I've been sometimes asked about tools that I use for writing, so here's a toolkit I've found useful so far. ### Books - [Steven Pinker - The Sense of Style](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20821371-the-sense-of-style) - complementary book [William Zinsser - On Writing Well](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53343.On_Writing_Well) - Sonke Ahrens - [How to Take Smart Notes](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34507927-how-to-take-smart-notes) - Some that I haven't read but were recommended to me: - William Strunk Jr. - The Elements of Style - Write the perfect book proposal - Herman & Adams ### Talks - [Larry McEnerney - Writing Beyond the Academy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFwVf5a3pZM&t=552s) ### Overcoming writer's block - Ed Sheeran - [song writing advice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbU8MSpqTac ) - Julia Evans - [Myths about blogging](https://jvns.ca/blog/2020/12/10/day-24--a-short-talk-about-blogging-myths/) - Venkatesh Rao - [The Calculus of Grit](https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/08/19/the-calculus-of-grit/) - rs.io - [How To Get Started With Anything](https://rs.io/how-to-get-started-with-anything/) ### Apps - [Grammarly](https://www.grammarly.com/) for spell-checking - [PowerThesaurus](https://www.powerthesaurus.org/) - [Hemingway App](https://hemingwayapp.com/) to simplify (I don't use much, since I like the more verbose and uncertain writing style of [Carl Rogers](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/174879.On_Becoming_a_Person)) ## the process of writing - https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/how-i-write-essays - https://ntietz.com/blog/my-writing-process-and-how-i-keep-it-sustainable/ ## Some other resources These have been slightly less impactful that the ones above, but still interesting to read/use - [The Dilbert Blog: The Day You Became A Better Writer](https://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/06/the_day_you_bec.html) - [Writing maketh the 10x Developer. More so the 10x development team.](https://www.evalapply.org/posts/writing-maketh-the-10x-developer/index.html) - Jordan Peterson, [Essay Writing Guide](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40031855-essay-writing-guide). - Dan Luu, [Some Thoughts on Writing](https://danluu.com/writing-non-advice/) - [On Writing | The Mihir Chronicles](https://themihirchronicles.com/notes/on-writing) - Paul Graham, [How To Write Usefully](http://www.paulgraham.com/useful.html), [Writing, Briefly](http://www.paulgraham.com/writing44.html - post about [the importance of writing in military](https://fromthegreennotebook.com/2020/10/03/why-leaders-need-to-learn-the-skill-of-writing/) - double-checking quotes [Quote Investigator](https://quoteinvestigator.com/) - Julia Evans - [Blogging principles I use](https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/03/20/blogging-principles/) - The book Metaphors to Live By - [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Checklists · rs.io](https://rs.io/unreasonable-effectiveness-of-checklists/) ## For the record, books about writing that I stumbled upon but haven't read - Stephen King - On Writing - The Economist Style Guide - Strunk and White - Virginia Tuft - Artful Sentences - Joe Moran - First Write a Sentence - George Orwelll - Six Elementary rules - Jay Sullivan - Simply Said