipline, flexibility, and, most of all, a willingness to keep putting pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard.
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This was really fun to create! I sincerely hope it's helpful for you. Let me know if you found anything useful, or if you're struggling with something else.
I write every day. It's the most ritualized of all my routines. it's rare that I finish somethign everyday. For me, writing is slow and sometimes agonizing. I've learned to accept this as part of my process, a side-effect of how my brain works. But, I'm at my desk. Without fail. Every day. One thing I never do is use an outline. But after reading this, and after listening to V.E. Schwab praise the use of outlines, I'm starting to think that I should...