All posts tagged writing

Launching always takes longer than you think (Guide to YC)

by Jason on March 15, 2012 in General with 5 Comments

One lesson I’ve learned is that launching always takes longer than you think. If I got paid every time I heard a founder say their product was “two to three weeks away from launch” I could start angel investing.

Case in point: it’s been over a month since I said I was almost done with my cool YC-related project.

Well, better late than never is my motto. Last week I put up what I called the Unofficial Guidebook for Y Combinator Applicants at http://guidetoyc.com. In it, I shared everything I’ve learned from applying to Y Combinator, getting in, going through the program, understanding more about how the YC partners think and connecting with other founders.

I had friends who were applying to Y Combinator and asked for my advice so I would review their application. But I felt like most of my best advice was about how think about applying rather than specific feedback on their application. I wrote up a Google Doc on my thoughts on each section (team, idea, distribution, video, etc) and over the past few months have fleshed it out to what it is now – a 20,000 word guide on every aspect of the YC application process.

I put it up on Hacker News and in 24 hours got 6,500+ unique visitors spending over three-and-a-half minutes per visit. It was really great to know that people were digging my stuff.

After that, I worked closely with the awesome team at Hyperink, (a YC company that’s transforming publishing) and we were able to put together a beautifully laid out and carefully edited 92 page document that’s available as a free PDF download and also in mobi and epub versions in just 10 days.

It took longer than I expected – because I went through and re-edited several sections to make it as clear and readable as possible. I also integrated feedback from various YC partners who commented on the content. The Hyperink team did an amazing job turning things around quickly and professionally.

The result is something I’m proud to share with you.

Get your free copy of Guide to YC here.

I hope you enjoy the guide and I’d love to hear any feedback you have on the book. Please rest assured: regular blog posting will resume shortly.

Photo credit by Nils Öhman

I am writing a book called Winning Isn't Normal. Check it out.

Four Techniques for Conquering NaNoWriMo

by Jason on November 22, 2011 in Correspondence with No comments

There’s only a week left in November so it’s a little late for doing a NaNoWriMo post but I figure better late than never…

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the awesomeness that is National Novel Writing Month, it’s exactly what it sounds like – people from across the US (and now abroad) get together and collectively write a novel. It’s a great experience and I highly recommend it. (So does Lifehacker!)

For those of you going through it now, here’s an email I wrote to a family friend (middle school student) looking for advice on her first NaNoWriMo. Might be just what you need to get across the finish line. Keep writing!

Hey Family-Friend’s-Name,

Thanks for reaching out! It’s great to hear that you are doing Nanowrimo. I tried and failed to do it in 2006 (got to 35,000 words) and tried again in 2009 and was able to do it successfully.

The hardest part for me wasn’t finding the time to write, it was coming up with enough words to actually get to 50,000.

1) Give your story a lot of twists and turns.

I’m not someone who likes to do a lot of description. I’m a dialog and action kind of writer so I really needed a lot of side plots to the keep things going.

A piece of advice I often hear about fiction writing is to make sure your main character is always has a goal in mind and keep throwing obstacles at him/her that they have to overcome. Don’t make it easy for your character to get what they want!

2) Write what you know

My first novel was a modern sci-fi thriller which I found interesting but there was too much I didn’t know to write a good book. For example – if you are a regular person, what’s a reasonably realistic way for you to get a bunch of weapons on the black market? I’ve never done this and would have to spend a lot of time researching it on the internet. I had a lot of questions like this in my first novel and this slowed me down. You gotta keep pumping out words!

My successful novel was a fantasy novel. This worked a lot better because I read a lot of fantasy growing up and you really do get to just make things up as you go a long since it’s your book and your world, things can work however you want (with regards to magic, dragons, trolls, etc)

If you read a lot of a certain type of book, it’ll be easier to write a book in that style. Also it’d probably be a bit easier to have a main character close to your age or younger, than to write about someone who is 50 or 60, since it’s harder to understand what kind of stuff they deal with / think about.

3) Go off on tangents.

