Write of Passage Weekly

Hello writers,

Welcome back to Write of Passage Weekly!

Last week, you learned that you’re a hunter with a pen. Today, we’re talking about the virtue of concision, how it’s different than brevity, and why it’s a good practice to drown your kittens.

Publish Your Idea in a Day

Do you struggle to get ideas onto the page? Does perfectionism prevent you from hitting “Publish?” In Writing Sprints, students overcome their blockers to write, edit, and publish something they are proud of. Here’s a selection of the articles published in Writing Sprints.

If you’re looking for a deadline, feedback, and accountability, join us on Wednesday, December 13, to publish your idea in a day.

Drown Your Kittens

Not everything that you love is useful — a beautiful sentence is not always a purposeful one.

The efficacy of your writing depends on concision and eloquence. As Kurt Vonnegut wisely noted, eloquence must serve a purpose. Even beauty, on its own, is not enough; get rid of what you don’t need, even if it’s nice. Every word should contribute, or in Vonnegut's words, "If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out." 

The goal isn’t to write short. It’s to be concise. Concision is inspiration plus elimination; it means creating a high ideas-to-words ratio by getting rid of what doesn’t serve your point. Concision is about density.

Compress what’s good, cut what isn’t. Don’t ramble. Drown your kittens.

How I Write Podcast

Y Combinator CEO: The Key To Writing For Startups & Entrepreneurs | Garry Tan

From becoming a respected leader among his 7th-grade peers to becoming the President and CEO of Y Combinator, Garry Tan knows how to write with influence. Writing is (and has always been) Garry’s #1 tool to excavate his identity and discover his purpose. In his own words, “Writing is the most potent form of representing your own experience.”

Garry is the antenna of today’s cutting-edge startup scene, and he knows better than anyone that if you want to gain influence, you need to be yourself. And if you want to be yourself, you need to get a little weird.

In this episode, David sits down with Garry to talk about what this looks like on paper. Garry is bullish on authentic self-expression in the face of media. He’s refreshingly grounded, humble, and principled. And he’s hyper-committed to following his curiosity. He and David talk about building in public, writing with vulnerability and novelty, embracing a little cringe, and the question we’re all orbiting around: “How do you know who you are until you put it on the page?”

Listen Now: YouTube | Apple | Spotify

From Our Alumni

"Commit a Career Ending Move"

Steven Foster: “I spent my first decade of adulthood at a few startups. I sank my teeth in at a FAANG. I even took to the skies on one of those unicorn rides. On the surface, my career seemed like a dream, but it was a sacrifice.”

Thank you for reading Write of Passage Weekly. This week, prioritize concision, and challenge yourself. How much meaning can you pack into one sentence? How can you increase the ideas-to-words ratio of your essay?

Happy writing,

The Write of Passage Team