# How to Write - 1
1. Get over yourself

Starting is the easy part. The barrier to opening up Apple Notes, jotting down some lines, and closing it to never revisit is too low. Being able to pick it up and infinitely re-write is a blessing and a curse.

In the end, you need to get over the fear of publishing unfinished and far from perfect work. Ship it.

2. Have a reason

It doens’t have to be strong, but you need a purpose to your writing. Perhaps it’s because you have experienced something unique. And if you don’t write this down, nobody will. Or maybe you learned something recently and wish to convey it to a friend. My favorite is I have an idea or thought in my head, and writing is the best way to organize your thoughts.

Have a purpose, and ideally a person. Somebody who is your ideal reader. Knowing what would be useful to them and focusing your writing on that will make your life eaiser.

3. Simplicity matters

What’s your core idea? What are you really trying to say.

One of my favorite ways to write is to take out whatever writing software I use, and start using dictation to speak. I will go on a walk around the Fan in Richmond Virginia, and speak until I have said everything I wanted to say. Then the next day, I start cutting. I always aim to overcut. Every word must have a reason to be there, and every anthagonal idea should be justified by serving the main purpose of the piece.

You can get rid of most words, most ideas, and most examples and your writing will stay the same.

4. Be memorable

Having a great first line, not wasting sentences, having a conclusion that makes the entire piece more complicated, a title that draws you in, being weirdly specific with examples, all of these things are going to make your writing more memorable.

This is a high bar, to be sure, but if writing is a way to convey experiences, then you should hope your writing takes the specific erson you are thinking about, and changes how they expeirence life. Perhaps this piece will persusde you or somebody else to start writing. The worst thing taht can happen after I publish is you read this, and you say “huh” and never revisit. This would mean I didn’t change your expeirence, nothing was learned, and my writing wasn’t memorable or useful enough.

5. Structure matters more than you realize

When writing, you wish to engineer the reader’s journey. from the first word to the last. The structure ensures your writing hits the right notes at the right time. A hook, a promise, the journey, and the landing are all steps to bring this to fruition.

Engineer your first sentence to death. Cut through to understand your promise. what are you fofering the reader? Have setups, have payoffs. Plant ideas, questions, or images early on that you can call back to later, tying everything toggether. Craft your final sentence so it resonates, drives the point home, and makes the piece more complicated.

6. Edit edit edit

You should read your work aloud. Yes, its awkward. But you should do it anywayts, and then do it again. You’ll notice things. Such as how the sentence structure inthis paragraph carries itself from one to the enxt. Or how a word is misspelled, or how using two words closly together makes the words awkward.

Have a hit list of words. remove adjectives with “ly”. Or filler words like: just, that, then, very, start, begin,began, begun, rather, quote, some*. You don’t need them.

7. Detach yourself

Now its time to publish. But you’re scared of criticism. You have re-read the piece a billion times, and its been a week since draft 4_final_final-DONE.md is completed.

Get over yourself, and publish the piece.

# Read This When You’re Stuck - 2


Hi Myles. You’ve done it again! You are writing another piece. The honeymoon of writing the initial draft is over, and now you have buried the words you smithed into a folder. To never be published.

Once you’re stuck like this, there is one thing to do: go through this checklist.

**1. It Always Starts Here: Get Over Yourself**

The fear of publishing something unfinished or imperfect is your real enemy.

**2. Find a Reason (And a Person)**
Your motivation doesn't have to be noble, but it must be real. Why this piece? Why now?
* Is it that unique experience you had, the one that will be lost if you don't write it down?
* Is it the thing you just learned, how to break bad habits, and this is the best way to communicate your journey to Dad?
* Or is it just a tangled idea in your head that only writing can straighten out? Like spending years studying Constellation Software, trying to learn why it ticks the way it does.

Pick one. And pick a person. Write it directly for them. It will make every decision easier.

**3. Simplicity is Your Sharpest Tool**

What are you trying to say? Find that one core idea and keep it framed next to you.

Remember the process: Go for a walk through the Fan. Open a notes app and just talk. Use the dictation feature and don't stop until the idea is empty. You'll get a transcript full of garbage, but the gem will be in there.

The next day, your job is to cut. Be brutal. Aim to overcut. Keep cutting until you find what you are trying to say, and keep it in focus. Most words, sentences, and examples can go. What remains is stronger.

**4. Be Memorable, Be Specific**

A reader’s time is a gift, and the worst thing you can do is be forgettable.
* *Boring:* "The man was sad."
* *Memorable:* "Mr. Henderson cried into his lukewarm tea."

Being memorable isn't about using big words. It's about using specific ones. 

Weird specificity is your secret weapon. It’s the difference between "a truck" and "a dented, rust-colored Ford F-150." It's the detail that makes the writing feel alive.

**5. Engineer the Journey**

Structure is how you guide the reader from the first word to the last. A piece of paper with words is the farthest from your goal. You are building an engine. An engine to take the reader from one idea to the next.

* **The Hook:** Engineer your first sentence to death. Make it a question, a puzzle, a promise.
* **The Set-Up:** Plant ideas, images, and questions early.
* **The Payoff:** Call back to those early ideas. Connect the dots. Make the reader feel smart.
* **The Landing:** Your final sentence should make the whole piece resonate. It should fulfill the promise you made in the title and intro.

**6. Edit With Your Ears**

Read your work aloud. Yes, it's awkward. Do it anyway. Then do it again.

