Non Fiction

How Drafting Longhand Can Enhance Your Writing

/ Stuart Danker / 41 Comments

longhand-manuscript-dim-hou

You know how you try clothes on before deciding what to wear on a date? Do you iron those clothes before holding them in the mirror? I hope not, because that’ll be like undoing your pants to fart.

Yet that’s how most writers tend to approach the first draft. They iron their clothes, spritz on a bit of perfume, and have their makeup ready—all before knowing what they’re going to wear.

So today we’re going to talk first drafts. But we’re not going to talk just any first draft. We’re going to check out the benefits of drafting longhand.

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I Eat Only One Meal A Day And It’s Not As Extreme As It Seems

/ Stuart Danker / 68 Comments

omad-meal-louis-hansel

After a few years of 16:8 fasting, I’ve decided to transition into one meal a day (OMAD). I say 16:8, but I was fasting 18–20 hours a day on average, which is why OMAD was just a small step up.

And surprisingly enough, it’s much easier than the articles online make it out to be. So after a month of OMAD to date, I thought I’d share my experience to those interested in fasting.

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This Word Processor From The 90s Is Helping Me Write More

/ Stuart Danker / 73 Comments

Woman standing in front of projector with lines of code on her face

I wrote everything in plain text this month. That’s .txt instead of .docx, or using a basic text editor instead of writing on WordPress.

Don’t ask me why. It’s just another experiment I had to do, because you know I’m always trying to find new ways to write.

This is why I found myself using Vim, a 1991 predecessor to Vi, which was released in 1976. Yeah, Vim definitely gives George RR Martin and his preference for WordStar a run for his money.

Using a programme this old meant that I could focus on what really mattered: the words. Or did it?

Read on to find out.

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How To Look At Your Problems In A Better Way

/ Stuart Danker / 75 Comments

reframing-picture-frame-pine-watt

“And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row.”

That was what the tennis player said after breaking his 16-time losing streak.

Sometimes, it almost seems like the best way to get through life is to lie to ourselves. But then again, it’s not lying if it’s true, right? We’re just choosing to reframe what’s good and bad. Seeing the silver lining, if you will.

So join me as we take a look at how we can better lie to ourselves, and turn our negatives into positives.

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Why You Shouldn’t Look Up To Successful People All The Time

/ Stuart Danker / 134 Comments

survivorship-bias-desert-joshua-sukoff

I remember reading my first self-help book and feeling like I had unlocked the cheat code to living. I also remember realising how little these books helped me in the grand scale of things.

Still, the desire to find the secret sauce never waned. Cut to the era of YouTube, and now, instead of books, I can access videos and podcasts on all things productivity.

The danger of that is it locks me into the same pattern of trying to find the silver bullet from these ‘authorities’.

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned about taking advice from successful people, it’s that survivorship bias exists.

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