Photo courtesy of 顔なし

“The happiness of too many days is often destroyed by trying to accomplish too much in one day. We would do well to follow a common rule for our daily lives - Do Less and Do It Better.” - Dale E. Turner

There’s a maxim in the Unix programming philosophy that says programmers should “write programs that do one thing and do it well.”

It’s a beautiful philosophy, and one that can be applied just as well to your writing.

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Photo courtesy of Claudia Castro

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” - Victor Hugo

There are two ways to become a better writer, in general: write a lot, and read a lot.

There are no other steps.

Of course, within those two general directives, there are lots of more specific advice I can give you, and that other professional writers would offer. Let’s take a look at the second general directive: read a lot.

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Photo courtesy of Peter Gene

As I write these words, it’s a little after 4:00 a.m. and my wife and kids are sleeping. The house is dark and quiet, with no TV or music playing, no conversation to distract the voice in my head.

It’s the perfect writing environment, for me at least.

When we write, we are speaking with a voice in our heads, and that voice is communicated through our fingertips and onto paper or the digital whitespace. The more noise that’s around us, the more difficult it is to hear our voice.

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Photo courtesy of mezone

“Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.” - Spanish proverb

This, friends, is the linchpin: if you can create the habit of writing, you’ve got a wonderful foundation as a writer.

If you struggle to get in enough time for writing, or keep putting it off, or can never seem to write when you planned to write … you need to work on creating the habit of writing.

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Photo courtesy of Mayr

“Writing is a fairly lonely business unless you invite people in to watch you do it, which is often distracting and then you have to ask them to leave.” - Marc Lawrence

One of the biggest challenges for any writer, especially these days, is the temptation of the Internet, the pull of your favorite distractions, and — if you work at home — the siren’s call of the couch.

If you want to get writing done (hence the title of this site), you need to learn to clear your writing time of any distractions.

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