I wrote a really long comment that was full of praise and amazement at your ability to call out the follies of letting our writing become hydras. Alas, I expanded on someone's comment and then it just went kaputz. Perhaps the creative Gods knew I was deviating from the thesis of my comment and spared me the embarrassment.
What I found myself thinking was that this is not just the case for good writing - it's the case for good speaking as well (and really, good thinking).
From what I can understand, you're expressing the idea of "ideation" and how it comes through in the writing process, specifically via the thesis. I think this frame is important, because writing has a certain finality to it, and when you frame what you're doing by writing as "ideating" rather than putting down your final thoughts, you free yourself from (some of) the psychological baggage that comes with having ideas.
The section about Cognitive Load Theory reminded me of why I write in the first place-- it helps me organize my thoughts about a specific topic (like a movie I just saw), so I can recall my insights and feelings about the topic, and carry on a conversation about it.
And then the more I practice the habit of developing a thesis on a topic, the better I become at thinking in general
These were so good: "a fusion of genres: the soul of a memoirist, the pen of a poet, and the rigor of an academic." and "Good ideas never come alone; they always try to smuggle in their friends."
Also, the picture of "post-draft" made me lol.
I resonated with all of this until the last three questions to clarify your thesis. I didn't really understand the first two points, and as for the last point—what should the reader do?—why does the reader need to do anything at all? In my earlier writing, I was always trying to have a lesson or a takeaway for the reader but now that feels too preachy or forced. What if I just want to share my story and leave it at that?
Thanks for this feedback Charlie. I originally had a paragraph to explain each of the 3 points, but my chief editor (/wife) made me cut them (to save them for future posts). Hopefully these all become clear through February!
Re: the catalyst. I agree with you that the reader doesn't need to do anything specific. Not every essay needs to be a Call to Action, but a CTA might be the most explicit form of a catalyst. A catalyst can be in the subtext, meaning, even if you're just writing your own story, a reader will naturally think, "what does this mean for me and my life?" What reflections, feelings, or mindset shifts are invisibly laced into your words? Appreciate your pushback, and I'm definitely going to be sending you my draft on this one.
I think your chief editor knows what she's doing! There was plenty to chew on in this as is so we didn't need the explanation. I liked that they served as teasers.
I appreciate the nuance of the CTA and look forward to learning more about it!
This was ridiculously helpful and gave me lots to think about—when I got to the end of the essay, it felt like I had learned so much, not just from the content but from the form and language. I’m so excited for this series!
Your efforts to explain thesis both hideously amuse me and stir compassionate murmurings. I spent thirty years teaching writing at the community college level, and the best analogy I came up with was a magnet and iron filings. The magnet is the thesis; your paper is the paper; the iron filings are your multiplicity of evidences responding to and giving shape to the pattern of the magnetic field you have designed. I think the metaphor extends itself, so I won’t belabor it.
"a thesis is consequential" --> the aha moment for me is that I have thesis/theses and that no doubt I am disregarding/disembowling/disingenueing them as i continue to ignore and/or validate their role in the essay --> i purged 1K words from an essay last week and saved it and myself the trouble of having to hold on to dear dear words just for one extra fart joke --> growth is possible --> this essay is a helpful reminder that the task of writing is not done alongside the writing/editing/feedback -- you also need the 300 yard view, the microscope, and above all the study of the purpose and value of what you created (this is if you want your "art" to have value -- that said even if I am writing coca cola, an intentional play to make junk food is better than just guzzling it from a fountain in a south dakota shoneys)
Do any examples come to mind that you’d like to share?
---
Would it be safe to say that the central thesis of Garfield is "make 'em laugh" -- while the deeper seeded premise (maybe-thesis) is no man is alone (we have talking cats) -- and the deeper seeded maybe-maybe-thesis is see life through the eyes of others to find joy (we have talking cats you can read and see complain here). The Far Side as another comic example has many theses panel to panel, but the work as a whole seems to imply consider alternative realities next to whichever reality you currently submit to.
What do you disagree with and why?
---
I'll be argumentative and say that a thesis less existence holds value as well, but probably lacks the legs for audience growth (unless said nowhere man was really super special). As someone who often seeks to work with and for nothing I dream there is value there, but I might just be cosplaying god as a void instead of accepting the multifold manifold truth that everything is something and nothing is really nothing...
