Locus Online Features: Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of D...
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07 January 2009
Highlighted by alexambrose
The single worst piece of writing advice I ever got was to stay away from the Internet because it would only waste my time and wouldn't help my writing.
Highlighted by superjaberwocky
worst piece of writing advice I ever got was to stay away from the Internet because it would only waste my time and wouldn't help my writing
Highlighted by alexambrose
But the Internet has been very good to me. It's informed my creativity and aesthetics, it's benefited me professionally and personally, and for every moment it steals, it gives back a hundred delights. I'd no sooner give it up than I'd give up fiction or any other pleasurable vice.
Highlighted by superjaberwocky
Every now and again, when I see a new website, game, or service, I sense the tug of an attention black hole: a time-sink that is just waiting to fill my every discretionary moment with distraction.
Highlighted by jrstoltz
But the Internet has been very good to me. It's informed my creativity and aesthetic
Highlighted by alexambrose
It's not plausible or desirable to try to get the world to go away for hours at a time, but it's entirely possible to make it all shut up for 20 minutes.
Highlighted by superjaberwocky
Short, regular work schedule
Highlighted by willrich
set a modest daily goal — usually a page or two
Highlighted by vagabondher
Short, regular work schedule
Highlighted by alexambrose
doing nothing else while I'm working on it.
Highlighted by vagabondher
I set a modest daily goal — usually a page or two — and then I meet it every day, doing nothing else while I'm working on it
Highlighted by alexambrose
it's entirely possible to make it all shut up for 20 minutes.
Highlighted by vagabondher
Leave yourself a rough edge
When you hit your daily word-goal, stop
Highlighted by mointrigue
Twenty minutes is a short enough interval that it can be claimed from a sleep or meal-break
Highlighted by vagabondher
The secret is to do it every day, weekends included, to keep the momentum going, and to allow your thoughts to wander to your next day's page between sessions. Try to find one or two vivid sensory details to work into the next page, or a bon mot, so that you've already got some material when you sit down
Highlighted by kabique01
Twenty minutes is a short enough interval that it can be claimed from a sleep or meal-break (though this shouldn't become a habit). The secret is to do it every day, weekends included, to keep the momentum going, and to allow your thoughts to wander to your next day's page between sessions.
Highlighted by alexambrose
do it every day, weekends included, to keep the momentum going, and to allow your thoughts to wander to your next day's page between sessions.
Highlighted by vagabondher
Leave yourself a rough edge
Highlighted by willrich
When you hit your daily word-goal, stop.
Highlighted by vagabondher
When you hit your daily word-goal, stop
Highlighted by kabique01
Leave yourself a rough edge
When you hit your daily word-goal, stop. Stop even if you're in the middle of a sentence. Especially if you're in the middle of a sentence. That way, when you sit down at the keyboard the next day, your first five or ten words are already or
Highlighted by alexambrose
Researching isn't writing and vice-versa.
Highlighted by mointrigue
When you come to a factual matter that you could google in a matter of seconds, don't. Don't give in and look up the length of the Brooklyn Bridge, the population of Rhode Island, or the distance to the Sun. That way lies distraction — an endless click-trance that will turn your 20 minutes of composing into a half-day's idyll through the web.
Highlighted by superjaberwocky
Short, regular work schedule
Highlighted by iphigenie
so that you get a little push before you begin your work.
Highlighted by vagabondher
do what journalists do: type "TK" where your fact should go, as in "The Brooklyn bridge, all TK feet of it, sailed into the air like a kite."
Highlighted by mointrigue
Don't research
Highlighted by willrich
When you come to a factual matter that you could google in a matter of seconds, don't.
Highlighted by vagabondher
Don't research
Researching isn't writing and vice-versa. When you come to a factual matter that you could google in a matter of seconds, don't.
Highlighted by alexambrose
Don't be ceremonious
Highlighted by mointrigue
It's nice to have all your physical needs met before you write, but if you convince yourself that you can only write in a perfect world, you compound the problem of finding 20 free minutes with the problem of finding the right environment at the same time.
Highlighted by superjaberwocky
type "TK" where your fact should go,
Highlighted by kabique01
Instead, do what journalists do: type "TK" where your fact should go, as in "The Brooklyn bridge, all TK feet of it, sailed into the air like a kite." "TK" appears in very few English words (the one I get tripped up on is "Atkins") so a quick search through your document for "TK" will tell you whether you have any fact-checking to do afterwards.
Highlighted by vagabondher
ndless click-trance that will turn your 20 minutes
Highlighted by alexambrose
do what journalists do: type "TK" where your fact should go,
Highlighted by alexambrose
Don't be ceremonious
Highlighted by willrich
Word, Google Office and OpenOffice all come with a bewildering array of typesetting and automation settings that you can play with forever. Forget it. All that stuff is distraction, and the last thing you want is your tool second-guessing you, "correcting" your spelling, criticizing your sentence structure, and so on.
Highlighted by superjaberwocky
Don't be ceremonious
Highlighted by alexambrose
Leave yourself a rough edge
Highlighted by iphigenie
Kill your word-processor
Word, Google Office and OpenOffice all come with a bewildering array of typesetting and automation settings that you can play with forever. Forget it. All that stuff is distraction, and the last thing you want is your tool second-guessing you, "correcting" your spelling, criticizing your sentence structure, and so on. The programmers who wrote your word processor type all day long, every day, and they have the power to buy or acquire any tool they can imagine for entering text into a computer. They don't write their software with Word. They use a text-editor, like vi, Emacs, TextPad, BBEdit, Gedit, or any of a host of editors. These are some of the most venerable, reliable, powerful tools in the history of software (since they're at the core of all other software) and they have almost no distracting features — but they do have powerful search-and-replace functions. Best of all, the humble .txt file can be read by practically every application on your computer, can be pasted directly into an email, and can't transmit a virus.
Highlighted by dogtrax
if you convince yourself that you can only write in a perfect world, you compound the problem of finding 20 free minutes with the problem of finding the right environment at the same time.
Highlighted by vagabondher
Kill your word-processor
Highlighted by willrich
Kill your word-processor
Highlighted by alexambrose
Don't research
Researching isn't writing and vice-versa. When you come to a factual matter that you could google in a matter of seconds, don't.
Highlighted by iphigenie
They use a text-editor, like vi, Emacs, TextPad, BBEdit, Gedit, or any of a host of editors.
Highlighted by kabique01
By all means, schedule a chat — voice, text, or video — when it's needed, but leaving your IM running is like sitting down to work after hanging a giant "DISTRACT ME" sign over your desk, one that shines brightly enough to be seen by the entire world.
Highlighted by superjaberwocky
Realtime communications tools are deadly
Highlighted by willrich
biggest impediment to concentration is your computer's ecosystem of interruption technologies: IM, email alerts, RSS alerts, Skype rings, e
Highlighted by kabique01
Realtime communications tools are deadly
Highlighted by alexambrose
IM, email alerts, RSS alerts, Skype rings, etc
Highlighted by alexambrose
Don't be ceremonious
Highlighted by iphigenie
but leaving your IM running is like sitting down to work after hanging a giant "DISTRACT ME" sign over your desk,
Highlighted by alexambrose
Kill your word-processor
Highlighted by iphigenie
Realtime communications tools are deadly
Highlighted by iphigenie
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