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Write every day

mlafeldt.github.io

21–30 of 90 posts

Re: Write every day

#21
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is something I really want, not for distraction-free writing, but to go in my backyard. I would love to get an SSH terminal in the sun.

Do you not think the slow refresh rates of e-ink diplays would be a problem when working with an SSH terminal?

I think that depends on your expectations... I lived the days where you would connect to a computer hundreds of miles away through a 1200 bps modem. That was pretty laggy sometimes but always manageable...

You kids are spoiled! :-)

Re: Write every day

#22
post #20

I'm tempted to try this exercise for the remainder of the year. Can someone recommend a way to not just write, but also learn to write better in the process. I'm thinking of using Hemingway App.

What helped me to write better was to read great writing. That includes novels and long form non-fiction.

Re: Write every day

#23

This reminds me about an idea I had but never really followed: For all you writers out there, do you think a device with an e-ink display and a normal keyboard, similar to a laptop, but designed for the sole purpose of distraction free writing, is something consumers might want? I always wondered why this does not exist.

Check out the stuff made by Alphasmart. A larger display would be nice for editing.

Re: Write every day

#24

This reminds me about an idea I had but never really followed: For all you writers out there, do you think a device with an e-ink display and a normal keyboard, similar to a laptop, but designed for the sole purpose of distraction free writing, is something consumers might want? I always wondered why this does not exist.

Check out the stuff made by Alphasmart. A larger display would be nice for editing.

I actually checked them out before, but especially their displays seem to be quite limited for writing long texts.

Re: Write every day

#25
post #13

I will prove a counterexample to this point. I used 750words for almost a year but ultimately stopped by accident and have not been back since. The "do not break the chain" mechanism kept me going, but there were days when I had trouble filling out the word count. In the end I stopped, because it was a hassle and I did not see myself progressing in skill. Maybe if you have a clear goal in mind like writing a book wit…

Hey, don't give up on that dream. You can write a book. You're only a want-a-writer if you fall into the trap of believing that. And there's nothing wrong with wanting something.

I often find that if I'm not making any progress in a given area I'm practicing, a change in process helps. There are at least two components to skill: practice and strategy. Strategy is what you choose to practice, and skill can't be had without both. If you find your practice ineffective, what's probably needed is a change in strategy.

If you want to write a book, then perhaps a revision of "don't break the chain" is in order: If your writing wasn't coherent, practice making it coherent. One idea would be to devote each week to writing a different chapter of your book. That way, you're still writing every day, but the focus changes each week, so that if you're unhappy with the current week's output, you have a higher chance of feeling better about next week. I realize it's hard to write a book in a nonlinear fashion (earlier chapters guide later chapters, almost by definition, so it's tempting to try to perfect each chapter before moving onto the next) but the goal is to practice writing a book, not to write a good book on your first try. Forcing yourself to hammer out a chapter per week will bring coherence, if not quality. But quality is simply a matter of practice, so keep at it!

Re: Write every day

#26
post #17

I agree that writing is good exercise. However, it seems that some people think that achieving a high word count is a good thing. Please try to use as few words as possible to get your ideas across. See this as a friendly gesture to your audience, saving them time. Obviously, this does not hold for novels and fiction, where the reader actually likes to read. Perhaps I am a bit misguided in thinking that (technical) b…

Yes and no, it's more nuanced than that. An analogy would be that LoC is not a great way to judge the quality of a program, but a good developer will produce millions of lines of code in many different applications before they master their craft.

What hitting a daily word count does is force you to produce something even when you don't think you have anything to say. Or more importantly, when you are stuck and have to painfully work through how to express a tough idea. 250 is quite low for a daily target, honestly.

That said, blind word production obviously doesn't do much unless you're going back and fearlessly editing your work, identifying what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong.

Re: Write every day

#27
Code everyday, contribute to open source, write n words everyday, read books everyday, exercise, learn new skills, market yourself, socialize, travel. Is there an end? I am surrounded by so many productive activities and each one within my reach that each time I am not doing it, it feels I am frittering away very valuable time. In fact, even when I am doing it like reading a book, I feel working on my mini-game could have been more productive.

Someone has written 40K words in five months, someone has created a kernel at the age of 18, someone has made 365 days streak on github and someone has done a biking trip across India. I wish there was an easy way to avoid feeling guilty when you see other people's achievements.

Re: Write every day

#28
post #13

I will prove a counterexample to this point. I used 750words for almost a year but ultimately stopped by accident and have not been back since. The "do not break the chain" mechanism kept me going, but there were days when I had trouble filling out the word count. In the end I stopped, because it was a hassle and I did not see myself progressing in skill. Maybe if you have a clear goal in mind like writing a book wit…

I have to agree. I always want to start a somewhat personal blog, but I can't think of many topics. My thoughts are often half-baked, not very original and once I wrote them down, they tend to be obsolete again, more or less.

I never got paid for writing directly, but then I figured that in a certain way, I am already a writer. Because I write articles for my business and they make me money. I didn't rank for a certain keyword two years ago. Then I ranked. I have this little code snippet that checks which landing page converted to paying users and I figured that my writing made me a lot of money, because Google is a major traffic source. So this one article took me 10 hours to write and made me 5,000€ so far.

Odd, isn't it? I can't think of stuff to write about personally, but I do make money with writing indirectly through my business.

Re: Write every day

#29
The part that i really connected with is: "The biggest problem I face, though, is that I’m a perfectionist. I have a hard time writing shitty first drafts and postponing editing until after getting something down on paper first. Instead, I often try to get it “right” the first time, thereby making the writing process unnecessarily painful. The number of blog posts I’ve published this year is evidence enough of my struggle."

I've struggled with this too - not necessarily just with writing but with other undertakings too. I did read the reference that was linked and other literature connected to this phenomenon. It'd be very interesting to learn from the OP (or others here), some techniques to overcome this barrier?

Re: Write every day

#30
post #10

> I truly believe that getting into the habit of writing consistently was one of the best decisions I’ve made this year. This post explores the reasons why I care about writing and keep doing it every day. I hope it inspires you to write (more) too. I agree! I've written every day on my blog since January 2011, nearly 1,600 posts. Technically, I post every day, so during my trips to North Korea I wrote and scheduled…

This is where "environment structuring" becomes very effective - if you want to establish the habits but you find yourself missing days or being sporadic, it's most likely because your environment isn't structured to support it.

That can mean everything from having a comfortable place conducive to {writing | reading | meditating} to making sure you create time from friends / women / family to do your thing. Mornings have always been the best time of the day for me - waking up early is pretty crucial to this I think.

When you set the tone of your day with discipline, the rest of the day seems to fall right into place.

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