...also the never have mutiple thesis thesis is potentially hole pokey...as soon as you get to chapter two or the subchapters of this thesis more theses will reveal themselves...to that end maybe the idea is to have as many theses as you need, but avoid them intermingling in the same tome...bending back to the science of all this, probably worth knowing up front or at the end what exactly you are creating...is it just an essay or a piece of something larger?...if larger when do you need to determine how large?...
EXTRAS
---
...just want to give you A+ thanks and chops for taking a picture of vomit and turning it into a bright clarified shiny sunshine...in my puke i find truth...but i have to distill and wash it to do so...and the truth is i shouldn't have eaten or drank that much...
- There's a spectrum in essay forms from tight to loose, and I think the way a thesis works is different in each. Tight forms are philosophy/law, loose forms are jazz/comedy. A tight form has a parallel structure where 2b and 4b are thematically similar, but my favorite example of loose form is Mrs. Dalloway by V Woolf: it's a stream of consciousness novel, and she gets into absurd details on disparate topics like wars, mental illness, the Royal family, dating, etc... but every few pages, she brings us back to the same center "Clarissa is throwing a party tonight and needs to pick up flowers." It's almost funny how any given thought returns to the same place. There's thing permission to go in radical directions that don't seem related, but they all come back "home," and over-time, the different threads start to make sense as themes.
- Re: Garfield; maybe each episode has a distinct thesis, and then there are larger themes that run through each thesis. Feels like Garfield is its own universe with its own laws of physics that determine how each thesis is articulated.
- There's a value in being thesis-less. Maybe every essay needs a thesis, but not every piece of writing should be an essay. My log:essay ratio is like 300:1. I see essays as these slightly more formal expeditions where I try to integrate everything I know into one idea that I know matters, but the vast majority of what I publish (logs/typewriters), is loose, unedited, and often without a refined thesis. And even if your goal is to make awesome essays, there are so many sub-skills that comprise it; sometimes you need to do sketches/studies/drills to practice the other elements/patterns. I'll sometimes ignore thesis and logic in general to write non-sense that is hyper-focused on sound (rhyme, rhythm, repetition).
- I think it's possible to have nested theses, but it makes sense to start small and stack them up. ie: 3 essays with singular theses might share a theme, so then you can write another essay that integrates all 3 of those. In that new case; even if you have 3 ideas that were once separate, they're now shaped in a way to all points back to a new higher-order unifier.
"loose, unedited, and often without a refined thesis" = messays --> and as with any good mess it's strongest and most enjoyable/useful form is once it is cleaned up and in its proper place
Question about the 300-level paid posts. Are they already published or do they come out in subsequent weeks as well? Also, are you full up on coaching clients? Interested in learning more about that service. Thanks.
The 300-level posts (for paid subscribers) will come out in subsequent weeks. Next up is Microcosm (aiming for Friday). There are three "dimensions" in the book (Idea, Structure, Voice); I'm anticipating that Structure will come in May, and Voice in August.
Nice talking with you today Will, and excited to navigate around your Figma board.
For anyone else interested in 1:1 coaching, please let me know. The next few months are tight, but looking to work with writers in May and beyond to shape essays at the edge of our shared ability.
The one sentence at the top of a draft that you continually check back and update as the draft evolves is a really useful tip. I suspect many people (me included) do this implicitly by re-reading the draft at a different sitting, effectively loading a ton of things into working memory and leaving less for writing.
For me as a hobbyist writer (and a serious writer at work when it comes to communicating effectively), what I find hardest to grok is "how to care enough to write a really good essay." For me, most of the time, good enough is good enough. That means drafting a Slack message in 5 minutes and spending 3 minutes editing and hitting send sooner than later. That means drafting a blog post in 1 hour and spending 15 minutes editing and hitting publish sooner than later. I'm not motivated enough at this point to create a Bloody Good Essay; I'd rather create multiple Good Enough If You Understand My Main Point Essays.
But on to the topic of having a thesis - I can say with confidence that 8 years of blogging has helped me arrive at the same conclusion. That is, you have to provide the feeble human reader's mind with ONE and only one big idea in a single post/essay. Atomicity as you say. And linking out (hypertext, baby!) to your other essays when there is natural jumping off point is a great way to "include" the stuff surrounding (but outside) the atom.
