Writers on Writing -- Douglas Adams -- "...But writing can be good." \ stacker news ~the_stacker

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Writers on Writing -- Douglas Adams -- "...But writing can be good."

358 sats \ 8 comments \ @billytheked 3h the_stacker_muse

Drafting this during one of those useless work meetings so I cannot, unfortunately, get too absorbed...

I know there's some Douglas fans around here.

[typed] GENERAL NOTE TO MYSELF - Douglas Adams
Writing isn’t so bad really when you get through the worry. Forget about the worry, just press on. Don’t be embarrassed about the bad bits. Don’t strain at them, give yourself time, you can come back and do it again in the light of what you discover about the story later on. It's better to have pages and pages of material to work through and often maybe find an unexpected shape in that you can then craft and put it for good use, rather than one manically reworked paragraph or sentence. But writing can be good. You attack it, don’t let it attack you. You can get pleasure out of it. You can certainly do very well for yourself with it...!

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47 sats \ 3 replies \ @Scoresby 3h

I read once that Douglas Adams had to be locked in a hotel room by his agent to get him to finish one of the Hitchhiker's Guide books. I sympathize with his feelings about writing.

113 sats \ 0 replies \ @adlai 1h

I think similar antics were a regular occurrence. Some of the radio episodes were also just made up without actually writing scripts, and they spent most of the studio time goofing around to perfect the sound effects.

138 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 2h

Haha, I wish I had an agent to lock me in a room and force me to do my work.

36 sats \ 0 replies \ @billytheked OP 2h

Yes, same, it is real work. Reminds me of another one I posted a while back.

22 sats \ 0 replies \ @jbschirtzinger 2h

I guess if your writing is a battle, this would make sense.

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 3h

You attack it, don’t let it attack you.

36 sats \ 0 replies \ @billytheked OP 2h

This was another candidate for the post title, but i liked the banality of the other.

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @035736735e 1h

I also think his “don’t let writing attack you” mindset is pure gold. Many people let fear, procrastination, or self-doubt turn writing into a chore but if you approach it as play or exploration, even the difficult bits become less intimidating

It’s almost like Adams is giving writers permission to make a mess because without the mess, there’s nothing to clean up into something great. And honestly, some of the best creative surprises happen in those messy, unplanned stretches...