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LM: #273: Journaling helps you practice this most important writing skill…

July 22 2024 – 10:00am

I’ve been journaling for seventeen years now. I’ve amassed quite the stack of full journals.

When I flip through these, I sometimes find something interesting. But most of it is boring, and almost all of it is poorly-written.

But my journaling habit has improved my writing immensely. Mostly because it shows me what it’s like for writing to be easy.

Writing in a journal is easy because you just write what’s on your mind. After enough practice you realize, something is wrong when writing is hard. Sometimes writing is hard because you don’t know the subject. But sometimes it’s because you refuse to acknowledge what’s on your mind.

In this way, journaling helps you practice the most basic but important writing skill: writing what you know.

Aphorism: “Write when there is something that you know; and not before; and not too damned much after.” —Ernest Hemingway

Cool: Buffer’s breakdown of the X algorithm shows you why replies are 50x or 70x as powerful as likes.

Best,
David
P.S. The Journal Prompts Workbook tells you exactly what to write about as you build a 100-word journaling habit. Back the Kickstarter.

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