A New Way To Think About Writing — Paul Harding
Here are the top 10 key takeaways from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Harding's masterclass on transforming how we approach the craft of writing.
1. Slow down to access deeper observation
Writing requires a fundamental shift from the rushed pace of daily life to deliberate, patient attention. Most people operate on autopilot, using reflexive language and muscle memory to navigate their day. This habitual approach fails completely in creative writing. Writers must cultivate the skill of slowing down and giving their best quality of attention to whatever they're observing.
The practice involves dropping all presumptions and received language patterns. Instead of deploying familiar phrases "off the rack," writers need to approach each moment with fresh eyes. This means being willing to sit with uncertainty and not rushing toward quick meanings or symbols. The goal is to develop sustained attention that can stay with an observation long enough to discover what's actually there, rather than what we think should be there.
2. Drop received language to find authentic expression
Effective writing demands abandoning the prefabricated language we use to navigate daily life. Common phrases and culturally accepted expressions serve practical purposes for basic communication, but they cannot capture the nuanced reality that good writing requires. Writers must learn to sift through layers of received wisdom and habituated speech patterns to reach something more authentic.
This process involves recognizing when you're using language simply because it's familiar or socially acceptable. The challenge is developing awareness of these automatic responses and choosing instead to work with language that emerges from direct observation. While we all build upon etymological foundations, writers must push beyond surface-level usage to discover fresh ways of describing experience.
3. Pursue extended metaphors through literal observation
Great writing often emerges from following a single image or metaphor to its logical conclusion through purely literal thinking. Harding demonstrates this with his grandfather's hallucinated ceiling cracks, which he developed by asking successive "what if" questions. Each step remained grounded in physical reality—cracks widening, ceiling collapsing, revealing wires and plumbing, then sky, then stars falling.
This technique requires staying with an image longer than feels comfortable and pushing it further than initial instinct suggests. The key is maintaining literal observation rather than jumping immediately to symbolic interpretation. By following the physical logic of the metaphor, writers often discover profound connections they couldn't have planned. The meaning emerges from the process rather than being imposed upon it.
4. Character emerges through description, not exposition
Rather than creating artificial boundaries between interior and exterior experience, effective writing treats them as coextensive. Description of the external world becomes a vehicle for revealing character, eliminating the need for clunky transitions between outside observations and internal thoughts. A character's way of noticing and describing their environment reveals their personality more powerfully than direct psychological exposition.
This approach requires thinking like a painter with words, building up layers of sensory detail that simultaneously establish setting and character. The Boston Common becomes layered colors and light, which in turn reflects how a particular character processes their world. Description serves character development rather than existing as mere decoration.
5. Write for brilliant readers who want their minds challenged
Writers should aim to create work that cannot be fully grasped in a single reading, offering the richness that draws readers back repeatedly. This means providing layers of meaning and interconnection that reward deep engagement rather than delivering everything immediately accessible. The goal is creating an aesthetic experience that grows more satisfying with familiarity, like favorite music or films.
This philosophy rejects the tendency to write down to readers or provide simple, digestible content. Instead, it treats readers as intelligent partners capable of doing interpretive work. Such writing becomes an act of generosity, offering readers the pleasure of discovery and the satisfaction of wrestling with complex beauty. The richness emerges from treating language as capable of infinite depth rather than mere information delivery.
6. Develop ambitious reverence for great literature
True literary ambition stems from reverence for masterworks rather than ego-driven desires for recognition. Writers should openly acknowledge their influences and aspire to create work worthy of standing alongside their literary heroes. This means studying Shakespeare, Melville, and other masters not to copy them but to understand how great art functions.
The distinction lies between wanting to write something as good as your favorite book versus wanting to be known as the person who wrote it. Genuine ambition focuses on the work itself and its contribution to literary tradition. This requires both humility about current limitations and confidence in the possibility of growth. Writers need permission to attempt greatness while remaining grounded in the craft itself.
7. Rhythm and tempo shape narrative time
Musical training directly translates to prose writing through the manipulation of time and pace. Just as drummers control tempo, writers control how readers experience narrative time through sentence rhythm and structure. Scenes can be written in half-time or double-time, speeding up or slowing down the reader's experience to match emotional content.
This involves hearing the beat and tempo of individual sentences before knowing their literal meaning. Writers can use monosyllabic words for punchy, rhythmic effects or polysyllabic words for flowing, tumbling passages. The key is matching sound patterns to content, creating a musical undertone that supports the narrative without becoming sing-songy or overly symmetrical.
8. Etymology reveals language's hidden depths
Daily dictionary reading opens up the mysterious evolution of words and their buried meanings. Understanding how words have changed over time allows writers to access deeper layers of meaning that exist beneath surface usage. For example, "temptation" originally meant a true test of character rather than seduction into wrongdoing.
This historical awareness adds dimensionality to prose without requiring obscure vocabulary. Writers can use familiar words with subtle awareness of their deeper resonances, slowing readers down just enough to let meaning saturate their attention. The goal isn't showing off etymological knowledge but enriching the texture of language through deeper understanding of how words actually work.
9. Protect the creative space from external voices
Serious writing requires periods of complete isolation from feedback, criticism, and outside expectations. The work itself becomes the primary authority on its own meaning, rather than agents, editors, or workshop participants. This doesn't mean avoiding all feedback forever, but rather establishing clear boundaries around the creative process.
Different writers need different approaches to feedback, and there's no universal right way to handle input. Some thrive on constant reader response while others need extended solitude. The crucial skill is developing self-awareness about what enables your best work and having the discipline to maintain those conditions. This includes learning to silence internal voices about what "real writers" should do and focusing instead on what actually gets good writing onto the page.
10. Reading ambitiously expands writing possibilities
Writing quality directly correlates with the caliber of books you read and how deeply you engage with them. Ambitious reading means tackling challenging works like Faulkner, Melville, and Shakespeare, then returning to them repeatedly as your understanding deepens. Each re-reading reveals new layers that were invisible during earlier encounters.
The goal is becoming intimate with great literature rather than simply consuming it once. This intimacy with masterworks provides a benchmark for your own writing and expands your sense of what's possible on the page. Your writing can only be as good as your best readings of the best books, making the quality of your literary diet directly relevant to your creative development.