This conversation picks where I'm reminded that Lam had wanted me to tell him about my new writing habits, which I was eager to do because I'd been trying for a while to articulate what I'd been discovering in the past month. Process—when it's working—turns out to be incredibly hard to explain.

Most of this new process originates from a small story in a Seth Godin interview where he shares part of Isaac Asimov's own writing process. There are few better places to seek answers on writing than from Asimov who was one of the most prolific authors of all time. In fact, "prolific" may not even be the right word. We may have to invent a new word. Micheal Crichton is prolific, having written 32 books. Above that is the category where you find Stephen King (with approximately 79 books and 200 short stories) and Joyce Carol Oates (with approximately 170 books.) But above them, all sits Isaac Asimov who wrote approximately 400 books!

Having myself tried the technique that Godin describes, I can understand why Asimov was able to write that many books. This technique, which I refer to as "freewriting," is a bit like turning on a fire hose. You'll hear me use those exact words with Lam when I tell him how it scared the hell out of me. This is one of the parts that I was having trouble trying to find words for. The others being:

how this ties into habit-forming

why notebook abandoning is so common among writers

why I was continually busting my ass and achieving so little

what I got wrong about what writing is

how it feels for me to be writing again

and another big one: the difference between understanding and knowing

Mentioned Media

North Star Podcast — Seth Godin: Writing Every Day

Wilderness — Jim Morrison

The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results — Gary Keller & Jay Papasan

The Tim Ferriss Show #483 with Jim Collins

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