How I Write

Well, for one thing, if I have something good, I'll use it more than once. For example, I came up with something good in an e-mail to my sister, and I'm gonna use it again right now:

Oh! ...Don't bother with the old posts. The old ones are too long and difficult even for me to read. As a sort of 2010 New Year's resolution I decided to make them shorter. Then after a few months of trying, they actually GOT shorter.

Some time last May I figured out how Blogger's post scheduling thing works. (You can't just click the bright orange PUBLISH POST button. You have to click the easily-missed "Post Options" link, click "Scheduled at," and enter a time and date. It's only hard because if you click the bright orange button, you can't then "schedule" the post for later!) After I got the scheduling, I started doing a post a day.

When I write, I usually go off on a tangent or three. What happens now is, I split off the tangents into separate, short posts. That simplifies the main post I'm working on. And it gives me some nice short posts to schedule in before the main one appears.

Idunno what anybody else thinks, but I think this works really well.

Most visitors only read the newest post. So if I have some relevant older post, I link to it from the new one. It lets me point the reader to selected older posts... Plus, because I write short ones now, linking to them works well. Each short one is just one topic or just one thought, pretty much. Perfect for a link.

Oh, also, even if I re-use something, I always tweak it and try to improve it.

23. Generalizations are always wrong

If this rule is true, then this rule must be false

"More like guidelines, really."

22. Entice, or fail.

It's political. It satisfies some perverse urge to read (or say) something that makes your opponent look like a fool. But it's not productive.

If you're trying to convince people that your economic point-of-view (or, whatever) is the right one, making your opponent look like a fool will be cheered by those who already support your position. But it won't win you any converts from among your opponents. It's not productive.

That's what I think.

//

First use.

21. Introduce the Idea First

My "Federal Debt is NOT the Problem" post is finally starting to work for me. The writing is coming along now. I'm at the "Timing is Everything" part, and interrupt myself to make this note.

Here's how that section starts right now:

Okay, so government debt is low, compared to private debt. You can still say paying down the federal debt will fix the economy. But I don't think that's true. I think it is private debt that is holding the economy down.

Gently, I hope, I introduce the idea that I want to talk about.

I have a tendency not to do that. Usually I want to throw the facts at you so they hit you like they hit me. And at the end of that session, I expect you to reach the same conclusion I reach. For me, I don't reach a conclusion until the thing is inescapable. There is no other option. I reach a conclusion only because I must.

But writing it that way doesn't work very well. People don't know where you're going. You need to tell'em where you're going, first. I think so.

Sometimes, "or" complicates things

I'm writing a post right now on my "test" blog, that when it is ready will move to my "Arthurian economics" blog. I'm interrupting that to do this.

Here's what I'm writing:

Rickards' conclusion is that there is no way out of the problem. As he puts it, "there is no exit."

Here's how it was before I fixed it:

Rickards' conclusion is that there is no way out of the problem. Or, as he puts it, "there is no exit."

With the "or" in there, the reader is forced to make a comparison. This slows things down and tears my own argument apart.

When I take the "or" out, the second sentence builds upon the first one, and strengthens the idea I want to convey.

Or so it seems to me.

Finally figured out

Finally figured out I can put the rules in a gadget that stays above any posts that appear. My motto? Rush nothing. It could be a rule...