All in all, I enjoyed reading this essay and it gave me some things to casually think about. I doubt I'm going to find motivation to level-up and become a serious practitioner of essays soon, though maybe I'm just missing an "a-ha, THIS is why I should go from good to great" moment. Something tells me you might supply that in an indirect way with your series, so I'll be paying attention!
Agree with you that most of the time, good enough is good enough. Not everything can or should be that Bloody Good Essay. There's a radical filter in play. I log around 10 ideas per day, and let's say 1 of those turns into a daily typewriter essay (single take), and then 1 of those typewriter essays turns into the BG essay. That's a 1 in 300 ratio.
I feel like it's healthy to exist in both hyper-publishing land and ultra-perfectionism land at the same time. They balance each other out, and allow them to co-exist. I almost always try to publish loose and messy versions of an idea first, and only once I realize something has timeless potential is it worth elevating it to the tier of multiple rounds of re-writes and thesis pruning.
Interesting point on when, why, and how to level up to the identity of an "essay practicioner." There's no right way to do it; could be weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Also depends on the balance between your fast and slow lanes, and how much bandwidth you have to write and edit. Could be worth approaching it from the angle, "which ideas have I had for many years that don't exist on paper as good as they exist in my head?" Since essays are hard, it helps to have a good filter for what warrants spending so much time on something.
"At the top of my draft, I keep a single-sentence thesis statement that I update as I write."
I like this idea, although I feel that personally it would distract me from exploring what the thesis could become, through the process of melting and refining it.
Instead, I review the thesis at the beginning of each new draft. It has been really helpful for me to write these two statements:
1. I am writing about ____ (the premise)
2. In this essay, I will argue that ____ (the thesis)
I wrote a really long comment that was full of praise and amazement at your ability to call out the follies of letting our writing become hydras. Alas, I expanded on someone's comment and then it just went kaputz. Perhaps the creative Gods knew I was deviating from the thesis of my comment and spared me the embarrassment.
So anyways, good job.
Damn! I suppose that is the secret workings of the Substack hydra.
What I found myself thinking was that this is not just the case for good writing - it's the case for good speaking as well (and really, good thinking).
From what I can understand, you're expressing the idea of "ideation" and how it comes through in the writing process, specifically via the thesis. I think this frame is important, because writing has a certain finality to it, and when you frame what you're doing by writing as "ideating" rather than putting down your final thoughts, you free yourself from (some of) the psychological baggage that comes with having ideas.
Agreed!
The section about Cognitive Load Theory reminded me of why I write in the first place-- it helps me organize my thoughts about a specific topic (like a movie I just saw), so I can recall my insights and feelings about the topic, and carry on a conversation about it.
And then the more I practice the habit of developing a thesis on a topic, the better I become at thinking in general
These were so good: "a fusion of genres: the soul of a memoirist, the pen of a poet, and the rigor of an academic." and "Good ideas never come alone; they always try to smuggle in their friends."
Also, the picture of "post-draft" made me lol.
I resonated with all of this until the last three questions to clarify your thesis. I didn't really understand the first two points, and as for the last point—what should the reader do?—why does the reader need to do anything at all? In my earlier writing, I was always trying to have a lesson or a takeaway for the reader but now that feels too preachy or forced. What if I just want to share my story and leave it at that?
Thanks for this feedback Charlie. I originally had a paragraph to explain each of the 3 points, but my chief editor (/wife) made me cut them (to save them for future posts). Hopefully these all become clear through February!
Re: the catalyst. I agree with you that the reader doesn't need to do anything specific. Not every essay needs to be a Call to Action, but a CTA might be the most explicit form of a catalyst. A catalyst can be in the subtext, meaning, even if you're just writing your own story, a reader will naturally think, "what does this mean for me and my life?" What reflections, feelings, or mindset shifts are invisibly laced into your words? Appreciate your pushback, and I'm definitely going to be sending you my draft on this one.
I think your chief editor knows what she's doing! There was plenty to chew on in this as is so we didn't need the explanation. I liked that they served as teasers.
I appreciate the nuance of the CTA and look forward to learning more about it!
