Tell us your favorite piece of writing wisdom

📰 On this day 334 years ago, the first newspaper published in the U.S. (then still a British colony) came out, a four-page publication called Publick Occurrences. It was banned within a few days, and the colonies would not see another newspaper published for 50 years.
Issue #171: writing advice, skydiving while pregnant, and just not doing things you don’t feel like doing
By Scott Lamb

Writing is hard, painful, sometimes rewarding but always challenging, and we all need help to get those ideas out of our heads and into the world.

The best advice is often short, memorable, and actionable, and we’ve featured great examples of this kind of writing guidance previously in the newsletter— from issue #155, use deadlines to just get things done; from issue #169, make lots of things in order to make better things.

There are other pragmatic pieces of advice all over Medium, like writer Merlin Mann’s notion of “parking downhill” (leave off writing in an interesting place it will be easy for you to pick up the next time). A few years ago my colleague Harris Sockel wrote about his favorite book of writing advice, Several Short Sentences About Writing, which includes this incredibly practical tip: Keep sentences small, they’re easier to work with that way. Or Ximena Vengoechea’s simple dictum for those times when you are stuck: “Step away from the computer.”

To explore more, check out one of our great lists of writing advice and inspiration, and there are thousands of stories filled with hard-won writing insight to explore on the Writing Advice topic page.

Do you have a favorite piece of writing advice? One that gets you back to the page, or helps you move forward when you’re stuck? Reply to this email (or jump into the responses) and let us know, we’ll be collecting them to share in a future issue.

🔥 Great, recent Medium stories in 1 sentence or less.

• A full-time licensed skydiving instructor on why she kept jumping out of planes until her third trimester: You don’t rack up 3,500 skydives without learning to listen to your body.
• Former SNL writer Jack Handey (of “Deep Thoughts”) makes his Medium debut with “Young Love.”
• BMI can be problematic as a useful health measure when used in isolation; a new measure, body roundness index (BRI), may be more accurate in predicting health outcomes.

🐈 Your daily dose of practical wisdom

Be more like your cat; if you don’t feel like doing something, just…don’t.

Deepen your understanding every day with the Medium Newsletter. Sign up here.

Edited and produced by Harris Sockel & Carly Rose Gillis

Questions, feedback, or story suggestions? Email us: tips@medium.com

Read without limits or ads, fund great writers, and join a community that believes in human storytelling with membership.