2 ms·

50k words on an iPhone is really impressive. I'm guessing you didn't find it too frustrating or you wouldn't have made it to 50k words?

by marcc 9y ago

mbrock 9y ago
As for me, I often find iPhone writing productive because it's hard to edit on an iPhone, whereas on a computer I'm encouraged to tweak, move sentences, reorganize, etc. The distinction between writing and editing phases is profoundly important, I think, and computers generally destroy it. (I've started to write texts by chatting with myself as a way to suspend the inner premature editor.)
jeffwass 9y ago
It's not too bad actually. The Scrivener iOS app is pretty good too. Sometimes my thumbs can get sore (on a separate note I sometimes wish there was the option to have a keyboard on top of the phone screen instead of bottom. More natural thumb angle I think) I have about a 30 minute trip on the tube each way, so that's a dedicated session to focus. I set a session word count target of 500 words and try to make something happen. The last couple weeks I was easily hitting 1000 words in total over both sessions. But like code, that's no indicator of quality The tough times are when I really don't know what's going to happen, and try to come up with something. Other times I can really get in the flow, and stop thinking in words, but more in thoughts, and the words just form themselves. Most days when I get to my stop, I'm in the zone and want to keep going. Maybe the forced stopping helps in some way to keep things fresh. Repeat again on the way home. But now that I finished the draft, I feel much less productive. The past week I've been reading and making minor tweaks, but I probably need longer editing sessions to ensure better continuity. Btw, when I started, my target novel word count was 75k words, similar to the first Harry Potter. I did about 45k on laptop. But then blew past my target and hit 95k. Now I have to decide whether to do a lot of chopping, or keep the extra bits.

50k words on an iPhone is really impressive. I'm guessing you didn't find it too frustrating or you wouldn't have made it to 50k words?

by marcc 9y ago

50k words on an iPhone is really impressive. I'm guessing you didn't find it too frustrating or you wouldn't have made it to 50k words?

mbrock 9y ago

As for me, I often find iPhone writing productive because it's hard to edit on an iPhone, whereas on a computer I'm encouraged to tweak, move sentences, reorganize, etc. The distinction between writing and editing phases is profoundly important, I think, and computers generally destroy it. (I've started to write texts by chatting with myself as a way to suspend the inner premature editor.)

jeffwass 9y ago

It's not too bad actually. The Scrivener iOS app is pretty good too. Sometimes my thumbs can get sore (on a separate note I sometimes wish there was the option to have a keyboard on top of the phone screen instead of bottom. More natural thumb angle I think) I have about a 30 minute trip on the tube each way, so that's a dedicated session to focus. I set a session word count target of 500 words and try to make something happen. The last couple weeks I was easily hitting 1000 words in total over both sessions. But like code, that's no indicator of quality The tough times are when I really don't know what's going to happen, and try to come up with something. Other times I can really get in the flow, and stop thinking in words, but more in thoughts, and the words just form themselves. Most days when I get to my stop, I'm in the zone and want to keep going. Maybe the forced stopping helps in some way to keep things fresh. Repeat again on the way home. But now that I finished the draft, I feel much less productive. The past week I've been reading and making minor tweaks, but I probably need longer editing sessions to ensure better continuity. Btw, when I started, my target novel word count was 75k words, similar to the first Harry Potter. I did about 45k on laptop. But then blew past my target and hit 95k. Now I have to decide whether to do a lot of chopping, or keep the extra bits.