Write While True Lou Franco

I made this podcast, but I wanted to self-host, so I learned how to do that with s3 and wrote my own way to get analytics. So, Podcasting leads to programming. And then I wrote up a blog about that program (so it led back to writing) and now I am telling you about it on this podcast. Round and round it goes.







The more times I go around the circle, the easier it becomes to write or podcast or program about one of the other things I'm doing. The content for this podcast is mostly taken from a blog post I made in February. Back then I just said that I should come up with some way to combine programming and writing more. This podcast was the result of that thinking.







Sprint-o-MatWatchKit articles on App-o-MatPersonal Finance script







Transcript

Last week I encouraged you to collect general knowledge. Viking trade routes, anime, Rothko paintings, architecture, typography, bluegrass standards -- where ever your interests lead you.



For these kinds of things, it may be hard to write a note though. You could certainly write down something, but it's unlikely that you'll develop a few paragraphs of a coherent thought about lots of random things.



James Webb Young said to use index cards for that. That would certainly work, but I recommend using spaced-repetition card software instead.

New ideas are combinations of old ones.

In the past, when I set goals to write more frequently, I was always stopped by not having ideas ready for what to write about. Or when I got one, I didn't have a systematic way of collecting them. I would sit down to write, but getting started on a new piece was too difficult.



My ONE thing is make it so that when I sit down to write I have a checklist to work from.

I know that a lot of my episodes are variations on the theme of quantity. In episode one, I asked you to write morning pages every day. In episode 4, I asked you to make a schedule where you write multiple days a week. I've talked about the importance of producing many first drafts. In episode 8, I said you should lower your bar and just last week I shared my personal “why”, which is all about playing the infinite game because it’s fun. The title of this podcast is a play on the idea of the infinite game.

The exercise this week is to think about your "why"? I don't think it's wrong to write for money or fame, but if you're an amateur like me, I'd find something easier to attain.