Day 25
Writing is a skill. In here I send notes of my writing from the 50 days of writing course by David Perell, to reflect, develop and build my writing style.
In the 25th email from the 50 days of writing course, David Perell talks about The Island and Bridges Strategy.
David explains how there are two ways to write an article i.e.
- Clear Thesis
- Foggy Intuition
He describes Clear Thesis as a form of writing where you know exactly what you are going to write about before starting to write.
Foggy Intuition is writing answers to questions that aren't even formed yet. This form of writing usually takes a lot of effort and since we don't know how to connect the ideas connect.
David recalls to the notion of externalizing ideas and increasing cognition and calls where to start with the externalizing concept. He introduces the idea of Islands and Bridges.
Islands are the main idea in the article and bridges are the connecting context to other ideas.
David states as -
You can write an unlimited number of islands. As you write your islands, reduce the interdependencies between them. That way, you can rearrange the order of the islands once you find a structure for your essays. If I want to create a physical structure, I’ll represent each island with a Post-It note and write about one island per day. To keep the sections modular, avoid referencing yourself with phrases like “earlier in this essay” or “in conclusion.” If you need them, add them later.
My thoughts:
The Idea of bringing a structure to the Foggy Intuition is actually an amazing idea. It helps to build better articles.
For example, I have written an article - Chase Your Comforts and I was inspired to write about it and the whole article was well written in my mind before starting. In the same time, I have written Read This Before Starting A Blog which I have been meaning to write but couldn't get the words out. So, I just put up three Ideas that I want to write i.e.
- Why You need a blog?
- How to Start a Blog?
- How to grow an audience?
These were the main Ideas that let me write the article and hit publish.
So, I was using the Island and Bridges strategy but didn't know that it was the same thing. Now that I look the article, after learning so much from the notes I have been taking form 50 days of Writing course. I actually feel I am a lot better.
In conclusion, If you feel like you are not getting where to start - The best way is to write 2-5 Ideas that will anchor the article while the bridges bring in the insights and narrative telling form one idea to another.
Thank you for reading.
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