The practice
Thirty things.
One sitting.
The books came second. First there was a rule.
You do not need a subscription or an app or my permission. You need thirty numbered lines and one uncomfortable prompt.
The rules
There are only three
- 01
Thirty. Exactly thirty.
Not twenty-eight because you ran dry, not thirty-five because you got going. The number is the whole discipline: it forces you past the obvious answers into the ones you did not know you had.
- 02
No editing until you hit thirty.
Editing mid-list is how you talk yourself out of the honest items. Get to the bottom first. Fix it after, or don't.
- 03
Pick a corner you've been avoiding.
The honest ones cost the most to write and they are the only ones anyone remembers. Item thirty is usually where the truth is.
Your first list
Steal a prompt and go
Six real prompts from the archive. Read mine if you're stuck, then write yours. The answers won't overlap.
825+ more prompts in the archive. Browse them all →
The blank page
This is the whole template
A title and thirty numbered lines. Copy it into whatever you already write in.
30 [your subject here]
If you want a co-writer
Tools, in the open
The same tools I use to draft lists. They help you get to thirty; they do not write the honest ones for you.
Write one a week for a decade and you will have written a book without noticing.