Vanessa Van Edwards explains why writers mistake research for writing. She says writing is a service to readers, not a personal journal, and that clarity matters more than keeping passages you love. Well-crafted writing should feel like drinking water.
I often tell my students that research is not writing. As a researcher, I'm sure you can also get caught up in the feels like I'm doing something even though I'm not doing the thing that I want to do. Do you ever have that trouble?
It's true. I have to click out of writing to do my research. That's why I was like, I have to probably restart with some research because research is not putting words on page. I consider the act of writing is like you are putting your words, ideas onto the page for someone else to read. The act of writing is like act of service for someone else. That's how I think of my writing is am I putting words on page for someone else as an act of service? Because if I just wanted to write for me, I could journal all day long and it would only make me laugh. If I'm gonna write for someone else, I have to kill my darlings. Even though I love this phrase, will everyone else? It has to go through that very rigorous process of, is this like water? I want people to feel like it's so easy to consume, it's like drinking a big glass of water.
