The skills needed to write software and novels are similar in many ways. Lately I've seen software developers quoting "The Elements of Style" as a guide for creating software.
"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words…"
At a software conference, I heard one developer ask for guidance. "How do you complete software on time? I work 12 hours a day... I answer email. I read blogs. I update my Facebook status."
As laughter filled the room, the speaker, David Heinemeier Hansson, playfully said, "You may want to turn email off." He went on to explain how he created Ruby on Rails while attending school… He worked on Rails for only a couple hours a day. A couple of highly focused hours.
Author Jessica Brody provides three tips to help you write. I like her ticking time bomb tip. She had an old laptop that had only three hours of battery life. Jessica would start to write and when the battery stopped so did her writing. A clever way to train her mind to be productive.
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