Writing

Day 1The Principle of ClarityCut Clutter · Active Voice · Concrete Nouns/Verbs · Zinsser Day 2The Pyramid PrincipleAnswer First · MECE · Top-Down · SCQA / Minto Day 3Nancy Duarte's StorytellingResonate · Sparkline · Big Idea · DataStory Day 4The Story Masters — Spine · Hero · McKee · FreytagPixar 8 lines · Hero's Journey · McKee 5 acts · Story Arc Day 5Made to Stick — The SUCCESs SixSimple · Unexpected · Concrete · Credible · Emotional · Story Day 6Presentation Zen — The Discipline of LessEmpty space · CRAP design · Visual storytelling · 10/20/30 rule Day 7The Rhetoric of PersuasionEthos/Pathos/Logos · Evidence Hierarchy · Steelmanning · Cognitive Ease Day 8Technical Writing — Docs that Outlive Their AuthorsDesign Docs · Diátaxis · ADRs · Comment Philosophy Day 9The Memo — How Narrative Sharpens ThoughtAmazon 6-Pager · Narrative vs Bullets · 1-Pager / BLUF · Working Backwards Day 10Email & Business Comms — Writing for People Who Won't ReadSubject Lines · BLUF · Saying No & Hard Feedback · Async Culture Day 11The Pitch Deck & StorytellingSequoia Skeleton · Problem-Solution Arc · Why Now · Airbnb 2009 Day 12Public Speaking — Throughline to Q&AThroughline · First 30s Hook · Slides as Set · Pivot·Bridge·Land Day 13Personal-Brand Writing — From Résumé to ReputationNewsletter Covenant · First 12 Chars · Teach-Don't-Announce · Length vs Depth Day 14Writing in the Age of AI — Judgment as the Scarce CraftDraft Engine · Killing the AI Smell · Sparring Partner · Prompt as Writing Day 15The Craft of Revision — Rewriting Is Where the Game Is WonShitty First Drafts · Three-Pass Revision · Cool Down & Read Aloud · The Feedback Loop Day 16The Rhythm of Sentences — Prose That Sounds GoodSentence Variety · Long & Short · Paragraphs Breathe · The Poetry of Punctuation Day 17Openings & Endings — The First and Last SentencesOpen on a Scene · Curiosity Gap · The Hook · Full-Circle Ending Day 18Metaphor & Analogy — The Operating System of ThoughtConceptual Metaphor · What Works · Argument by Analogy · Killing Clichés Day 19The Hidden Ailments of Chinese ProseTranslationese · Empty Verbs · Bureaucratese · Classical Texture Day 20Masters · Lu Xun — The Craft Behind the BladeThe Pivot · Cold Restraint · Forging a Language · Dawn Blossoms Day 21Masters · Orwell — Prose Like a Window PaneSix Rules · The Translation · Honesty · The Window Pane Day 22Masters · Paul Graham — The Essay as ThinkingWrite Usefully · Essay as Thinking · Shorter Is Better · Write Like You Talk Day 23Design & UX Copy — The Words Inside the InterfaceMicrocopy · Humane Errors · Voice & Tone · The Copy Checklist Day 24Getting Feedback — The Invisible StepThe Feedback Ladder · Finding Readers · AI as a Reader · Receiving Criticism Day 25Building the Writing Habit — Run on System, Not WillpowerQuantity Breeds Quality · The Starting Barrier · Resistance · Designing the Environment Day 26Thinking Is Writing — The Page as ProcessorWriting Is Thinking · Discovery · Dialogue as a Tool · Zettelkasten Day 27Writing for Leadership & Change — Leading with WordsLeading by Memo · Company Narrative · Principles · Change Story Day 28Q&A and Interviews — The Unscripted Ten MinutesAnswer First · The Craft of Asking · Disarming Hard Questions · Don't Lie or Dodge Day 29Philosophy & the Essay — The Form of TryingEssay as Thinking · Zhou Zuoren & the Leisurely · Montaigne's Prototype · Personal Output in the Age of AI Day 30Delivering Your Writing — From Draft to CompoundingFrom Draft to Done · Choosing Channels · Building a Community · The Compounding of Writing Day 31The Craft of Poetry — Compression at the LimitImage & Compression · Rhythm & the Line · White Space · Constraint as Creativity Day 32Screenwriting & Dialogue — The Concentrated