rikard.me/blog/014.txt                                Sun 17 Mar, 2024


                  My process for writing blog posts


I gave some insight into my productivity system the other day, and
today I feel like doing the same for my writing process.

I have many ideas for things I want to write about.  I never sit down
and brainstorm these, they just hit me when I'm out and about doing
other things.  I carry an A6 notebook with me everywhere I go.
Whenever I get an idea for something I'll just jot it down.  Sometimes
I will start drafting right away, but for the most part I'll just
write down a topic or an idea.  What's essential is that I always have
a capture tool on me.

There is no friction in capturing to a notebook.  I don't have to
unlock it (and curse about face or touch ID not working), I don't have
to find the right app and then navigate its interface before I can
start capturing.  This is one area where the analogue is just so
superior to its digital counterpart.

Ideas that I've just captured and haven't done anything more with,
I'll eventually transfer to my 'someday/maybe' list as part of a
regular review.  I will then go through this list each week to see if
the idea still resonates with me.  If it does, and I feel like
writing, I'll start drafting a post about it.

When I draft something it's more or less a stream of consciousness.  I
barely ever outline what I'll write about, I just write.

The draft is a very quick thing, but the speed by which I produce it
is the essential part.  I want to get the idea out of my head as
rapidly as possible, so that I can then refine it through iteration.
When I draft I don't spend any time considering my grammar, my
spelling or other, at that moment, non-essential things.  I
particularly don't care about my writing looking nice, all I care
about is that it's legible (if by no one else then by me at least).

When I'm done with the draft I will sit on it for a while -- a day, a
week, sometimes longer.  During this time I might come up with other
things I want to say, or maybe I think of a better way of framing
something, and will update the text subsequently.  Crucially, I let my
subconscious work the text over.  The worst posts I've written, I
feel, are the ones written and published in the spur of the moment.
For long form content, you really need time to mull things over.

I often have many other drafts ready and waiting when I start work on
another.  At the time of writing this, I have another blog post
completely drafted, but which I'm still thinking over.

When I think it's time to publish what I've written (and this decision
is taken quite arbitrarily) I'll fire up Emacs and proceed to rewrite
the entire thing in plain text format.  I don't use any markup or
other distractions during this process, I simply convert my text from
longhand to digital.

I don't rewrite my draft word for word, if I can think of a better
formulation when I'm typing I will use that instead.

Emacs is the best editor ever made, it's one of few programs that I
cannot live without.  There are so many nifty things in Emacs which
makes the process of writing in it so enjoyable.  First of course is
the way you move the cursor.  I won't go into this, but needless to
say it's so much better than the usual arrow key scheme that almost
every program uses.

I wrap all of my text at 70 characters.  This makes plain text files
easier to read, and it doesn't require the reader to have enabled
automatic line wrap in their viewer (something you can't even do in a
web browser, where these files are invariably read).  In Emacs having
the current paragraph wrap is as simple as pressing M-q (that's Alt+Q
for the uninitiated).

I do a spell check with 'M-x ispell' when I'm done.  I dislike the
on-the-fly spell checking 'feature' that many modern editors come with
by default.  Nothing kills the flow of writing as fast as seeing a red
squiggly line appear under what you've just written -- and, if you
don't fix the spelling right away, you'll soon have a document full of
red lines screaming at you for your attention.

(I believe this is why I prefer doing my first draft on paper.  Other
than running out of paper or ink, there really is nothing about the
medium that will distract me.)

When I've gone over the spelling there isn't much more to do.  I'll
reread the text a few times to see if I'm happy with it, or if I
should rework some sections.  I'll finish by adding a header with the
title and date, and then I ssh the file to my server and update the
blog index file.

A very simple process all things considered.  Very analogue, very
digitally primitive, but very effective and enjoyable.