@markfishman runs an awesome writing program through a channel on Farcaster. It's a Hypersub subscription which costs $25/month, and for every week you post a piece of your writing in the /firstdraftclub channel, you get $5 back. There's also monthly prize pools that let you earn additional crypto. In January I earned $71 USDC, and in February there's a $higher prize pool.

I've been participating in the channel for the last 3 months, and Mark recently asked me if I'd like to answer some questions about why I'm writing in the program. Here's my answers.

• Why did you sign up for First Draft Club? What did you hope to get out of it?

I've always romanticized writing. Next to Jazz music, it has always felt like the most raw expression of man. Growing up, I remember reading books like Jack Kerouac's Big Sur, written in ten days in a stream of consciousness, and being blown away with the words that can just come out of people. I hold great writers in high regard, but for how much I admire the craft, I've never really taken a shot at it. Yea I took creative writing in high school, wrote some papers in undergrad and have done lots of technical writing as part of shipping software and managing devs, but I never really tried to write and find my voice.

In October of last year, I was struck by some inspiration to build a mobile notes app. I was using the Apple notes app quite a bit, and one day had a thought when looking at the share icon that it looked like the higher up arrow. Then I thought it would be cool to see a higher branded notes app. I posted the idea on X and it got some engagement. Since higher is a headless brand, I hacked together the app that weekend and shipped it. Over the next few weeks I added a Farcaster and Zora integration, so you could post your notes to Zora directly from the notes app.

I was posting about the app on Warpcast and Mark engaged with a post, which is when I found out about First Draft Club. I loved the concept and it was a perfect excuse for me to write more, and also be a user of the notes app and iron out some of the features. I made my first post that week.

• What have you learned about yourself through writing regularly?

Writing is one of the best tools we have to understand ourselves. I've explored a lot of different concepts in my writing for First Draft Club. I've written about crypto, faith and just simple reflections on moments of my day. Each time I write I'm forced to relive what I'm writing about. It opens space for reflection. It also allows me to look at my thoughts and gives me an opportunity to make sure I'm looking at things correctly. One thing I have noticed in the short time I've been writing, is that I often have more I can say about a particular topic than I thought. I might read some seemingly ambiguous statement or fact and if I actually sit down and dissect my feelings about it, I start connecting dots to other themes or uncover new truths. I have also learned that the thoughts come out pretty smoothly if I just sit and write with no expectations of the result. Example in this submission below. I was thinking about slop and knew I had some ideas in my head; they came out pretty naturally when I just opened my notes app and started typing.

• What's the hardest part about writing for you, and how do you push through it?

I've learned that the hardest part of writing is capturing the moment where I'm in the proper state to let my thoughts flow out of me. Writing that is forced is no better than AI slop. The hard part is this state is fleeting, unpredictable and impossible to convey with words how it can be captured and maintained. Kerouac wrote Big Sur in ten days. Perhaps a burst of intense energy or some other force of inspiration made it possible. Or perhaps it is simply a deadline, which First Draft Club has, that brings out the proper state for great writing. Dostoevsky had a debt to pay off due to his gambling addiction and wrote The Gambler in 26 days after he bet a publisher he could do so.

I don't know what my proper state is, or if I ever will, but what I have found is that my thoughts flow better if I am in a good and giving state, as opposed to feeling any kind of need to write. I am reminded of Matthew 7:16-20, which I know is about false prophets but I feel the same with my writing. If I am in a good and giving state, the writing flows and the result is good fruit.

• What’s one piece of writing advice you’ve received (or discovered) that really stuck with you?

Writing is an art form. It's a supernatural activity like prayer which allows us to connect to something bigger than us. Writing advice is no different than advice for creativity. I have two pieces of advice for creativity that have always stuck with me. One is a concept I learned in my faith studies called rhema, which is a Greek word which can be interpreted as the living voice of God. This is a phenomenon in Christianity when you're reading the word of God and a particular piece jumps off the page. The Holy Spirit begins speaking something powerful to you through the words on the page. It's the living voice of God. Bill Hamon describes it as "a flash of thought or creative idea from God."

The second piece of creativity or writing advice that sticks with me is Charles Bukowski's poem - so you want to be a writer? - which needs no further explanation and captures everything I'm saying, much better than I ever could. I'll let the full poem close this post out:

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.

if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.