Although, I’m not the best writer, one thing I’ve noticed is that very few people vomit thousands of words into a word processor in one sitting. The more you read the literature within and outside your field, the more you’d realize the following:
– Many writeups have a central argument that can usually be stated in a few sentences, or one page at most.
– The art of writing simply involves finding and articulating that central argument. After this has been done, your core sentences are hedged/supported by other arguments, which in turn may be supported by other arguments.
– Your job as a writer, especially in the beginning, is to assemble evidence for your argument. This means that you rarely have to start your article from the scratch. If you’ve been a diligent student in your field, you will always know the foundational literature in your field that you can start building from.
– Finally, many stellar writers invest a lot of time editing. Venkatesh Rao, one of my writing models, would argue that for excellent writers, the ratio between actual writing and rewrites is probably about 10:90. If you feel like you’re an untalented writer, your goal is to “out-edit and out-rewrite” everyone else. The beauty of most writing you see truly comes out during the rewrites. Write. Let what you’ve written breathe a bit. Edit. Rewrite. Write again. Let it breathe. Iterate.
