Alternative titles:
- Writing a lot isn’t that hard actually (if you are wired for it)!
- It came to me in a waking dream; how do prolific writers create so much?
At least two writers I quite enjoy (Scott Alexander and Gwern) report that writing tends to come to them naturally. This notes collects some of their writing about writing and this phenomenon.
Scott Alexander
u/MonteCarlo1978: Scott, how long does it take you to write a post. How do you manage to practice psychiatry and still put out so much worthwhile content?
u/ScottAlexander: It takes me a couple of hours to write a post.
I work a forty hour week, so having a couple of hours each week to write posts isn’t really a problem. In my own life, I’ve noticed that time is almost never a real constraint on anything, and whenever I think it is, what I mean is “I have really low energy and I want some time to rest before doing the next thing”. But writing posts doesn’t really take that much energy so I am okay with it.
Also, I have no social life and pretty much avoid all my friends and never talk to anybody, which is helpful. link
Scott has a comment downthread that tickles me and was the original reason I created this note (so I could easily reference it):
u/honepuppy How do you write so quickly? I find it takes me a dozen or more hours to write anything as thorough as one of your blog posts. (It’s possible that I’m just unusually slow).
u/ScottAlexander: I guess I don’t really understand why it takes so many people so long to write. They seem to be able to talk instantaneously, and writing isn’t that different from speech. Why can’t they just say what they want to say, but instead of speaking it aloud, write it down? link
(insert image of Swole Doge w/ Scott Alexander’s head photoshopped on here)
In The Parable Of The Talents Scott writes (emphasis mine):
…I know people who want to get good at writing, and make a mighty resolution to write two hundred words a day every day, and then after the first week they find it’s too annoying and give up. These people think I’m amazing, and why shouldn’t they? I’ve written a few hundred to a few thousand words pretty much every day for the past ten years. But as I’ve said before, this has taken exactly zero willpower. It’s more that I can’t stop even if I want to. Part of that is probably that when I write, I feel really good about having expressed exactly what it was I meant to say. Lots of people read it, they comment, they praise me, I feel good, I’m encouraged to keep writing… … People used to ask me for writing advice. And I, in all earnestness, would say “Just transcribe your thoughts onto paper exactly like they sound in your head.” It turns out that doesn’t work for other people. Maybe it doesn’t work for me either, and it just feels like it does.
Potentially relevant Scott posts (unreviewed) https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/25/apologia-pro-vita-sua/ Nonfiction Writing Advice | Slate Star Codex
Gwern
I somewhat regret that this section is reproducing Gwern’s text nearly verbatim, but I don’t think there are many words I can omit without feeling like I am losing something important from the original material:
Gwern writes about a similar experience (bolded texted added by me):
I would divide my writing into two types: incremental/occasional, and ‘big bang’. Incremental writing is the ordinary kind of writing where I might add a quote or reference, or copyedit something, or write a small forgettable response to someone; ‘big bang’ writing is the more valuable sort where I sit down and bang out an entire essay […]
Why don’t people write? I’ve been puzzled by the many people I know who have worthwhile things they could write, and are fully capable of ‘writing’ them in the sense of explaining them to me (often in text-based chat!) in sufficient detail that it could be turned into a serviceable blog post—but who won’t.
Blank-page tyranny. Asking them about their experience of writing, and what bars them from taking that critical step even when they agree the topic is worthwhile & they would like to have the writeup, I’ve realized my experience of writing is completely different from theirs. For them, the problem with longform writing is not a lack of material (my default assumption), but the writing being a school-like exercise in pain & tedium, as they struggle to assemble the atomic details into a coherent output: they struggle to take their pile of individual playing cards, and build a house of cards which could topple at the first ill-chosen word.
Text earworms. For me, this is almost never problem because my experience of writing is radically different. I rarely struggle with assembling my fragments into a whole, because the whole instead inflicts itself on me. Much of my writing is like a musical earworm or intrusive thought: I experience it as a mental voice reciting a paragraph, looping indefinitely, until I suppress it or get distracted (but then it may return, of its own volition). The paragraph might be a comment in reply to someone specific, or on a general topic, a tweet, an email, or it might be the key paragraph for an essay I’ve been musing for a while—anything, really. The voice is clearly myself, and does not feel like any kind of muse or external force (any more than a musical earworm or phrase feels “alien” to you), but it is effortless and involuntary and hard to make it go away, so it can be quite annoying. I write my writings down in my website in order to forget the writings in my head.
Transcription. So ‘big bang’ writing for me is often easy—I am simply an amanuensis for the voice in my head. The key text has repeated itself so often that I can write it in a sitting. Indeed, these paragraphs have repeated themselves so many times that I am scarcely even thinking about this as I write it. (Instead I am thinking about a different topic: the value of writing a book vs blog posts.) I don’t experience the ‘tyranny of the blank page’, so much as the ‘tyranny of transcription’.
