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For me, writing prose (mostly short stories, journals, memoirs) is more emotionally taxing. To write well I need to find ways to silence the self-censorship tha

For me, writing prose (mostly short stories, journals, memoirs) is more emotionally taxing. To write well I need to find ways to silence the self-censorship that will inevitably prevent me from expressing the things I really want to say. This often happens when I am in a state approaching mania. Donald Glover says he writes in the morning because it is "closer to dreaming". Coding is primarily a task about cognition, so focus/concentration wins. I find I code best in the late morning, when I'm well rested and have had a good breakfast.

deleted 8y ago
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nicklaf 8y ago
Donald Glover says he writes in the morning because it is "closer to dreaming" This is really the crux of it, in my experience. The first things I write down in the morning are usually continuations of subconscious creativity that began in the last dream I had before waking up. And usually my dreams are emotionally rooted in whatever problem I was solving the night before, which is especially helpful in making the stimulus of dreams fruitful. First thing in the morning, my recall is very good, and I am lucid about the essential concepts needed to explicate what I am really trying to solve in abstract terms. After hours of working on a problem that's going nowhere? Not so much. But then a break or evening hike, and I am just as creative again until bed. That said, for skilled activities like coding and playing a musical instrument, the temptation to be too creative before warming up and trying some experiments can probably only hurt your productivity, because if you sink your teeth into an idea before figuring out where your real problems are likely going to crop up, you're just committing to something that's probably unworkable. So if I have lots of code to write, I instead simply collect a list of bugs in the morning that I intend to squash, grab a bite to eat, and then start hacking away. Then very often, by early afternoon, there's the chance to reach some kind of minor epiphany, where it becomes painfully obvious that something simpler can obsolete the need for the kind of hacking done in the morning. ;-) If you're doing independent research that requires coding AND creative writing, I recommend going back and forth between the two approaches, perhaps alternating by day.
afarrell 8y ago
Two tools I've found useful for getting text on page: * https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/ https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/ -- just a very simple full-screen text composer * https://otter.ai/ https://otter.ai/ -- an app for doing transcription of human speech. I find it very useful to go to a quiet area and talk into it and then use that as my very rough draft of my thoughts. You'd never use it for stenography, but the quality is good enough to make it clear what you meant to say. and if your voice of self-criticism says "that seems like a crutch", reflect on the fact that you are a tool-using human who will probably wear shoes tomorrow and many days thereafter.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

nicklaf 8y ago

Donald Glover says he writes in the morning because it is "closer to dreaming" This is really the crux of it, in my experience. The first things I write down in the morning are usually continuations of subconscious creativity that began in the last dream I had before waking up. And usually my dreams are emotionally rooted in whatever problem I was solving the night before, which is especially helpful in making the stimulus of dreams fruitful. First thing in the morning, my recall is very good, and I am lucid about the essential concepts needed to explicate what I am really trying to solve in abstract terms. After hours of working on a problem that's going nowhere? Not so much. But then a break or evening hike, and I am just as creative again until bed. That said, for skilled activities like coding and playing a musical instrument, the temptation to be too creative before warming up and trying some experiments can probably only hurt your productivity, because if you sink your teeth into an idea before figuring out where your real problems are likely going to crop up, you're just committing to something that's probably unworkable. So if I have lots of code to write, I instead simply collect a list of bugs in the morning that I intend to squash, grab a bite to eat, and then start hacking away. Then very often, by early afternoon, there's the chance to reach some kind of minor epiphany, where it becomes painfully obvious that something simpler can obsolete the need for the kind of hacking done in the morning. ;-) If you're doing independent research that requires coding AND creative writing, I recommend going back and forth between the two approaches, perhaps alternating by day.

afarrell 8y ago

Two tools I've found useful for getting text on page: * https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/ https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/ -- just a very simple full-screen text composer * https://otter.ai/ https://otter.ai/ -- an app for doing transcription of human speech. I find it very useful to go to a quiet area and talk into it and then use that as my very rough draft of my thoughts. You'd never use it for stenography, but the quality is good enough to make it clear what you meant to say. and if your voice of self-criticism says "that seems like a crutch", reflect on the fact that you are a tool-using human who will probably wear shoes tomorrow and many days thereafter.