Things I Know About Writing
An unedited list
Oh dear, I’ve decided to make the grave mistake of offering “writing advice.” Some might ask (I among them), “why would you do that?” Writing is a nebulous thing. It’s at once deeply personal and a public project, which is why people are so annoying about it. Some do it for personal satisfaction. Others, like me, hope to make it their living, thus entering a negotiation between art and industry.
It’s no wonder writing advice is notoriously difficult to give, with many responding to its typical truisms with, “well, that’s not what it’s like for me,” or, “but this doesn’t apply to everyone.” Certainly nothing I say here is meant to stand as a universal truth. But I’ve noticed that many of my subscribers are writers, or have a love of the written word, and I thought it would be nice to offer some tips and techniques that have worked for me.
The other issue when creating a list like this is, despite the difficulty in finding writing advice that might actually be useful, the internet is awash in writing advice. It’s hard to say things that haven’t already been said a million times over. “Read and write, read and write,” goes the tried and true mantra that I’ve heard since high school. It brings me no pleasure to report that, yeah, it kind of works.
I thought it might be better, then, for you and for me, to let my advice sit in the specific, and allow readers to take what they will from it.
Who am I? Weird to be a paying subscriber to my Substack without knowing, but I’m always happy to rattle off my credentials. They’re all I have on this earth. I started out my professional career in journalism writing for The Guardian, NBC News, Condé Nast, The Washington Post, and more. I pivoted from journalism in 2019 to focus more on, hmmm, let’s call it “literature.”
In 2021, my memoir-in-essays, “¡Hola Papi!,” came out, based on the popular advice column I began in 2017. It was published under Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint and, if you ask me, it was a success. It was twice selected as Editor’s Choice in The New York Times, which also gave it a glowing review, calling it “a masterclass in tone.” It was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award, and it won the Brooklyn Public Library Prize. Following its publication, I was selected for the Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award, and the book was optioned by Funny Or Die to be adapted for TV.
Most exciting of all, the book was an answer in both the USA Today and The New Yorker crossword puzzles, perhaps because “PAPI” is a great answer for a crossword and there weren’t very many good clues for it beforehand.
Yes, yes, I’m so good. With that out of the way, let’s get into you.
Assess your goals. What do you want writing to give you?
When I was learning to drive, my dad taught me where to fix my eyes. You should be looking at where you’re about to be, somewhere between what’s in front of you and the horizon. This is how we get places. You need a general sense of where you are and where you’re headed. The same, I find, is true of writing.