Write Dumb: Writing Better By Thinking Less

by James Dowd

Explore this collection of straight-up stupid secrets to crafting the written word and discover that writing is far easier than people realize. All of the contained advice demonstrates the author’s personal pursuit of just thinking less and always trying to be a bit dumber. From students to professionals, this book is for anyone that needs help getting out of your own way in order to be a better, faster, more efficient, more creative writer.

Write Dumb helps writers understand the truth that everyone overthinks writing. You overthink it at work when you’re writing even the most basic emails. You overthink it when texting. You overthink it by comparing your work to Hemingway (you’re not). You overthink it and then tell yourself that that’s your writing process (it’s not). You overthink it when you think it’s an impossible feat. You believe thought is the fuel for words, even though it’s actually the one thing fueling your inability to get those words on the page.

Writing is one of our strongest and most valuable tools we have to interact with this world, and yet we overthink it constantly because it scares us, it intimidates us, it challenges us, it makes us feel uncomfortable, and no one wants that nervous, I could fuck this up and look stupid feeling all day, every day. We don’t fully understand it or feel comfortable experiencing it, so we waste time trying to add structure and rules and meaning and restrictions where they’re not needed, or we altogether keep our distance. We blame the rules, or the endless possibilities, or the competition, and we run away from it. We say that writing down words to express ourselves is just not our thing, even though choosing not to write is no different than choosing not to speak. You can certainly give it a shot, but it’s surely going to limit your ability to engage with the world around you. So why silence yourself? Why give in to fear and abandon this gift?

Anyways, why not learn how to Write Dumb?

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2019

Reviews

[David Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Repetitive at times, but the author makes great points. I suppose the value one takes from this book is entirely dependent on their relationship to writing and how they view themselves. Struggling to get started on a novel or essay? This book may be for you. Looking for tips to improve your craft? You might want to look elsewhere. I went into this book wanting to feel inspired and I got just that so I have no complaints.

[Jason A. A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not a bad concept for a book. The idea is that people get into their heads too much and make writing harder than it has to be. The author's solution is to dumb it down a bit; stop thinking about everything you're going to write, stop thinking about all the things you don't know enough about or don't know how to write, and just write. It's actually not bad advice.

The author does a good job of selling the idea that most of us are overthinking it and we just need to get busy doing it. He gives some nice (dumb, as he says) tips for doing that. In particular, I like his idea of making your first draft a "dump" draft where you just put any and all ideas, plots, conversations, whatever, into this draft without editing or worrying about the order or theme or even plot. As he says, it's easier to edit something than nothing (I'm paraphrasing).

The weakness of the book is that much of the content is simply repetitive. I'm sure some people like, or need, to be hit over the head again and again before the point sinks in, but I found myself skimming ahead to get past repetitive information. The author is also in advertising so a lot of his ideas and tips are sort of related to working on those types of projects though he does give a concerted effort to point out how his suggestions can be used for longer form writers.

In the end, I did actually feel like the author left me encouraged that I too could be a writer and I did come away with some tips I intend to implement so I do recommend this book to anyone who is interested in becoming a writer or who is struggling with their desire to be a writer. If you are already writing and feel like you have a good system that works for you this probably isn't the book you need.

[Pete Sena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books?
Book?
Things to learn?
Things that make you feel?
All of the above? (Check)

**Spoiler Alert: this book is all about writing dumb so why not start with this dumb review right? **

Yeah that’s what I thought. In all seriousness this book is a book about capturing your thoughts, your passions and ideas into words. Words, how I hate those words because they aren’t as pretty as my designs or as cool as the apps that I’ve built or use every day. This book is proof that everyone can write and when you do you’ll start feeling better and maybe even inspire someone in the process of doing it. Fun fact: I’m even quoted in it which I had no idea I was going to be but I think it’s well deserved because I listened and I wrote dumb, I write dumb and because of it I’ve shown people that I’m actually smarter and less dumb than I thought I was. Enjoy.