95% done. The real pain comes in the editing process afterwards, where I must laboriously stitch together the fragments and copyedit and add references and markup. (The voice is no help there, having gone silent once the loop has been written down.) The ‘incremental’ phase of writing is frustrating enough that I generally avoid writing as long as I can, in the hopes that the voice will give up and go away. If I cannot outwait the recitation, if it keeps returning over enough periods, or some specific reason comes up (like an interested reader), then I may bother to write it down (rather than do something more fun, like read new research papers).
No free lunch. But that is only my experience of writing. Even if it does not feel like effortful thinking, and often like simply writing down something ‘obvious’, the voice comes from somewhere, and is not divine inspiration. The underlying reality is the usual one: it is more like gardening. One patiently tends one’s garden, seeding and watering and pruning, and green shoots come up, and one day, one may behold a sudden blossoming, which one may cut and put in a vase to be seen by all. Or not, and let it wither and fall.
The two footnotes in that text are worth highlighting. The first is not particularly relevant to the thing I am trying to gesture at with this note, but is a delightful aside:
32: Sometimes, when quasi-lucid-dreaming, I can ‘read’ a website, especially Twitter, and the text is genuinely there (because I can transcribe some of them upon waking) and written in all variety of styles just like the real thing.
Eerily, the dream feels completely effortless—the rest of my brain must be busy babbling away predicting arbitrary Internet text as if it were GPT-3, yet like a human confabulating, there is no conscious awareness of that effort.
33: Critics sometimes mock me & Scott Alexander & Eliezer Yudkowsky for verbosity unto graphomania/hypergraphia/logorrhea. While this is wrong—we can both easily just not write, and are not compelled to do so, much less to the extreme of scribbling nonsense on paper (eg. Charles Crumb)—there is probably something to the weaker claim that there is a spectrum of writing-motivation (of which hypergraphia is the pathological extreme) and we are far above average on it, and this is the ur-fascination which critically contributes to our “writing pipeline” (but where other people leak out).
Others
u/StellaAthena
u/StellaAthena responds to “Trying to understand why Scott finds writing so effortless” on r/slatestarcodex with her experience: https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/eqzr3g/comment/ff0rj77
I find writing easy and don’t have a huge audience the way Scott does. … I think you’re both underestimating the role of intrinsic factors and of experience and practice. Personally, I majored in philosophy and wrote 10 page philosophy essays in two, four-hour sittings. I play D&D and do extensive worldbuilding, writing novella-length backstories for characters. I do some research in my free time and write academic papers about it. I spend a large amount of time on Reddit writing lengthy comments about science and technology. I’m planning on writing a book in the future when I get around to it. Most of this stuff isn’t read by more than 5-10 people ever, so the picture you’re painting can’t apply to me. I just find writing easy.
There may be more threads worth pulling in that post, but I haven’t looked at every reply.
Bing Copilot
While searching for a Scott Alexander AMA on reddit Bing Copilot mixed up my very simple query with the “Trying to understand why Scott finds writing so effortless” reddit post, responding to me as if I were the poster and in the process offering its thoughts on why writing is easy for Scott:
Now, let’s address your theory: Rewards Matter. You suggest that Scott’s ease of writing stems from the rewards he receives. When he crafts a piece, he spends just a few hours but reaps the benefits of being taken seriously, engaging with readers, and receiving compliments. It’s like a productivity hack with built-in positive reinforcement. 🌟
But here’s the twist: Scott didn’t start writing because of an audience. Long before fame knocked on his digital door, he was already churning out thoughtful essays. It’s as if he wrote for an audience of one—himself. 📝🤷♂️
So, perhaps it’s not just about external rewards. Maybe it’s an internal dance—a love affair with ideas, a compulsion to explore, and a joy in expression. Scott’s brain might be wired to find writing inherently satisfying, like solving a puzzle or cracking a code. 🧩🤓
And hey, don’t worry if you can’t fully internalize this mindset. We’re all unique scribblers, each with our quirks and struggles. But next time you’re at the keyboard, channel a bit of Scott. Imagine you’re writing for an audience of one—your curious, coffee-sipping self. ☕👤
Now, spill the beans: What’s a topic you’d love to write about, even if it seems as elusive as a unicorn tap-dancing on a rainbow? 🦄🌈
Full Copilot response
Ah, Scott Alexander—the elusive wordsmith behind the captivating essays of Slate Star Codex. His writing has a certain je ne sais quoi, doesn’t it? 🤔 Let’s unravel the mystery together!
