87 Comments

Consider this comment a pre-order!

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Thank you Christin! But also, ah! A single a pre-order pledge makes it suddenly real (...scrambles to finish chapter 1...). I know I said I'd write 27 of these in 2024, but I'm also secretly hoping I can somehow knock this out in December. It's the everyone's-winding-down-so-time-to-set-unrealistic-goals month, right?

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I relate so hard it hurts ;)

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What an intro! I’m so excited for this. And great job telling the story of Professor Tootzi. I could see him at his drafting table and could hear his insults.

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Thanks Garrett! I rushed this one out and had to neglect the proper feedback/thanks section, but I'll thank you here for helping me tweak the structure and iron out the sub-headers. Also, you helped me internalize some very obvious points on stakes. Sometimes you don't really get a lesson until it's presented to you through your own ideas.

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Loved this essay! Although my favorite part might have been the symbols you chose for the chart. Such clever little drawings for each concept.

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Yes! Thank you Libby, I'm glad somebody noticed and appreciated the icons. As soon as I started, I realized, uh, this might take a while. There's a temptation to use software to make these quicker and sharper, but there's something fun around drawing & thinking through this by hand, even if it's messier.

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I loved this, man. Bursting with energy. I enjoy being reminded of everything I half-learned about writing and want to re-examine.

Writing is one of the only things that makes me delight in the endless sisyphusian push for more better more.

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What is the opposite of a sisyphusian push? That's what high school English was to me (the bare minimum to get by). I even got a call home in 9th grade for being so notably uninspired in my essays. Funny to think about the shift from extreme apathy to blind obsession.

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I'd simply call it a practice. Writing and weightlifting are things about this way - they are a part of life, I'll do them until I can't anymore.

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I hope you’re not teasing because this textbook sounds like a dream come true.

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Great ideas. I agree with your perspective on the constraints of traditional writing tenets. This was thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking, well done!

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Thanks James. Awesome to hear. At some point, I'd like to deeply explore how good constraints are both expansive and bendable.

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I think about the power of constraints often. I experiment with them to push myself in different areas.

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Loved this Michael. You may find value in checking out StoryGrid, which takes an analytical approach understanding the architecture of good fiction. You seem to want to do something similar for essays, which would be great. I’m excited to see where this goes.

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Whoa, I never heard of this. Thanks for the note Jeff. Definitely seems like a modern textbook with a lot of parallels. Will need some time to absorb the ideas and methods here.

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"I’m inspired by Christopher Alexander’s “A Pattern Language,” where his 253 rules for architecture are broken up into 25 categories. It’s not just one-off tricks. The rules are organized into a comprehensive system for thinking."

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Love how you’re juxtaposing seemingly unlike things to create a unique take. I’m trying to do that with my new publication around journalism, story, and faith. Architecture and essay is brilliant. Also love Story Grid., and A Pattern Language was my inspiration ages ago when we built our house. Your book… yes please. :)

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Love this. Would you be okay with me crossposting it to my publication The Author Stack in January? I think to 20k+ readers we have would love it.

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Thanks Russell. Definitely, feel free to share it however you'd like. I haven't done much crossposting yet, so I'm curious to see how you set it up. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Just subscribed too; looking forward to reading your work.

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Lovely. I have it scheduled to run toward the end of next month :)

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I wonder if Professor Tootsi could ever imagine the domino represented by this post when he tapped that first domino all those years ago, setting off a long chain reaction that concatenated across the years and has produced the thinking you describe in your post? Would he be baffled and quietly set down his knife as he contemplated where this domino has come to rest, in the completely different domain you've grown to love, and which now fascinates you?

I look forward to the unfolding of your map, which I'm sure--along with so much else--encompasses the essays of Montaigne and Orwell, along with many gems I've never read--and demonstrates their deep patterns.

Good luck on this intrepid and exhilarating journey Michael! It feels like a special type of journey, perhaps more like an expedition to climb, not a mountain, but a mountain range!

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Prof T didn't write much (at least, not that I know of), but I do have some essays of his as PDFs deep in some file structure on one of my hard drives. I wonder how it would strike me now that I've moved out of architecture and into writing. I remember once trying to have a conversation with him about the similar patterns between music and architecture. It's a fuzzy memory, and can't remember if he was curious or dismissive about it.

A mountain range is the right metaphor. There is so much from the past, and 3 hours of new essays in my inbox every day. Impossible to read everything, but I'll need to find that right balance of turning the analytical lens on and off.

Any classic essays you recommend?

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Three of Orwell’s are excellent, although you probably know them: “Shooting an Elephant”, “A Hanging” and “Politics and the English Language”. Montaigne’s essays are interesting because they’re practically stream of consciousness, the first examples in

western literature that culminate with James Joyce and Virginia Woolf; rather than displaying the kind of architecture you focus on, they seem to be examples of the characteristic pathologies of the western mind, uncoupled from meditation and mindfulness practices.

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I only know 1 of those 3 Orwell essays. Will have to check out the others.

I got a book of Montaigne essays, and I can barely make sense of them. Maybe I need a guide? At the least, I'll need to spend more time with them... Joyce is fun out loud, but I also have trouble parsing. Virginia Woolf, to me, finds the right balance, finding coherence in stream of consciousness (she goes on tangents, but finds a way to re-orient you).

I'll have to properly dive into a stream-like essay to check for patterns. I definitely don't want to imply that there's a rigid template or ideal form that all essays should cohere to. Patterns are far more granular than templates, and I think in their best case, they let you approach stream of consciousness style writing while still being legible.

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This is the kind of writing content Substack needs. Not “how to get 1000 subscribers in a week”, but how to write better.

I love your framework and explanations of extremely abstract concepts. Very well done, can’t wait to read more.

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PS: keep the handmade drawings, it is so refreshing to see organic forms in a digitized world.

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yes! please write the book 😎combining visual concepts with text is so needed. I am a burgeoning writer and I have lots of ideas, but organizing them is rough going.

Taking the concepts of writing and putting them into visual patterns, would be so helpful to me. Sometimes writers just write too much, It’s hard to be concise and get a complex idea across with a minimum number of words and style and rhythm.

Showing us how a story or an essay can use these patterns as archetypal-architectural forms really clicks for me.

You have a very unique and insightful perspective, thank you!

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I really enjoyed this. Got a little overwhelming as it went on, but I agree that a lot of what is out there is lumped together in a less useful way.

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Very possible that everything that needs to be said about writing has already been said, it just needs to be organized.

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...bring it captain...the world needs to order your order...

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disorderly order

orderly disorder

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...i'll order a side of disorder if only to reorder my order...

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