This is similar to lesson number one, but more specific. I think I had a couple sections of the book that were totally random. Sometimes I got really into describing something – like the history of an ancient tribe of elves. Almost like a story within a story.

But you can get even more random. I think in one part of my novel some random character starts talking and all of a sudden its a list of stuff I have to for work or a journal entry about how I’m feeling about living in San Francisco. Totally random, doesn’t make any sense.

But again, it’s your book and you’re allowed to do that if you want.

4) Write consistently.

Its 1667 words a day. That’s a good amount, but not crazy. I wrote basically on my train to work, my lunch break and my train home, plus spent time at night and on weekends writing. You will have to spend a lot of time writing, ideally with a keyboard instead of by hand, to get this book done. It’s a lot easier of you just do 1667 a day and not have to play catchup. That’s really demoralizing. So write everyday!

I hope this wasn’t too long and was helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Jason

I am writing a book called Winning Isn't Normal. Check it out.

9 Lessons From a Full Year of “Real” Blogging

by Jason on September 6, 2011 in Essays with 1 Comment

It’s good to celebrate milestones so here’s one: I passed one full year of “real” blogging in August. (I realize it’s now September but better late than not at all!)

My first post was called “Things I’ve Learned in 3 Weeks at a Startup“. I had just started at isocket and I can still remember how excited I was to soak up all this new knowledge about marketing, board meetings, customer support and user testing.

Blogging was a great way for me to share what I was learning, retain the knowledge and build up a brand/network in the startup community. One year later it’s amazing to see where the blog has taken me. It’s made me smarter, happier and more lucky.

I promise that this blog is NOT going to become a blog about blogging – that would be both annoyingly meta and really uninteresting. But still – a man must discuss his craft from time to time and this is the place to do it. I’ve tried to take my own advice (particularly #4, #6 and #9) here as well. So anyway – here are 9 lessons I’ve learned from the past year of blogging:

1] Consistency matters

From August 2010 through July 2011 I put down over 140 posts, which is one every 2.6 days. My worst month was October 2010 (6 posts) and I was most prolific in April 2011 (17 posts). I believe a big part of my blog’s success has just been posting on a regular basis – it’s not easy but it’s worth it.

2] Be flexible about what counts as a post

If someone told me a year ago that I’d need to publish a blog post every few days for a year, I’d be pretty intimidated. “Where the hell am I going to find the time / material to put out so much content?” is what I’d be thinking. But not every blog post has to be a huge 21-item list or an epic, 3-part personal journey. I’ve posted dozens of quotes and videos – and a handful of podcasts, link roundups and interviews as well. Being flexible about your posts will help you keep your rhythm going.

3] Keep multiple posts brewing

There are at least 4 blog post drafts in my WordPress admin. Sometimes you’re in inspiration mode and sometimes you’re in editing/publishing mode. If you have a great idea for a blog, pull up Evernote or Notepad/Textedit and get the core concepts down. If your momentum holds, finish the post. If not, you can save it for later, when you aren’t feeling so inspired, but you can take a nugget of an idea and polish it off.

4] Don’t judge your posts too harshly before posting

Everyone’s got an inner editor/critic. I like to beat mine senseless whenever it tries to make me uncertain about posting. My number 1, number 3 and number 7 posts of all-time (based on pageviews) were posts that I wrote off-the cuff and wasn’t sure if they’d resonate with readers. Apparently they did – and it would have been a shame if I canned them because I judged them too harshly. Like Sebastian Marshall says: you get judged by your best work, not your bad work. So post freely – there’s little downside (as long as you’re writing something obscene or offensive) and big upside.

5] Be easy to get in touch with and responsive

This blog is my home base online. Jason Shen HQ. All of my online accounts point to this site and I’ve made it easy to get a hold of me. I post my personal gmail account on my sidebar and on my about page – none of that contact form nonsense. I think I’ve gotten unwanted email less than a dozen times in the past year. I have, however, gotten lots of very interesting email from readers that has turned into friendships, coaching clients, new roommates, advice/mentorship, job offers and more. I respond to every reader email I get (so far) and I’ve found this approach to be quite valuable.

