On having more interesting ideas - by Henrik Karlsson

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“To write well, all you have to do is cultivate your mind and then write what you see.” When I talk to people who have worked with their ideas seriously for 10+ years, it feels like I can throw any topic on them and they’ll have an interesting idea, or if not an idea so at least an unexpected way of approaching it.

CY TWOMBLY’S STUDIO IN ROME, 1966 A hobby of mine is to answer random questions that people email me, and I figured I should publish some of the answers here so I don’t have to repeat myself. Here’s one. A reader asked me how I go about finding interesting things to write about. I am not sure how good I am at being interesting, but I do spend a lot of time coming up with ideas—both for essays and for other contexts—and I am much better at it than I used to be. So: It is a muscle. Every day for maybe 7 years, I’ve written about what I think in detail, and the more I’ve done it, the better…

On having more interesting ideas - by Henrik Karlsson

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