Most People Don’t Want to Write. They Want to Have Written. – Ep 296
whatshot 7 snips
Jul 16, 2026
A dinner conversation about how to actually start writing and why showing up beats inspiration. The struggle of staring at blank pages and why quantity leads to better craft. The messy truth that refining drafts makes ideas shine. A look at finding your voice by imagining real readers and deciding if you want to write or just to have written.
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volunteer_activism ADVICE
Treat Writing As Scheduled Practice Not Inspiration
Do set a time and place and show up consistently to write, treating it like a scheduled practice rather than waiting for inspiration.
Vitaliy emphasises daily/weekly hours as the remedy for weeks of staring at a blank screen and producing "complete garbage."
insights INSIGHT
Quantity Builds Writing Quality
Writing quality improves through quantity because craft develops muscle memory and experience.
Vitaliy compares first drafts to dumping subconscious 'coal' and says rewriting (often dozens of times) turns it into 'orderly diamonds.'
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Visualize A Real Reader To Find Your Voice
Do visualise a real reader when you write to find your voice; pick someone you know and care about.
Vitaliy visualised his friends as the Street.com readers so his tone stayed conversational and targeted.
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I was at a conference in Switzerland. A reader came up to me and asked, “Vitaliy, I’ve been reading your articles for years. I’d like to write. How should I start?” This question spilled into a long conversation over dinner. When I told him what almost two decades of writing have taught me, his face fell. He’d tried it. He’d spent weeks staring at the computer and written complete garbage.
Welcome to my world.
In this piece, I work through what I told him over that dinner. Frustration and empty pages are par for the course. Quantity and quality are joined at the hip. “Writing is rewriting” is not an empty platitude, and by the 47th rewrite the pile of coal dumped onto white pages from your subconscious slowly turns into orderly diamonds. I talk about finding your voice, why I visualized my friends when I started writing for TheStreet.com (they were the first victims), and what happened when my reader brightened halfway through dinner and said, “Maybe I should hire a ghostwriter.”
That last question is where the conversation turned. I walk through why the answer depends entirely on your “why,” what Anaïs Nin has to do with it, and the honest reason I don’t paint even though I’d like to have painted. My brother Alex paints. My father paints. I tried. J. Cole gets quoted. There is a difference between wanting to write and wanting to have written, and figuring out which one you are is the whole game.
_________________________________________________________ WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) and an award-winning writer. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” His work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Fortune, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy. He is the author of three books, including Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life. _________________________________________________________ Please read the following important disclosure: https://investor.fm/disclosure/
View IMA’s regulatory filings — including ADV Part 2A & 2B, Form CRS, firm brochure, conflicts of interest disclosures, sample quarterly letters, and privacy policy — at imausa.com.
The Intellectual Investor – Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson 