6] It’s all about your readers

At the end of the day, you get value by providing it. I always try to make my posts actionable and filled with useful information/advice. There are other ways to provide value (humor, shock value, etc) but however you do it, make sure your blog serves your readers.

7] Finding your voice takes time

I’d like to think that blog has developed a strong, original and authentic writing style over time. You can really hear it in certain posts, like Winning Isn’t Normal or Loud. Arrogant. Rebellious. Asian and my post on gymnastics lessons learned on fear. My voice isn’t something I “worked on” but it is something that just happened as I wrote more.

8] Ditto for your audience

“Know your audience” is the advice given to every blogger out there. For a long time I struggled with this – who was I writing for? This requires both work and time on your part. Because I talk to my readers and respond to all my comments I’ve gotten a feel for the kinds of people who check this site out. They’re 18-35 year olds, skewed male, who are interested in pushing themselves personally and professionally. And over time, I’ve been able to tailor my writing to them. Which reminds me – I should probably take this time to do a survey or something just to refine my understanding even further.

9] It’s ok to get personal

This blog isn’t just about startups, personal challenges, psychology and winning. It’s a reflection of who I am. It’s not a complete picture of me: I don’t discuss my relationship with my family, or my weirdly vivid dreams or my favorite iPad games. (Though on second thought, those topics could all potentially make good blog posts if done right). The point here is that it’s ok for you to get a little personal on your blog. Trust your instincts. I ask email subscribers what they want me to write about, and I’ve been surprised by the number of responses that are just “I don’t want to give you suggestions – just write about stuff you’re doing, and stuff you’re interested in.”

I am writing a book called Winning Isn't Normal. Check it out.

How Long It Takes Me to Write a Blog Post

by Jason on May 23, 2011 in General with 9 Comments

So one thing I had sort of meant to do is write about how my experience has been blogging 5 days a week (as I outlined in my post “Writing More”). I plan on doing a full recap after the four weeks eventually but here’s something interesting: a minute-by-minute break down of how I write my blog posts.

I tracked exactly what I was doing in 5 minute increments for two posts and here are results. I was honestly surprised at how long it took me to write each post – but that’s the power of actually measuring what you do, right?

First breakdown:

Step Up and Deliver: What Gymnastics Taught Me About Performing Under Pressure

This was definitely going to be a substantial post, though I didn’t realize how big it would be at the time. It’s funny how taxing an exercise writing can be. You’re not just hitting keys on a keyboard – it’s like doing pushups with your mind. You get tired and need to recharge. The dashed lines delineate different writing “sessions” – sometimes it was the same day sometimes it was a different days.

10 mins – getting bullet points for post in shower
10 mins – rapidly putting down an intro in wordpress
10 mins – listing bullet points in wordpress
20 mins – watching youtube videos of jordan, paul hamm, li xiao peng, jonathon horton looking for clutch performances,
10 mins cleaning intro, organizing bullet points, embedding video
10 mins distraction watching unrelated videos
20 mins – fleshing out the first half of the bullet points
—-
10 mins – fleshing out half of the first bullet point
10 mins – more distractions
20 mins – more fleshing out
—
10 mins – re-reading, editing, adding picture
20 mins of editing
10 mins – final touches

Total time: 170 mins (2 hrs 50 mins)

Second breakdown:

How Blogging Can Increase Your Luck Surface Area

This post originated as a response to a question posed on an email list – so it has a different profile, which is why I thought it would be a good one to look at. I dashed off the original email quickly and then thought it would make a good post – but of course it would require a bit of touching up. It turned out that I would spend 7x the amount of time it took to write the original email to finish a post.

—
15 mins – writing email response to question from the list
—
10 mins – added two 2 paragraphs
–
5 mins – reread, kill intro
20 mins – write new intro / 1st half
10 mins – reading posts from Lingbo, who I quote
15 mins – writing more
10 mins – getting a picture, formatting it, getting photo credits
10 mins – adding in links to certain sections, formatting changes for quoted sections
25 mins – edits, clarifications, making it tighter, adding more links, scheduling post

Total time: 120 mins (2 hrs)

I am writing a book called Winning Isn't Normal. Check it out.