Scott’s effortless prose has intrigued many, and you’re not alone in wondering how he manages to make even the most arcane topics feel like a fireside chat. Here are a few insights into the enigma of Scott’s writing prowess:
- Write Like You Talk: Scott once shared this deceptively simple advice: “Just transcribe your thoughts onto paper exactly like they sound in your head.” It’s like having a conversation with your readers. No need for a stuffy, academic tone—just be yourself. Imagine you’re explaining the topic to a curious friend over coffee. 📝☕
- Tell a Story: Scott’s articles often read like gripping narratives. He weaves facts, anecdotes, and personal reflections into a cohesive tale. Take any dry subject, sprinkle it with a dash of storytelling magic, and suddenly, it’s a page-turner. 📖✨
- The Translator Effect: Scott acts as a translator—not between languages, but between complex jargon and plain language. He takes professional concepts and distills them into something accessible. It’s like turning a cryptic code into a friendly emoji. 😎🔍
Now, let’s address your theory: Rewards Matter. You suggest that Scott’s ease of writing stems from the rewards he receives. When he crafts a piece, he spends just a few hours but reaps the benefits of being taken seriously, engaging with readers, and receiving compliments. It’s like a productivity hack with built-in positive reinforcement. 🌟
But here’s the twist: Scott didn’t start writing because of an audience. Long before fame knocked on his digital door, he was already churning out thoughtful essays. It’s as if he wrote for an audience of one—himself. 📝🤷♂️
So, perhaps it’s not just about external rewards. Maybe it’s an internal dance—a love affair with ideas, a compulsion to explore, and a joy in expression. Scott’s brain might be wired to find writing inherently satisfying, like solving a puzzle or cracking a code. 🧩🤓
And hey, don’t worry if you can’t fully internalize this mindset. We’re all unique scribblers, each with our quirks and struggles. But next time you’re at the keyboard, channel a bit of Scott. Imagine you’re writing for an audience of one—your curious, coffee-sipping self. ☕👤
Now, spill the beans: What’s a topic you’d love to write about, even if it seems as elusive as a unicorn tap-dancing on a rainbow? 🦄🌈
Reloading the search query returns a different but similar response:
Expand for text version
Ah, Scott Alexander—the elusive wordsmith behind the captivating essays of Slate Star Codex. His writing has a certain je ne sais quoi, doesn’t it? 🤔 Let’s unravel the mystery together!
Scott’s effortless prose has intrigued many, and you’re not alone in wondering how he manages to make it look like child’s play. While I can’t channel Scott’s exact thought process (I’m more of a digital sidekick than a mind-reader), I can certainly share some insights based on what others have observed.
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Write Like You Talk: Scott seems to have mastered this technique. He transcribes his thoughts onto paper exactly as they sound in his head. No fancy embellishments, no convoluted jargon—just plain, straightforward language. It’s like having a conversation with a friend over coffee. 🗣️
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The Storyteller’s Art: Scott treats everything like a story. Even when discussing dry or technical subjects, he weaves a narrative. Imagine him saying, “Once upon a time, I wondered about X. Could I really live longer if I just…? So, I delved into this and that, considered B, but no, it didn’t fit. Then, aha! Z seemed to make sense…” And suddenly, you’re hooked! 📖
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Rewards and Framing: Here’s where it gets interesting. Scott’s writing process isn’t just about words—it’s about rewards. When he crafts a piece, he spends a few hours, but the payoff is immense. People take him seriously, engage with his work, and shower him with compliments. It’s like doing an activity that feels significant, even if it’s just an hour or two. 🌟
Now, contrast that with us mere mortals. When we write, we worry about flawed reasoning, self-doubt creeps in, and we fear being perceived as dumb. Scott, on the other hand, seems to have re-framed this. Maybe he thinks, “Hey, if people point out where I went wrong, I’m learning!” It’s a Jedi mind trick, really. 🧘♂️
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Audience of One: Scott wrote prolifically even before his audience ballooned. He didn’t need thousands of readers; sometimes, an audience of one (himself) sufficed. There’s satisfaction in getting your thoughts out coherently, even if it’s just for your own benefit. 📝
So, my fellow scribbler, perhaps the secret lies in embracing simplicity, storytelling, and finding joy in the process. And hey, if you ever feel stuck, just imagine Scott whispering, “Write like you talk, my friend.” 🎙️
Now, tell me: What’s the topic you’d love to write about, even if it seems mundane? Let’s sprinkle some Scott Alexander magic on it! ✨🖋️
Source: Conversation with Copilot, 9/2/2024 (1) Trying to understand why Scott finds writing so effortless. https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/eqzr3g/trying_to_understand_why_scott_finds_writing_so/. (2) How does Scott Alexander make his writing so engaging?. https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/r75fao/how_does_scott_alexander_make_his_writing_so/. (3) Some of Scott Alexander’s Writing Tricks : r/slatestarcodex - Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/pebbsd/some_of_scott_alexanders_writing_tricks/. (4) undefined. https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/02/20/writing-advice/.