The high road to writing; AI is normal; Wikipedia as propaganda: Newsletter 30 April 2025

Newsletter 92. Why you should put in the most effort at the start of a writing project. Plus, AI as normal technology, five strategies for authors who are stuck, three people to follow, and three books to read.

Climbing mount prose

Any cyclist or runner will tell you this about hills: you can start by going up or going down, but you’re going to have to eventually do the work. There’s no going around it. The only question is where the hard part is.

I’ve noticed the same thing about writing. When you’re doing it efficiently, there are three stages: an uphill part, a level steady effort, and then coasting downhill.

The uphill part is the research and planning. It’s tough because you don’t actually know what you’re going to write, you’re still figuring it out. There’s a fair amount of wasted effort, including planning frameworks that end up discarded and doing research on things you turn out not to need. Progress is uneven. Even so, stress is low. You’re full of energy because it seems anything is possible, and there’s little deadline pressure. And since you’re not actually writing, there’s no possibility of writer’s block.

The level, steady effort is drafting. You can make steady progress since you’ve assembled all the tools and content you need ahead of time. You have a clear map of what you need to do and you’re executing. You get into a flow state because there’s nothing to stop you. Remember, flow is not effortless work, any more than running or pedaling on level ground is effortless. Flow is what happens when you work steadily against resistance with a feeling of confidence and no insurmountable obstacles. Like a long level stretch when running or cycling, a good uninterrupted stretch of writing is pleasurable and feels like you’re making excellent progress.

The downhill is rewriting. You come back to what you wrote with new ideas, or with comments from editors or others. Now you have some problems to solve. But you already know the material and how it fits together, so the problems are relatively easy to fix. You’re near the finish line and the deadline is approaching, but there’s still little stress because success is so clearly within your sight. It’s low effort and you coast to the finish.

This is not the only way to write. You can start with freely writing a shitty draft and end up in valley. It’s easy to start by going downhill. But now you’ve got a bunch of extra work to do and a lot of your time has already elapsed. It’s going to be uphill the rest of the way, and you’re going to be trudging against deadline pressure. You may hit roadblocks, structural or mental. You will not arrive refreshed. And you are unlikely to enjoy the ride.

It’s so tempting to start by writing. But it’s going to give you extra stress and generate extra work. Start by going uphill — by planning and researching. It’s not the easiest way to start, but it’s the best way to enjoy the writing process.

News for writers and others who think

Princeton scholars Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor articulate a vision of AI as a “normal technology” — enabling tech that neither brings on disaster nor creates a utopia.

Andrew Warner explains the five strategies he used to finally write his book.

Trump’s appointee for U.S. Attorney for DC, Ed Martin, says Wikipedia is foreign-influenced propaganda and wants to remove the non-profit designation for its parent company (gift article, Washington Post).

Does the book industry need supply chain improvements? The Book Industry Study Group released a white paper that says so.

Three people to follow

Scott Bloom , “author” of many truly hilarious fake business books. (Follow him. You’ll see.)

John Warner , smart thinker on the future of teaching writing.

James Warda , deconstructing the Disney’s best strategies.

Three books to read

Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global by Laura Spinney (Bloomsbury, 2025). Most of us speak derivatives of one proto-language. The globe-spanning linguistic and archaeological story of how some smart people figured that out.

Supershifts: Transforming How We Live, Learn, and Work in the Age of Intelligence by Ja-Nae Duane and Steve Fisher (Wiley, 2025). How pervasive AI will change you, your organization, and society.

Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World by Anne-Laure Le Cunff, PhD (Avery, 2025). Embracing uncertainty and growth instead of always reaching for the brass ring. (Alas, advice 50 years too late for me, but it may not be too late for you.)