The Power (and Danger) of Quotations

by Jason on December 11, 2010 in Essays with No comments

I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.

Marlene Dietrich

I really enjoy collection quotations and feature quotes heavily on my site. [1] Dietrich makes a great point here – good quotations are linguistic delights that you wish you had written/spoken. In addition, I believe that short, declarative statements often a stronger impact/impression on a reader than a long drawn out passage.

In this essay, I seek to draw out some of the salient issues addressing the power and danger of using quotations to express ideas and then share some advice on how how to best quote and be quoted.

The Power of Quotes

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week. — General George S. Patton

Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission. — Neil Kendall [2]

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. — Ben Franklin

These are some of my favorite quotes – you’ll notice they all deliver a strong message with a clear point of view. These words compel the reader to respond in some fashion – you cannot read them and thing “eh”. Reading quotes like these motivate me to get after it. This is the power of of a great quotation.

The power is not just in the words though, but in their author. Patton had to make decisions that would affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and determine the fate of nations – his claims about plan vs execution carry great weight. Ben Franklin’s quote is great because not only was he himself was a multi-talented individual who both WROTE and DID.

In this blog I hope to write things that are someday quoted and do things that are someday written about. But as anyone who’s ever appeared in a newspaper, quotations can be dangerous things.

The Danger of Quotes

They can be dangerous because they can be taken out of context. They can, in the hands of the careless, misrepresent the author, and in the hands of unscrupulous, defame or discredit them. Without the groundwork that the author laid prior to the specific passage being quoted, or the environment in which the statement was released, we lose valuable information about exactly what the author was trying to say.

I quoted Sebastian Marshall in a widely-linked post he wrote on bullying where he told his unborn son that people teasing him was fine, but that

As soon as someone puts their hands on you, they’ve crossed a line. Fuck them up. It’s the only thing these vicious freaks understand.

He commented later that it was odd to see himself being quoted and that while agrees with what was being said, it represented him at his “top 1% assertiveness”. I liked the sentiment. It was strongly worded no doubt – and might be considered a bit of an extreme response to some light physical harassment. But the post was written as a response to the Memoirs of a Bullied Kid, where the author, after being mercilessly bullied for years, still advocated a very warm, loving approach to bullying. In this context, the quote was spot on. [3]

Now Sebastian is returning the favor and quoting me in an email I sent him where I said:

Liked the post on being quoted – and you’d better get used to it – it’s going to keep happening to you. There are three ways that any work is interpreted – the way the artist intended, the way it is received by his/her audience, and the way history reflects upon it’s impact. You only have control over the first.

This idea is not an original. [4] Seth Godin just wrote a post on being misunderstood. His solution – prepare for it and repeat yourself. The point is – quotes and creative work in general affect different people in different ways – and especially when used out of context, quotes can be used to

How to Quote or Be Quoted

So ultimately some thoughts on quotations:

If you are quoting someone - do your best to understand what that person was trying to say. If possible read the entire passage/text or listen to the full speech. If relevant, seek to understand the political/social landscape at the time and place the quote happened.

If you are being quoted - understand that being misunderstood is a fundamental aspect of putting creative work into the world. Be prepared to clarify/rephrase your thoughts and simply accept that not everyone will take your words to mean what you intend.

Footnotes

[1] I am aware of the difference between a quote and a quotation, but as many do, I will use the terms interchangeably on this site.

[2] I like this quote so much I put it on my personal business card!

[3] This may be, in part, because it’s the advice I needed to hear growing up. I was skinny, nerdy and not interested in sports as a kid and I got harassed verbally and physically. The few times I fought back resulted in much better outcomes than just ignoring it … though I never did try putting my arm around the bullies as the author of Memoirs of a Bullied Kid advocates.

[4] I am a little hesitant to even have Sebastian “quoting” my email as I think my “three interpretations” comes from something I read by another, wiser, author. But then again, I must accept that many all my thoughts/ideas (and those of others) stem either directly or indirectly from things we’ve read.

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