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I've found that writing is a lot like programming. For a skilled programmer, programming is easy. Designing a complex system might be hard, understanding comp

I've found that writing is a lot like programming. For a skilled programmer, programming is easy. Designing a complex system might be hard, understanding complex programs may be hard, and designing algorithms may be hard, but the actual act of putting the concepts into code should be pretty easy. For a skilled writer, writing is easy. Designing a complex, believable plot, characters the reader can empathize with, a detailed universe, and so forth, can be quite hard, but the actual act of putting it onto paper is easy. Of course, as any good writer will tell you, once you've written it down, there are another hundred revisions to go before it's actually ready, a dozen of which will involve a complete rewrite. So you have to be able to put thoughts to paper quickly. Also, at least personally, I've found that I have a short attention span with regards to writing: there's a window of a few hours between when I have an idea and when my mind wants to throw it away, and I have to get something passable written in that time. When I get an idea for a short story I can often write out 5000 words in a couple of hours. But going from that basket of words spurt out at 3:00 AM to a publishable story would take far, far, longer. One interesting bit of advice I've heard is that aspiring authors should start with fanfiction--because that allows them to work in an existing detailed universe with existing characters. This lets them get practice making writing easy so that when it comes to actually creating a setting from scratch, they don't have to worry about writing it down. This is much like programming--by the time you're doing serious work, it's expected that coding itself is second-nature to you. Also, a good read for any HN user interested in writing (especially Sci-Fi/Fantasy) is the classic Turkey City Lexicon: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/turkeycity.html http://www.sfwa.org/writing/turkeycity.html

randallsquared 18y ago
as any good writer will tell you, once you've written it down, there are another hundred revisions to go before it's actually ready Not necessarily. Some writers write publishable first drafts, at least some of the time. Heinlein famously started out thinking that rewrites weren't worth his time (though he still did some on at least some stories).
- tricky 18y ago
  There is a mention of this in "On Writing Well" where Zinsser tells a story about speaking at a conference along side an author who was able to write publishable first drafts. Sure, they're out there, but the skill is extremely rare.
  - wallflower 18y ago
    > Practice writing. Write every day. If you are a top-notch computer scientist, you probably read technical papers nearly every day. You are a writer too, so practice. http://www.dreamsongs.com/RPGWritingBroadside.html http://www.dreamsongs.com/RPGWritingBroadside.html
ph0rque 18y ago
I wonder what will happen if/when we get a decent brain/computer interface, and we'll be able to write stories by thinking about them... I think the value of clear thinking will become most obvious at that point.

randallsquared 18y ago

as any good writer will tell you, once you've written it down, there are another hundred revisions to go before it's actually ready Not necessarily. Some writers write publishable first drafts, at least some of the time. Heinlein famously started out thinking that rewrites weren't worth his time (though he still did some on at least some stories).

tricky 18y ago
There is a mention of this in "On Writing Well" where Zinsser tells a story about speaking at a conference along side an author who was able to write publishable first drafts. Sure, they're out there, but the skill is extremely rare.
- wallflower 18y ago
  > Practice writing. Write every day. If you are a top-notch computer scientist, you probably read technical papers nearly every day. You are a writer too, so practice. http://www.dreamsongs.com/RPGWritingBroadside.html http://www.dreamsongs.com/RPGWritingBroadside.html

ph0rque 18y ago

I wonder what will happen if/when we get a decent brain/computer interface, and we'll be able to write stories by thinking about them... I think the value of clear thinking will become most obvious at that point.