Notes on writing well
Michael Nielsen's working notes on prose craft, wrapped as a reference skill. The
full essay lives in references/notes_on_writing.md — load it before applying.
When to use
- Drafting, revising, editing, or critiquing prose
- Stuck on an opening sentence or a title
- Checking for weak words / clichés (danger words: interesting, quite, very)
How to run
- Read
references/notes_on_writing.md(the complete working notes). - Apply its observations directly to the draft.
Core theses
- Hard to write the truth — early drafts are rough approximations; revise over and over, asking each sentence whether it can be sharper and whether you really believe it.
- Good writing is applied psychology — advice is about the reader's relationship to the text, so build a theory of that relationship.
- Beware words you wouldn't say aloud — every word must earn its place.