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“Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice

goinswriter.com

31–40 of 64 posts

Re: “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice

#31
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking things too literally seems to be a plague infecting many topics lately. I've interpreted the phrase similarly, do whatever you need to, just get "it" out of your head! Perfection is the enemy of good.

Hold on. I need to start a pointless semantics debate with you by taking what you said completely literally and it won't end until we've defined all the words.

I enjoy this comment.

Re: “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice

#33
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a coder I do a lot of my best work with a beer or two.

There are better, less poisonous and destructive, drugs. Is it really worth sacrificing your health for? It doesn't even taste nice once you cut through the cultural programming to pretend otherwise.

I actually like the taste of some beers.

Your point seems really tied up in your own preferences and discounts other people’s experiences.

Re: “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hold on. I need to start a pointless semantics debate with you by taking what you said completely literally and it won't end until we've defined all the words.

The internet in a freaking nutshell, I'm so not going to miss that part once this pile of crap tips over.

How is the internet "tipping over" going to change what's fundamentally human?

Changing the interpretation of what someone said to fit your argument can be seen on the school playground and in Plato's Gorgias. It's not going away anytime soon.

Agreeing on an interpretation is the first step to conceiving an argument. Wrestling through this is a big part of having a discussion, and someone can always try to unfairly assume the interpretation that suits them, often the least charitable one.

Re: “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice

#35
I've read this article before and I got a little annoyed. I've never ever heard "write drunk, edit sober" been advised in a literal context, but a metaphorical context.

Write drunk - shitty first draft where you don't care.

Edit sober - reasonable editing done when you have a fresh pair of eyes.

Why on earth did the author take this advice literally?

Re: “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice

#36
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a coder I do a lot of my best work with a beer or two.

There are better, less poisonous and destructive, drugs. Is it really worth sacrificing your health for? It doesn't even taste nice once you cut through the cultural programming to pretend otherwise.

You might not like it, but this is what peak HN looks like

Re: “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice

#37

I've read this article before and I got a little annoyed. I've never ever heard "write drunk, edit sober" been advised in a literal context, but a metaphorical context. Write drunk - shitty first draft where you don't care. Edit sober - reasonable editing done when you have a fresh pair of eyes. Why on earth did the author take this advice literally?

Write Drunk, DEBUG Sober :-)

Re: “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice

#38
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking things too literally seems to be a plague infecting many topics lately. I've interpreted the phrase similarly, do whatever you need to, just get "it" out of your head! Perfection is the enemy of good.

Hold on. I need to start a pointless semantics debate with you by taking what you said completely literally and it won't end until we've defined all the words.

Soon: "Taking Things Literally Considered Harmful"

Re: “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice

#39
Has this guy ever actually done any creative writing, or just written advice books?

There is a definite use for getting mildly buzzed as part of the creative process. Alcohol makes it easier to turn off the part of your brain that demands perfection and get a lot of stuff that may not be great but can be fixed rather than slowly trying to make one perfect sentence after another. Weed is great for when you need to sit back and stare at the shape of your whole plot and figure out how to get from where you are to where you want to be; surprising and wonderful connections get made. Then you put it down, and sober you comes back and finds the good parts. Weed is also pretty useful for visual tasks; it makes it easier for me to sit there doing fiddly details on a drawing without really seeing time pass. Sometimes it also gives me a power-up to my visual cortex and I can start tracing what I see in my mind's eye instead of the longer route of constructing stuff, but I don’t do that much as it’s perilously close to the point where I am too high to function. And then there’s people who claim that regular microdoses of LSD have lots of benefits for both general braining and creativity. Never tried it myself but I can see it helping.

You don’t have to get completely hammered to get useful creative effects. You just have to hit the bottle or bong or whatever hard enough to have some effect. And sometimes you can get in the groove without any chemical aid; that’s great! But when you can’t, and there’s a deadline... there’s mind-altering chemicals. Use them responsibly.

Re: “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice

#40
post #2

I had always heard this used as kind of a metaphor: do whatever the hell you want to in writing, follow every thread, wander all over the place, believe your own bullshit, and just get all the ideas out of you and onto the page. When you edit, then it's time to worry about what your point actually is and how your reader will understand it. It's a little weird to me that someone would take this aphorism literally.

Former copy editor here, would not recommend this approach for writing anything non-artistic. Imagine a coder or engineer following this recommendation: no plan, no structure, just throwing ideas willy-nilly. Eventually, you then have to sift through all the ideas, find what's good and what gels, and then re-write to make it coherent, narrative, and logical. You'll probably incur a lot of technical debt and overhead…

For coders, it is the equivalent of MVP. The coder gather pieces of code and/or documentation to have something to show. The feedback helps to finalize narrative and make stuff coherent.
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