Trying to follow writing advice from an INTJ
Can you imagine it took me over two weeks to complete writing this?
I wanted to improve my writing. So I looked for advice from people most similar to me (same Quadras)
- Writing is better when you do it for an hour regularly, rather than writing in bursts for a few hours when you feel like it.
- I began to sit down to write at the same time everyday. It’s interesting how inspiration kicks in after you start. I much prefer this style of writing rather than focusing on volume written.
- I began with something & ended up with something completely unexpected
The original post was about ‘How one needs to build new muscle & get rid of old fat cells’. Fat cells being an abstraction for old beliefs or habits (苦笑).
- You should write in first person. You can always revert if things don’t sound interesting. Avoid abstraction wherever possible.
- This was hard for me. Every word felt so personal, I can’t just give endless advice anymore. “You should kill old beliefs that are weighing you down” vs “I should try new things that I haven’t & disprove my old beliefs”
- On avoiding abstraction: I love using abstraction, maybe because I am an Intuitive. But I noticed how I almost never notice the ‘deep meanings’ in others writings.
- Trying to avoid abstractions forced me to think of past concrete examples.
I discovered some new things about myself, which I like a lot more than trying to exhale something I already know on paper. Who knew writing could be adventurous?
- Trying to avoid abstractions forced me to think of past concrete examples.
- Try to boil down to the essence of every sentence. Use simple words. Remove anything that feels unnecessary.
- This resulted in me re-wording each sentence more than a couple dozen times. I don’t dislike it, but I hope to finish the outline/ draft before tinkering with each word forever.
- This makes my writing sound like a poem. I don’t dislike it. I just find it odd. I don’t even know how poems are written.
- I have developed a new level of contempt for newspapers, articles and academic writing. So much noise. I really thought the hard vocabulary & long complex sentences they used were cool.
- Before, I aspired to reach that level of writing one day.
Now, I hope to never fall that low. - Writing should be easy to understand, for everyone. I believe the complex & unnecessary wordings alienate the majority. Doesn’t that kill the purpose for language? Being a communication tool, a way to transmit thoughts & emotion?
- Before, I aspired to reach that level of writing one day.
If I try to summarize the various advice in a few words, I get: Write more, but edit even more. Boil stuff to keep things simple & interesting (I am assuming self-help language like “you should” is not interesting)
This could just be me rationalizing the sunk cost over this experiment.
What do you think? Do you like my current writing more than whatever I did previously?
Oh, and the INTJ (or ESFP, same Quadra) I was talking about is Derek Sivers. I’d love write as clear (yet deep) as him one day.