200 Words A Day archive.

Stephen King's pencil

Stephen King often goes to writers conferences. There will be this question and that question and the next question and inevitably someone will ask, “Stephen King, you are one of the most successful, revered writers of your generation. What kind of pencil do you use?”

This is an example of focusing on the wrong thing. It doesn’t matter. It’s a way to hide. There is no correlation between how writers write and how good their work is. Forget about asking how writers do it and just write.

This is an interesting anecdote I heard on The Tim Ferriss Show in which he interviewed Seth Godin. If you don’t recognize both of these names, it’s time for you to get acquainted. The show was first released in 2016, but Tim re-posted it presumably to fill in for the holiday last week. If you don’t want to listen to the entire episode, at about minute 29 they start a discussion about Seth writing a daily blog. Seth names writing a daily blog one of the top five best business decisions that he’s ever made.

There is so much great content in this interview including business and marketing advice, a discussion of the difference between a freelancer and an entrepreneur, why Seth doesn’t use Twitter, and the benefits of writing every day. I hope that you listen, and I would like to hear your thoughts.