Form of InteractionSubtext · Scene Objective · Conflict & the Gap · Stage vs Screen Day 33The Art of Translation — Re-creating Under ConstraintFaithful·Fluent·Refined · The Untranslatable · The Translator's Invisibility · CN–EN Traps Day 34Journalism & Nonfiction — Telling What Really HappenedInverted Pyramid · Verification · New Journalism · Investigation Day 35Science Writing — Moving the Complex into Another MindMake it simple · Power of analogy · Accuracy vs. readability · Never talk down Day 36Nature Writing — Seeing First, Then ThinkingDiscipline of observation · Sense of place · Thoreau's move · The ecological essay Day 37Memoir & Autobiography — Choosing One Honest StoryTruth & memory · Selection · Writing hard things · Ordinary lives Day 38Letters & Diaries — The Power of Private WritingPrivate writing · The epistolary stance · Diary as thinking · Public vs private Day 39Writing with Humor — Mechanism & MeasureBenign violation · Reversal & timing · Self-deprecation · Satire & irony Day 40World Literary Traditions — Four Distant CraftsMono no aware · Magical realism · Polyphony · Frame narrative Day 41The Craft of Editing — The Invisible ArtStructure first · Kill your darlings · Consistency · The author relationship Day 42Writing for the Ear — Sound on the PageWrite for the ear · The breath of a sentence · Speech vs prose · The audiobook era Day 43Visual Narrative & Comics — Steal the Cartoonist's CraftWord & image · Panels & pacing · Infographic hierarchy · The graphic novel Day 44Podcasts & Audio Scripts — Design for the EarConversation design · Interview prep · Sound montage · Narrative arc Day 45Writing for Children & Teens — Write Up, Not DownAge register · Wisdom without preaching · Picture-book text · The classics Day 46Business Stories & Brand Narrative — Sell the Story, Not the SpecFounding story · Customer as hero · Case study · Value proposition Day 47Clarity in Academic Writing — Rescue the Thought from the JargonFour-sentence abstract · Review as conversation · Topic & stress position · Against zombie nouns Day 48Instructional Writing — Make It FollowableCondition before action · User's mental model · Error prevention · Minimalist instruction Day 49Classical Chinese for Modern WritingConcision · Parallelism & antithesis · The measure of allusion · Adapting the classical Day 50Masters · Wang XiaoboWit & reason · Warm irony · The free style · Essays & fiction Day 51Masters · Joan DidionThe cool eye · Self & era · Sentence precision · The poetry of fact Day 52Masters · E.B. WhiteElegant concision · The elements of style · The intimacy of the essay · Writing up for children Day 53Masters · Wang ZengqiFlavor in plainness · Poetry of the everyday · Vernacular & classical · Story without plot Day 54Rhythm & MusicalityVarying sentence length · Sound repetition · Breath of paragraphs · Punctuation as score Day 55Argument & Critical WritingClaim & rebuttal · Evidence hierarchy · Fallacies · Steel-manning Day 56The Ethics of WritingCitation & plagiarism · Ghostwriting · Truth vs story · Real people Day 57Cross-Cultural WritingHigh vs low context · Direct vs indirect · International English · Cultural taboos Day 58Improv & Constraint WritingWriting to a prompt · Word-limit creativity · Oulipo games · Constraint as engine Day 59Writing Tools & MethodsZettelkasten deepened · Outline vs emergence · Writing on cards · Digital tools Day 60Writing as a VocationThe long game · Reader relationships · The reality of publishing · Income models Day 61Impromptu SpeakingPREP & What–So What–Now What · Handling interruptions · Buying thinking time · Improv vs preparation Day 62The Craft of FictionCharacter · POV & person · Scene vs summary · The measure of Show Don't Tell