I’m here for this. Paid and looking forward to the series. The drawings felt endearingly looney. Thank you.
Thanks Andrew! Feels good to be doodling with a purpose.
This was ridiculously helpful and gave me lots to think about—when I got to the end of the essay, it felt like I had learned so much, not just from the content but from the form and language. I’m so excited for this series!
Your efforts to explain thesis both hideously amuse me and stir compassionate murmurings. I spent thirty years teaching writing at the community college level, and the best analogy I came up with was a magnet and iron filings. The magnet is the thesis; your paper is the paper; the iron filings are your multiplicity of evidences responding to and giving shape to the pattern of the magnetic field you have designed. I think the metaphor extends itself, so I won’t belabor it.
Wow - this is an incredibly stimulating piece. Well done and great illustrations.
Thanks Austin! Another overview piece like this is coming out this week. It's on Material (the stories/ideas that support a thesis).
Excellent essay Michael—deep, rich thoughts which you express fluidly and gracefully—very helpful and thought-provoking. Thank you!
Which points resonated with you and why?
---
"a thesis is consequential" --> the aha moment for me is that I have thesis/theses and that no doubt I am disregarding/disembowling/disingenueing them as i continue to ignore and/or validate their role in the essay --> i purged 1K words from an essay last week and saved it and myself the trouble of having to hold on to dear dear words just for one extra fart joke --> growth is possible --> this essay is a helpful reminder that the task of writing is not done alongside the writing/editing/feedback -- you also need the 300 yard view, the microscope, and above all the study of the purpose and value of what you created (this is if you want your "art" to have value -- that said even if I am writing coca cola, an intentional play to make junk food is better than just guzzling it from a fountain in a south dakota shoneys)
Do any examples come to mind that you’d like to share?
---
Would it be safe to say that the central thesis of Garfield is "make 'em laugh" -- while the deeper seeded premise (maybe-thesis) is no man is alone (we have talking cats) -- and the deeper seeded maybe-maybe-thesis is see life through the eyes of others to find joy (we have talking cats you can read and see complain here). The Far Side as another comic example has many theses panel to panel, but the work as a whole seems to imply consider alternative realities next to whichever reality you currently submit to.
What do you disagree with and why?
---
I'll be argumentative and say that a thesis less existence holds value as well, but probably lacks the legs for audience growth (unless said nowhere man was really super special). As someone who often seeks to work with and for nothing I dream there is value there, but I might just be cosplaying god as a void instead of accepting the multifold manifold truth that everything is something and nothing is really nothing...
...also the never have mutiple thesis thesis is potentially hole pokey...as soon as you get to chapter two or the subchapters of this thesis more theses will reveal themselves...to that end maybe the idea is to have as many theses as you need, but avoid them intermingling in the same tome...bending back to the science of all this, probably worth knowing up front or at the end what exactly you are creating...is it just an essay or a piece of something larger?...if larger when do you need to determine how large?...
EXTRAS
---
...just want to give you A+ thanks and chops for taking a picture of vomit and turning it into a bright clarified shiny sunshine...in my puke i find truth...but i have to distill and wash it to do so...and the truth is i shouldn't have eaten or drank that much...
- There's a spectrum in essay forms from tight to loose, and I think the way a thesis works is different in each. Tight forms are philosophy/law, loose forms are jazz/comedy. A tight form has a parallel structure where 2b and 4b are thematically similar, but my favorite example of loose form is Mrs. Dalloway by V Woolf: it's a stream of consciousness novel, and she gets into absurd details on disparate topics like wars, mental illness, the Royal family, dating, etc... but every few pages, she brings us back to the same center "Clarissa is throwing a party tonight and needs to pick up flowers." It's almost funny how any given thought returns to the same place. There's thing permission to go in radical directions that don't seem related, but they all come back "home," and over-time, the different threads start to make sense as themes.
- Re: Garfield; maybe each episode has a distinct thesis, and then there are larger themes that run through each thesis. Feels like Garfield is its own universe with its own laws of physics that determine how each thesis is articulated.
