"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Hemingway
Be clear, specific, and understood. Better writing starts with intent, commitment to the your craft.
Benjamin Franklin chose the nine-year printing apprenticeship for exposure to the writing of others. His "Silence Dogood Letters" are legendary.
Stephen King shares his process in "On Writing" which belongs in your personal library on your desk. Use stronger verbs, fewer adverbs, and find critics (his wife is his harshest reviewer).
Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code) argues for "raising the stakes" and having a "ticking clock" adding tension.
Salman Rushdie discusses the tyranny of the blank page and employing our "creative imagination" and our "critical imagination." Writing is rewriting.
Anne Lamott says that "sh*tty first drafts" are part of the process. Get it down and then repair fix it. The 'delete' should wear out first on your keyboard.
Good writers take assume risks, exposing private inner thoughts and inhabiting strange worlds. Find a muse. Ryan Holiday chose Robert Greene. Want my opinion? Holiday succeeded on his own.
Writers share their "dos and don'ts." Very and really annoy me. Would you want a coach thinking "she's very, very good" or "she's exceptional?" Do you want Coach Scott Celli thinking believing, "She's really good" or "for her, the sky's the limit?"
Bigger words don't equal better words ones. Hemingway wrote, “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
"Every story is about someone searching for something." In The Boys in the Boat, Daniel Brown wrote about excavates multiple searches - understanding the Great Depression, the rise of fascism in the 1930s, and chasing Olympic gold for Joe Rantz and the 1936 American crew team oarsmen.
"But it's summer." Summer can be inform both vacation and opportunity. As James Clear (Atomic Habits) explains, "Habits are votes for the type of person you want to become." Special servers practice serving. Cooks exploit time and temperature variations to chase perfection. Writers write and revise.
Read. Write. Revise. Repeat.
Lagniappe. Stick to your standards.
Eli Drinwkitz explains the difference between standards and expectations.
— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) July 2, 2026
"Expectations are external, standards are internal."
"If we're worried about outside noise and expectations... that's a recipe for disappointment."
You don’t rise to expectations - you fall to your… pic.twitter.com/rWis45jJD7
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