Write of Passage Weekly

Hey writers,

Welcome back to Write of Passage Weekly. Last week, you learned that words are worth a thousand pictures. Today, you'll learn how writing can be a path to self-knowledge.

Start Building Influence with Your Ideas

This week, we have a special offer for you. Early enrollment is now open for our April Bootcamp. If you enroll before Wednesday, February 28, you’ll receive two bonuses:

1. An exclusive, pre-recorded workshop from The Cultural Tutor on how to grow your audience. Haven’t heard of him? The Cultural Tutor went from flipping burgers at McDonald’s to building an audience of over 1.5 million followers on Twitter (X) — in just 15 months. And he’s going to show you how he did it.
2. A one-on-one coaching session with one of our trained editors. (Psst, our alumni have been begging us to do this for months. We’re excited to share it with you.)

In our five-week Bootcamp, you’ll write something exceptional and reach people who actually care about it. And if you enroll today, you can start learning how to grow your audience tonight. 

Write to Know Thyself

Writing is the excavation of your obsessions. The more you write, the deeper you dig. And the deeper you dig, the more you reveal what truly matters to you and what drives your heartfelt convictions. It’s not so much about discovering something new; it’s about focusing on what’s always been important to you.

As Ayn Rand once said, “Words are a lens to focus one’s mind.” With each stroke of the pen or tap of the keyboard, we get closer to the rich soil of our inner world. By writing about something, you see it in greater detail — especially the ideas you usually take for granted. Like the clanking of metal against rock heard by an archaeologist at their dig site, the scratch of a pencil against paper is a sign that you're peeling back the layers of superficiality to uncover the bedrock of your obsessions.

 For Joan Didion, writing was about finding herself: “I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear." Writing can be a journey toward self-knowledge. Each word is a step closer to unearthing what’s most true to you. Writing isn’t just a form of communication with others; it's a dialogue with your innermost being. The more you explore your interests and desires, the easier it is to sift out the ones that you don’t want to focus on. The more you discover what matters to you, the better you understand who you are. 

Think of your pen as a miner’s pickaxe, your keyboard as a sculptor’s chisel. Every sentence strikes at the layers of thought, every paragraph carves away superfluous material. What you are left with is not only your message but also an artifact of your passions — what drives you, what you stand for, what you know.

The more you write, the more your identity becomes clearer, sharper, and the more comfortable you are being that person. Clarity begets clarity. Obsessions intensify themselves. Write to freeze your true passions in their most vivid forms, and let it tell you about who you really are and what you really want.

How I Write Podcast

How Writing Helped Howard Marks Raise Billions

Want to build influence with great ideas and simple writing? Look no further than Howard Marks. 

Most smart people use big words and plastic jargon to reinforce the barrier between themselves and “the common folk.” Howard, on the other hand, breaks down this barrier, and that’s why his ideas are so influential (and why he’s Warren Buffett’s favorite author). 

Ironically enough, simple writing is the hardest to master. Einstein once said that there are four types of intelligence: “bright, brilliant, genius, and simple.” In this episode, you’ll hear how Howard turns decades of investment expertise into clear, simple language. 

You’ll learn: 

• Why high-quality work is more important than ever
• How discovering your unique point of view is crucial if you want your ideas to make an impact
• Howard’s four tenets for high-quality writing: clarity, humor, interesting topics, and challenging your reader. 

Ultimately, you’ll learn how this billionaire investor shares his ideas in a way that engages and delights his audience, and how you can too. 

Listen Now: YouTube | Spotify | Apple

Thank you for reading Write of Passage Weekly. This week, write to discover something about yourself.

Happy writing,

The Write of Passage Team