Your ear is a better editor than your eye. It will catch the clumsy phrases, repeated words, the sentences that run out of breath. It would have caught over two dozen typos in the first draft of this very list.

Keep a "Hit List" of filler words. Hunt them down and delete them.
* *just, that, then, very, rather, some*
* Adverbs ending in -ly (they're a crutch for a weak verb)
* Words like *start, begin, began* (you can really just start the action —> action)

⠀**7. Now, Ship It.**

You've reread it a dozen times. It's been sitting in a file named draft_4_final_final-DONE.md for a week. The fear is back.

Remember step one?

Get over yourself. Publish.

# A Manifesto for Shipping - 3

The honeymoon is over. The first draft, once a thrill, now sits in a digital graveyard.

This is the checklist to break through and hit publish:

**1. Slay the Real Enemy** Your enemy is the fear of revealing imperfect work. Not a bad sentence, not a weak idea. Fear. This is the first and final battle. Remove your ego from the equation by…

**2. Finding Your Reason** Motivation doesn't need to be noble. It must be real. Your reason is the thing you can't *not* share. It's explaining the hard-won lessons of breaking bad habits to your dad. It's untangling the mystery of Constellation Software because you have years of notes and interviews. Find the reason. Find the one person it's for. Write for them. Use specificity to convey…

**3. Your single, core idea** Write it on a sticky note and put it on your monitor. Now, cut everything else. Walk through the Fan, dictate your thoughts until they're empty, and unearth the gem. Your job as an editor isn't to polish. It's to find the core idea and defend it from every other word. Less is more, unless you are going to use…

**4. Wield Specificity as a Weapon** Forgettable writing is a waste of the reader's time. Specificity is what makes an idea stick. It’s the detail that breathes life into words. Don’t write “a sad man in a vehicle.” Write “Mr. Henderson cried into his lukewarm tea inside a dented, rust-colored Ford F-150.” One is noise. The other is a story. And your writing is about…

**5. Building an Engine** You are not filling a page. You are building an engine designed to carry a reader from one point to another. Every component must function.
* **The Hook:** Engineer the first sentence to earn the reader's attention.
* **The Setups:** Plant seeds and questions early on.
* **The Payoffs:** Call back to those seeds. Connect the dots.
* **The Landing:** Craft a final sentence that makes the entire piece resonate.

**6. Trust Your Ears, Not Your Eyes** Read your work aloud. Your ear will catch the clumsy phrases, the repeated words, and the awkward rhythms your eye skips over. Notice the last sentence sounded awkward with repeated “the”s? Your ear is better at catching these errors. Keep a hit list. Hunt down and destroy filler: *just, that, very, rather, some.* Kill adverbs which end in “ly”. Choose stronger verbs instead. Remove words like *start* or *begin* and do the action.

**7. Ship It.** 

The draft has been reread a dozen times. The file is named draft_4_final_final-DONE.md. The fear is back. Remember principle number one.

Get over yourself. 

# Digging Graves - 4
The honeymoon is over.

The first draft, a thrill. Now, a tombstone in the ‘review’ folder.

**1. Slay the Enemy.** Your enemy is fear. You feel it now. A tightness in your stomach, in the back of your throat. That is the fear of shipping something imperfect. This is your final battle.

**2. Find the Reason.** Find the *real* one. The story you can’t hold back. It’s explaining to Dad how seeking repulsion is the only way to truly break an addiction. It's finally answering the question that haunts your Constellation notes: *What components can be stripped out with the same result?* Find the reason. Find the person. Write for them, and let everybody else fade to the background.

**3. Isolate the Core.** One idea. One sentence on a yellow Post-it. Now, defend it. Walk Hanover St. to the VMFA. Dictate your thoughts into Apple Notes until you need to quench your thirst. Unearth the gem, and excevate it. Your only job is to defend that core idea from every other word you wrote.

**4. Wield Specificity.** Forgettable is failure. Specificity is the weapon that makes words breathe. Don’t write “a sad man in a vehicle.” Write “Mr. Henderson cried into his lukewarm tea inside a dented, rust-colored Ford F-150.” One is noise. The other, a story.

**5. Build the Engine.** You are not filling a page. You are building an engine. Every gear must turn, every piston must fire. *The Hook.* *The Setups.* *The Payoffs.* *The Landing.* Guide the reader from one idea to the next.

**6. Trust Your Ears.** Sit with the silence of the Apple keyboard, the brown noise humming. Trust your ears, not your eyes. Your ear feels the music of the words. It catches the flawed rhythm, the sour note, the clumsy phrase your eye just skips. Read it aloud. If it doesn’t swing, rewrite it. Then go back, sit with the silence of the Apple keyboard, and turn on the brown noise.

**7. Marry the Work.** The draft was reread so many times. You are annoyed at the prospect of re-reading it again. The file is named Constellation_Final_v9_DONE.md. The tightness returns to your stomach. This is the cold feet before the wedding.

But shipping isn’t the honeymoon’s end. It's the ceremony. It's the vow you make to the idea.
Now the marriage begins. The long, complicated, beautiful life the work will have with its readers, in ways you can’t control, in minds you’ll never meet. Your work is done.

Its life has just begun.

*P.S. To make this tool even sharper, create a* ***Deconstructed Edition****. Annotate a version of this manifesto with your own notes in the margin. Explain why a word was chosen. Why a line was broken. Why a detail was included. Teach yourself by dissecting your own work. That is the final step.*