Don't kill your darlings, put them in the dead pool
And other advice for getting beyond "just sit down and start writing" // Plus, strange and fun finds from the World Wide Web
Here is some (book) writing pedantry for business book writing.
Of course, the way to write anything is to “just start writing.” For some people, this works. For most, the question is, “yes, but how ‘just start writing’?”
That is, how do you start with a blank screen/blank sheet of paper?
For me, I start typing into the screen like I was talking to someone, complete with things like “you know,” and “like,” and especially, “I mean…” Don’t write like you would write, write like you would talk. Perhaps getting started quickly like this is easy for me because I’ve listened to myself and others podcast for 20 years. Maybe it will work for you.
If you have a presentation already, that is likely a good structure. Go slide by slide and write out what you would say for each slide.
Setup a “dead pool” document for text you delete. Often, I end up with long passages of text that just don’t need to be in there. Or ideas I want to cut completely. They are useful though, so instead of deleting them, or thinking I’ll go find them in the version history one day, I put them in a dead pool document, saving them. This makes it psychologically easier to “kill your darling” because you’re more sending them on a vacation. You also know where all your darlings are in case you want to get one back…or use it for something new.
Have some way of quickly inputting text and ideas as they come to you. You can add notes in Apple Notes, even emailing yourself with a searchable keyword. I use Drafts. Ideas and even ways of writing things will occur to you at any moment, and you should capture them instead of letting them flit away. This also de-stressed you because you don’t worry about forgetting it. (Also, see walking below.)
Write the introduction and conclusion last. The first introduction I write is more to get me started writing, but it often changes (or is severely cut). In the conclusion, I don’t like to restate “what you have learned,” but instead introduce a new, slightly related idea. Or maybe a rallying cry or of “now go do all that stuff.”
Introductions and overviews are over-rated. As a reader, I don’t like to be told what I’m about to read and why it’s important. I would rather just start reading it. I know it’s important because I got the book and started reading it. (O’Reilly is really into you writing a section in chapter one giving the reader an overview of the book. As a reader, I always skip this.)
Decide if you’re going to write a flowing narrative or a collection of blog articles (or, now, newsletter editions). Usually, you start with the second and then polish it to the first. But, you can just skip the polishing part if you accept and make a deal with the reader that this is a collection of articles, not a “book.” (“This should have just been a blog post,” readers often say. “Yes, and, indeed, it was. But you’re only reading it now because it’s in a book.”)
If you haven’t written a lot before and discovered your process for writing, try out all the different writing methods and see which one works. You’ll know if you have a writing method. So if you don’t know what your writing style/process is, you don’t have one yet. The two most popular writing methods are: (1) just write everything without caring if it’s good and go back and fix it (“edit”) later, and, (2) write “perfect” paragraphs, even sentences, right from the start. And: do you work well with an outline first, or with chunks of writing? There are lots of processes, each work for some and not for others. Once you discover what works for you, do that. Tone and voice are a consideration too. For examples, do you address the reader and talk about yourself, or do you take on a third person voice that never involves typing the words “I” or “you.” Start by asking “what do I like to read?” and do that until you find out you don’t like writing that way.
When you ask someone to review your stuff, give them very specific direction about what you want. Do you want them to give you an overall review, like just three to four paragraphs in an email of what they think (I call this “macro”).1 Or, do you want them to go line by line and make suggestions and comments (I call this “micro” - it’s what I remember teachers doing in school). Do you want them to tell you stories and ideas that might fit into your text (“tell me anything I forgot or related stories you know”). In general, you probably just want macro comments.
This means that if you’re asked to review something, and the writer doesn’t tell you, ask them before you start giving feedback.
Walking is helpful. It worked for Plato! If you are stuck, go on a walk and bring your quick input device (your phone). Ideas will come, write them down. If you need to, stop walking, sit down, and keep writing. You could just record you talking about something (in the Apple Voice App, etc.) and get a transcript. You could of course have an AI help you move a transcript along. The act of just writing it down sticks the idea in my head. I think more and more about them as I walk, then stop and write something down again. I don’t look at all the things I write down like this, but it makes the idea stick in my head a lot better and unlocks “writers block.”
Also, if you’re stuck, go back and start editing. This is so boring that you might trick yourself into starting to write.
Some people work well with a schedule - force yourself to sit and write between 7am and 10am. These are always morning people, it seems. This doesn’t work for me so much, maybe it will work for you, or maybe not.2
For business books, unless you have your own style, use the Minto method (reverse pyramid).
