Write of Passage Weekly

Hello writers,

Welcome back to Write of Passage Weekly, your source of writing advice for the 21st century. 

Last week, you learned how to expand the limits of language and discover what you already know. Today, you’ll learn how aimless movement might be the key to creativity.

Writing Sprints

Maybe you’re ready to start writing online but you can’t seem to get words on the page or hit that “Publish” button. If you’re looking for a deadline and accountability, join us next Friday, November 3, or on Wednesday, December 13, to write, edit, and publish an article in one day.

Like Nietzsche, Walk to Write

Conversations, good books, quiet time for reflection — everyone knows that these are important ingredients for creative thought. But they’re not enough; too many writers overlook movement as a catalyst for creativity. The best ideas come from walking.

Some of the world’s greatest minds have relied on a curious link between their brains and feet. Immanuel Kant walked the same route every day — in fact, he never left the city of Königsberg his entire life. Virginia Woolf, in Mrs. Dalloway, said that “the simple pleasure of walking is a way of restoring a sense of one's self.”

Nietzsche was another great writer who walked to write — whenever he had an idea he would pause to scribble it down on the small notebook he carried with him. He once said, “Sit as little as possible; do not believe any idea that was not born in the open air and of free movement.” When he wrote The Wanderer and His Shadow, he walked alone for up to eight hours a day. The book was thought out and composed almost entirely en route, using up six small notebooks.

For Nietzsche, walking was not about relaxation or fitness; it was about creativity. Thinking is a form of walking. It’s your mind plotting a course through conceptual territory. Writing, then, is like marking a trail through that same territory — so that others can walk where you have. 

Walk to think, and think to write. Great ideas emerge from aimless movement. Let your attention be free to wander, and don’t hold back from parading your imagination into the world in front of you.

How I Write Podcast

How This Ex-Airbnb Product Manager Created A Top Newsletter On Substack

Lenny writes one of the top five business newsletters on Substack — which has amassed over 500,000 subscribers. He hosts a podcast that makes him more money than he made in corporate America.

No training. No ego. And to top it all off, he writes in one of the most oversaturated markets on the Internet: product management.

How does he do it? After his first Substack post went viral (“What Seven Years at Airbnb Taught Me About Building a Business”) Lenny saw the positive impact that his ideas had on his readers. He became obsessed with adding value. 

His motto? “There’s always room for better content.” In an age of cheap, viral-hungry clickbait, Lenny’s quality bar is in the stratosphere. 

In this episode, you’ll see inside Lenny’s process. He opens up about creating high-signal content; following what energizes him; balancing storytelling with practicality; protecting his writing schedule; and most importantly, rising above the noise.

Listen Now: YouTube | Spotify | Apple

From Our Team

“An Evolving Index of Rhetorical Forms”

Dylano outlines the history of rhetoric and shares a comprehensive index of over 50 rhetorical devices to help modern writers marry form and content.

“For the next two thousand years, content and form would evolve like two rivalrous hemispheres of a single cerebellum, grappling for the foregrounds of consciousness and culture.”

Thank you for reading Write of Passage Weekly. This week, try going on a long walk, and capture any good ideas that surface during your aimless movement.

Happy writing,

The Write of Passage Team