Write While True

Brian:  And today, once again, we’re talking about tools, but this time focus on tools for publishing and collaboration in writing, which is all a bit more complicated than what text editor do you use?  So, to start at the simpler end of the spectrum, though, there’s blogging and then there’s publishing things like books and pamphlets and whatnot. So let’s talk first about...

Brian:  I’m Brian Hall. And today, I can’t wait, we’re talking about writing tools, talking about your writing stack. And we’ll actually spread this out over two episodes. Today we’re talking about the idea phase, outlining, collecting notes, and drafting. So just the writing part. We’ll save publishing, editing, collaboration tools for a future episode. Write W...

Lou: Today, I would actually like us to look back two episodes where we talked about reader profile, so writing towards a specific reader, and to maybe double-click on that a little and talk a little bit more about the archetype readers that you might be writing towards. So a lot of the way I’ve come to think about this came from Amy Hoy. If you don’t know her, Amy Hoy, she’s one...

Brian:  Today we’re talking about negative feedback. Lou:  Oh boy. Brian:  Yeah, yeah. No, this one’s gonna hurt. When you write something and you share it, and then somebody tells you that it’s absolute trash in some manner or another, and there’s really no avoiding it. Transcript

Brian:  And I’m Brian Hall. And today we’re talking about reader profile, the person or people for whom you are writing, which is a really powerful concept to spend some time on, preferably before you start writing, at least if it’s a big project. I think this came up in the last conversation and your example was, I do B2B SaaS. If you’re in gaming, things might be a l...

Lou:  Hey, Brian. I wanted to start this episode by doing a little bit of a follow up to episode 48, where we talked about starting a collaboration. One of the things we ended with was doing a simple collaboration by just getting feedback on something you’re writing. And I wanted to talk to you about your thoughts on what to do with feedback. Brian:  Yeah, let’s do it, for su...

Brian: I’m building up my ability to do that by spending my mornings and my first sip of coffee, learning this framework. And at the same time, you got to watch out because learning a JavaScript framework is not writing per se. So that’s what I’ve been up to. And it’s felt productive and like it works toward my ultimate goal, my ultimate writing focused goal, but I haven&#8...

Brian: I’m Brian Hall. And today we’re talking again about habits. In the last episode, we both set out some intentions to change our writing habits and establish a daily practice. Let’s check in on that. Lou, how did it go for you? Lou:  Not great, Brian. I did the habit none times. Brian:  Okay, not great. Remind us what you were going to do and tell us what happened....

Brian: And so just getting yourself in position and getting started in this way tends to lead to more powerful, robust output. I guess I’ve reached the point where just by starting consistently every morning, I was cranking out a blog post a day for quite a while. And I guess that’s the other thing I’ll say too, is habits can come and go. You can lose a habit and it’s proba...

This is the beginning of season five, episode 48, and I’m going to tell you about something that we’re doing a little different now. This has always been a podcast where I, a software developer, talks to you, who I think are also software developers, about what I write and I’m trying to share with you tips and techniques for writing for people like us that want to write. And in t...

It’s been a while. Episode 46 came out in late January of 2025 and I’m recording this now in mid-December, so it’s been about 10 or 11 months. When I last left off, we were in the middle of season 4, and I was telling you about all the things I was learning as I was writing my book, Swimming in Tech Debt . Well, I’m happy to say that I finally finished Swimming in Tech Debt...

This is the 7th episode of season four. I started this season in January of 2024. My intent was to document the process of writing a book. But even though this season is over a year long, there have only been 7 episodes, and that’s because I took a 9 month break. I want to talk more about what happened during that break, and how I was derailed from my plans, and how I recovered. The Four Dis...

But even with all of that new writing, a lot of the ideas and content are drawn from my blog. That’s what I want to talk about today — How I started this project by reviewing and gathering my work. My first step, at the end of 2023, when I decided that I wanted to write a book, was to immerse myself in my own writing, so I just read my blog. I just read all of the posts. Season 4 start...

My intention after episode 43 was to follow along the process of writing the book and share what I learned along the way. But, a few things happened that derailed me (in a good way). The Four Disciplines of Execution [affiliate link] Write While True Episode 23: Take a Break Taking a Successful Break Swimming in Tech Debt Follow-up on my Tech Debt Article in The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter trans...

There’s a hole in this process, and we need to fill that right now. This only works if you’re doing the lead activities consistently, and if they really do build up to the end goal. It’s true that working on the book is intrinsically fun and interesting. And if that’s all that happened, I’d probably be okay with it, but I really do want a book in the end. Write While...

As I mentioned in the past two episodes, I’m trying to write a short book, and I want to share the process as I’m going through it. For example, to help me structure my time, I’m using the book The Four Disciplines of Execution . In the last episode, I shared how I’m applying the second discipline. I defined an activity that I could do every day and a lead measure, a metric...

My wildly important goal is to publish a fifty page book on a topic in my industry by the end of 2024. I defined it using the SMART goal format (S. M. A. R. T.), which means it’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This is a good way to define goals, but the issue with SMART goals is that even though you can easily tell if you have reached them, they don’t drive...

For season four, which I’m starting right now, my plan is to take you through my process as I try to write a short, focused book. I expect it to be about 50 pages. I call this kind of book a pamphlet. 4DX: Applying the First Discipline Write While True Episode 13: New Ideas In Praise of Pamphlets Generating Podcast Episode Ideas Transcript

The white pastel can draw white on top of the charcoal, so now I can make white marks, which can also be smudged and mixed. It’s giving me a range of values I couldn’t get before. Throwing white highlights onto a dark drawing is a way of directing attention and makes it more interesting. Black and white, on a drawing, are the extreme values. If I try to apply this idea to writing, it s...

I’m reading a book by Stanley Fish called How to Write a Sentence . I found this book by Googling that exact question because I wanted to find anything that might be a fit for what I’m podcasting about this season. How to Write a Sentence [amazon affiliate link] by Stanley Fish The Tools and Materials of Writing Write While True Episode 28: Complex Sentences Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll Spon...

Today I want to talk about one of the rules that’s in Strunk and White. It’s actually in almost every book about writing, which is to use the active voice and to prefer it over the passive voice. Larry McEnerney analyzes the Gettysburg Address [YouTube] The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln The Sense of Style [amazon affiliate link] by Steven Pinker The Elements of Style [amazon af...

The advice applies to any kind of writing. It resonated with me because I feel like I might be having that problem in my written work. That sometimes my writing feels like a stack of paragraphs. I am feeling the lack of propulsion that John and Aline described. Scriptnotes Episode 60 (transcript only) Scriptnotes Episode 61 (transcript only) Write While True Episode 1: Training to Unblock Yourself...

I recently came across the phrase zombie nouns, which was coined by Helen Sword. She’s an author and currently runs a private consultancy to help writers. Back in 2012, she was teaching at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and she wrote an article for the New York Times called Zombie Nouns . Write While True Episode 30: Finding Nouns and Verbs Zombie Nouns by Helen Sword in the New...

What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to learn how to recall fit words when we need them in our writing. To get better at that, we need to be exposed to more interesting words and to practice using them. Imagine situations where they would be perfect. Making it memorable and ridiculous might help you remember the word when you need it. Write While True Episode 1: Training to Unblock...

The idea of collecting quotes is not something new. I think that’s the way most people think of note taking in general. There’s even a style of journal some people keep called a Commonplace book, which builds on this idea. In a Commonplace book, you are mostly collecting the thoughts of others. You might also put in your own reaction to those—your thoughts on those thoughts—but the foc...