Don’t be afraid to write a 50 page book. That is, only write what is needed, not to a page number target. The goal of a business book is to help someone as quickly and clearly as possible, not entertain them. If you can do both, go ahead, but, unlike a beloved TV show or The Kingkiller Chronicle, they won’t be upset when the book is over.
Once you have 1/3 of the book, start sharing it with people to get their input (see above). Just put a Google Doc on public access with suggestions and send it to people to look at. For me, this does two things: (1) I am impatient about getting published. Once I write something to my satisfaction, I want it published and read. The longer it takes to publish, the less motivated I get, and, (2) it gives you sort of mini-deadlines to write to. Also, for the types of people I want input from - busy people - it gives them longer to give input. And, if you’re in the kind of “sales facing” role I’m in, it gives you a “leave behind” as a treat.
These are (mostly) all things that have little to do with the actual writing/typing. I think that’s because the typing actually easy. We’re not writing poetry-as-fiction like a good novel. If know what you want to write about and have a burning desire to write it down, the difficult part is managing the production of writing and the mindset. It’s analogous to that saying in our businesses: technology is easy, people are hard. It’s “culture.” So, get your “culture” right, and it’ll be easy to write. That’s why people always say “just start writing,” because they have taken care of setting up the structure to make that possible.
Relative to your interests
Accelerating Enterprise Application Upgrades Through Legacy Dependency Migration: Spring Application Advisor 1.4 - Upgrading software is sort of a boring topic. But, when we talk about this with customers, they get more excited than talking about AI. I shit you not. Just upgrading your ancient Java versions (as in this product release) is a huge problem. And, if you want to do all that fancy new AI stuff, you need the newer versions of your framework and stack. Our recent survey gives off this vibe too: organizations that spend more time on “modernization” have more success with AI projects.
What one analyst is looking forward to at VMware Explore - And: “”Our research shows that organizations adopting VCF report a 61% improvement in workload deployment speed and 34% reduction in infrastructure costs, making it a cornerstone for private cloud modernization."
What is the most profitable thing you have done with ChatGPT? - A lot of it is making sense of confusing regulations and contracts. And plumbing. It gives “the little guy” more power in fields that are a mess of rules and lore, like law. // One angle here is: instead of freaking out about jobs AI will replace, also look at what new abilities it will give people (like not having to hire a lawyer, or battling health care insurance claim denials).
a word to my students - Copy and paste from AI only hurts the student. The rest of us should just worry about our own, ongoing shit-storms. // However, outside of education, when the point is to communicate and get shit done, I say go crazy with “chatbots.” They are probably better, more effective business writers than most.
Can Platform Engineering Accelerate AI Adoption? - Round-up of what platform engineering can do to manage AI stuff.
The Cost Reality Check: Eliminating Public Cloud Waste Through Strategic Planning - “49% of organizations estimate that over 25% of their public cloud spend is wasted. 31% believe the waste exceeds 50%. That’s a level of inefficiency that few leaders can tolerate.”
Using super - A CLI tool for wrangling JSON.
Why is choral music harder to appreciate? - Nailed it. In contrast the path from Southern gospel music to blues to rock is well known.
Nine regrets - Yes, and: I try really hard to not regret regretting. The paradox there also being the point of the statement.
Wastebook
“Everything is easier here.” UK man goes to Arlington.
Previously: “The beards here are so full and heavy they need topiarists to manage them not barbers.”
“Almost like a squirrel, I’m almost like chittering in my nervousness in even my best conditions. Sometimes I’m sitting there going, ‘I’m getting to do everything I want and I’m still not happy.’” RotL, 591, “Sandwich Commando.”
‘“Takedown”: A highly critical piece that I agree with. “Hit job”: A highly critical piece that I don’t agree with.’ Alan’s Dictionary.
“When they copy and paste and then head merrily out for tacos, will you stay in your room and grind?” Also from him.
Conferences
SpringOne, Las Vegas, August 25th to 28th. VMUG London, speaking, September 18th, speaking. SREDay London, speaking, September 18th and 19th. Civo Navigate London, September 30th, London, speaking. Cloud Foundry Day EU, Frankfurt, October 7th, 2025, speaking. AI for the Rest of Us, London, October 15th to 16th, London, speaking. SREDay Amsterdam, November 7th, speaking.
Logoff
See you next time!
I learned this distinction in E323M, so it’s not “what I say,” but “what I learned to say, I guess.
I actually do think this work for me, but since we have to get three kids to school between 7am and 8am, there is bomb in any hopes I have for of a traditional 6am to 10am writer’s schedule. You can move your schedule later, of course.