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I was reading Paul Graham's essay on "essay writing" today, and he mentioned how he lets thoughts flow freely onto the page but occasionally needs to back-track
by Tycho 16y ago
I was reading Paul Graham's essay on "essay writing" today, and he mentioned how he lets thoughts flow freely onto the page but occasionally needs to back-track several paragraphs if some thread of the discussion led to a 'dead end.'
It would be a cool experiment for a talented blogger/essayist to compose something in Google Wave and then make the Wave public. We (the readers) could use the playback feature to examine what stuff was cut, what the editing/refinement process was.
Of course the whole point of cutting material is that you don't want the world to see your unfinished work... but on the other hand as a one-off it might garner some more attention/publicity than usual.
Sigh. If only I was a talented blogger...
- anthonyb 16y agoEtherpad did this for one of Paul Graham's essays, but sadly they were bought out and it's no longer there. Apparently it was at http://etherpad.com/ep/pad/slider/13sentences http://etherpad.com/ep/pad/slider/13sentences
- eru 16y ago> Of course the whole point of cutting material is that you don't want the world to see your unfinished work... Not always. You might just want to cut something out to enhance the flow of your argument. In movies they often cut scenes out, but put them on the DVD as bonus material.