- There's a value in being thesis-less. Maybe every essay needs a thesis, but not every piece of writing should be an essay. My log:essay ratio is like 300:1. I see essays as these slightly more formal expeditions where I try to integrate everything I know into one idea that I know matters, but the vast majority of what I publish (logs/typewriters), is loose, unedited, and often without a refined thesis. And even if your goal is to make awesome essays, there are so many sub-skills that comprise it; sometimes you need to do sketches/studies/drills to practice the other elements/patterns. I'll sometimes ignore thesis and logic in general to write non-sense that is hyper-focused on sound (rhyme, rhythm, repetition).
- I think it's possible to have nested theses, but it makes sense to start small and stack them up. ie: 3 essays with singular theses might share a theme, so then you can write another essay that integrates all 3 of those. In that new case; even if you have 3 ideas that were once separate, they're now shaped in a way to all points back to a new higher-order unifier.
"loose, unedited, and often without a refined thesis" = messays --> and as with any good mess it's strongest and most enjoyable/useful form is once it is cleaned up and in its proper place
Question about the 300-level paid posts. Are they already published or do they come out in subsequent weeks as well? Also, are you full up on coaching clients? Interested in learning more about that service. Thanks.
The 300-level posts (for paid subscribers) will come out in subsequent weeks. Next up is Microcosm (aiming for Friday). There are three "dimensions" in the book (Idea, Structure, Voice); I'm anticipating that Structure will come in May, and Voice in August.
Nice talking with you today Will, and excited to navigate around your Figma board.
For anyone else interested in 1:1 coaching, please let me know. The next few months are tight, but looking to work with writers in May and beyond to shape essays at the edge of our shared ability.
The one sentence at the top of a draft that you continually check back and update as the draft evolves is a really useful tip. I suspect many people (me included) do this implicitly by re-reading the draft at a different sitting, effectively loading a ton of things into working memory and leaving less for writing.
For me as a hobbyist writer (and a serious writer at work when it comes to communicating effectively), what I find hardest to grok is "how to care enough to write a really good essay." For me, most of the time, good enough is good enough. That means drafting a Slack message in 5 minutes and spending 3 minutes editing and hitting send sooner than later. That means drafting a blog post in 1 hour and spending 15 minutes editing and hitting publish sooner than later. I'm not motivated enough at this point to create a Bloody Good Essay; I'd rather create multiple Good Enough If You Understand My Main Point Essays.
But on to the topic of having a thesis - I can say with confidence that 8 years of blogging has helped me arrive at the same conclusion. That is, you have to provide the feeble human reader's mind with ONE and only one big idea in a single post/essay. Atomicity as you say. And linking out (hypertext, baby!) to your other essays when there is natural jumping off point is a great way to "include" the stuff surrounding (but outside) the atom.
All in all, I enjoyed reading this essay and it gave me some things to casually think about. I doubt I'm going to find motivation to level-up and become a serious practitioner of essays soon, though maybe I'm just missing an "a-ha, THIS is why I should go from good to great" moment. Something tells me you might supply that in an indirect way with your series, so I'll be paying attention!
Agree with you that most of the time, good enough is good enough. Not everything can or should be that Bloody Good Essay. There's a radical filter in play. I log around 10 ideas per day, and let's say 1 of those turns into a daily typewriter essay (single take), and then 1 of those typewriter essays turns into the BG essay. That's a 1 in 300 ratio.
I feel like it's healthy to exist in both hyper-publishing land and ultra-perfectionism land at the same time. They balance each other out, and allow them to co-exist. I almost always try to publish loose and messy versions of an idea first, and only once I realize something has timeless potential is it worth elevating it to the tier of multiple rounds of re-writes and thesis pruning.
Interesting point on when, why, and how to level up to the identity of an "essay practicioner." There's no right way to do it; could be weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Also depends on the balance between your fast and slow lanes, and how much bandwidth you have to write and edit. Could be worth approaching it from the angle, "which ideas have I had for many years that don't exist on paper as good as they exist in my head?" Since essays are hard, it helps to have a good filter for what warrants spending so much time on something.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Nick!
Best piece of writing advice, ever!
"At the top of my draft, I keep a single-sentence thesis statement that I update as I write."
I like this idea, although I feel that personally it would distract me from exploring what the thesis could become, through the process of melting and refining it.
Instead, I review the thesis at the beginning of each new draft. It has been really helpful for me to write these two statements:
1. I am writing about ____ (the premise)
2. In this essay, I will argue that ____ (the thesis)