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I am Neal Stephenson, sci-fi author, geek, and now, sword maker – AMA
- consumer451 4y agoI found this answer pretty interesting: > DavidGan1x > I seem to remember seeing the transcripts for the Baroque Cycle were all handwritten. Are you still handwriting your books and if so, what advantages do you think it has over using a computer? > NealStephenson > Mostly handwritten, yes. It's slower, and so each sentence spends longer in the buffer before it gets written out, so first draft quality is higher.
- boomboomsubban 4y agoI find the combination of using emacs daily with handwriting his books bizarre. I'm sure it's that he separates the two activities, but it's funny to go "OK, I'm going to abandon the super optimized text editor I'm using to go write text for my job."
- lelandfe 4y agoPeople are funny. I have an awesome to-do tracking setup, with everything I need bound to global hotkeys. Yet I still find myself reaching for my legal notepad to scrawl out rough ideas.
- vorpalhex 4y agoYup, same here. I have the best note taking and task management apps money can buy (imo) but I still use dot grid legal pads for many things. I find I use the two sets of tools very differently, despite seeming redundant on the surface.
- ploum 4y agoI’m myself a writer, geek and my hobby is developing free software. I do every text/blog post in Neovim, including emails with Neomutt. I do everything in console. Using the bépo layout (which is dvorak for French). I write my books, my journal and my zettelkasten with an Azerty mechanical typewriter. I think I do really understand his philosophy…
- nerpderp82 4y agoIs it a version of the Knuth airgap? Single tasking with few distractions?
- kbenson 4y agoThere could be many things working at once. Constraints often yield surprising benefits through innovation or forcing things to be distilled to the core important bits. In Stephenson's case, if he happens to record core info and not necessarily the full sentence he will write, which he can then finagle the right structure and prose for later, maybe that allows for better flow. If that's indeed what he's doing, it might be like writing pseudo-code and then going back and translating it into the programming language medium of choice. The benefit of writing in a journal is that it's probably easier to do on a sunny day at the beach in the sand than it would be on a laptop or tablet. Also maybe seeing old ideas crossed out on paper helps later when looking back over it to get you into the same headspace. Sometimes we over-optimize for aspect of a task (such as getting ideas down quick) in a way that's detrimental to the process itself when we step back and look at the whole.
- ploum 4y agoAll of that. And the simple fact I posted the previous comment is the proof I’m procrastinating my next chapter ;-)
- robbintt 4y agowhat is the knuth airgap?
- techdragon 4y agoDonald Knuth, Turing Award winner, author of the The Art of Computer Programming, original author of the TeX computer typesetting system, and many other impressive works. Is well known for not using email. https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html I suspect this is what they are talk about.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoInteresting that you find it bizarre when he clearly states his rationale. The intention is to put mechanical constraints on throughput and make it take longer. It seems like a matter of picking the right tool for the job.
- boomboomsubban 4y agoI can understand the rationale and still find it bizarre. I'm not criticizing his process, it's odd and unexpected to me.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoThats fair. I guess I just know a lot of people who use analog or less technological methods for process/quality reasons, so it is less strange to me.
- consumer451 4y agoI understand what you are getting at, but I find it more inspiring than bizarre. I am inspired by the fact that this man is able to use the correct tool for the particular job. I am also inspired by the self-awareness required to make such a call.
- enneff 4y agoFrom previous interviews I have seen him say his process for writing those books was to hand write them for the first draft and then transcribe them into emacs as part of the editing process. Seems pretty sensible to me; get the thoughts on the page without an easy way to fuss over the exact prose, and then labour over the exact structure and phrasing later.
- kerpotgh 4y agoI use a notepad to take notes. It offers degrees of freedom that nothing else can compare to including an iPad with a stylus. A text editor is extremely limiting.
- cableshaft 4y agoI wrote my game design journals by hand for a while. I didn't find the quality to be better necessarily, but it did allow for me to draw diagrams inline whenever I needed to so it was nice for that. And I liked that I had a physical artifact afterwards, especially since the writing had a bit of visual personality while computer text does not. But it takes forever to write by hand. I'd spend like 8+ hours a week just writing that journal, and I'd often have a cramped hand afterwards. Still did it that way for a couple years, though. And I still like referring to them from time to time.
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- nestorD 4y agoI have heard Neil Gaiman say something similar. Writing by hand is slower and you end up having to type it which pushes you toward cutting things down and streamlining the prose.
- foota 4y agoNeal Stephenson must have exceptional handwriting endurance then.
- beambot 4y agoLooks like average productivity for major authors is roughly 2000 words per day -- or 6-7 pages. https://wordcounter.net/blog/2017/12/04/103207_the-daily-word-counts-of-19-famous-writers.html https://wordcounter.net/blog/2017/12/04/103207_the-daily-wor... Michael Crichton at 10,000 words is a crazy outlier.
- em-bee 4y agoi can't write more than half a page without my handwriting getting sloppy. especially because it is slow, i am tempted to write faster, and soon the result becomes unreadable. so yes, anyone doing this must have good discipline in handwriting
- unnah 4y agoDid you do your schoolwork on a computer? It's not that many years ago that a school exam could mean writing multiple half-page answers by hand, and you would also write multi-page essays by hand.
- em-bee 4y agono i didn't. but i never had good handwriting. and once i got out of school i was working with computers all day, so somehow it must have gotten worse since then. i think the main problem is some kind of impatience getting something written down, which i guess i developed after getting used to writing on a computer. in other words i am simply out of practice
- maroonblazer 4y agoI love Stephenson, but I think he's deluding himself. The "buffer" is the brain. The point of writing is to get it out of the brain. Otherwise, to quote Forster: "How do I know what I think, until I see what I say."
- sink 4y agoWith all due respect, I think it's strange to critique something as deeply personal as a technique used in creative writing.
- maroonblazer 4y agoI'm not criticizing his technique, I'm criticizing his rationale. If instead he'd said something like: "I just like the feel of pen to paper." Or "I've tried both pen/paper and a computer and there's something about using a computer that just doesn't work for me." that would make more sense. But this notion of a 'buffer' just doesn't. Perhaps "deluding" was too pejorative; I'll grant that.
- veidr 4y agoYeah, but for me (and I think most people, although I suspect there's a lot of diversity from person to person) what comes "out of the brain" is noticeably different when writing by hand. Most of us can type a lot faster than we can write with a pencil. I doubt it is just the difference in speed (and I think Stephenson is simplifying here, not really saying that is the only difference), but that's part of it. A sentence written by hand has often been drafted, considered, and revised before it actually makes it to the paper. Whereas for somebody who can type, the first sentence that hits the page is often literally the first draft of it, as originally thought. (I still cannot imagine writing an entire novel this way myself, though...)
- s1artibartfast 4y agoI think you are missing the point. Of course the buffer is the brain. the idea is to give the brain more time to process. If you write a sentence per hour and a sentence per second, they will have different quality levels.
- jakupovic 4y agoNeal Stephenson is a product of handwritten school era. He Learned to think on paper. I am nowhere near but when I really need to learn something new or compose I reach for my notebook.
- skybrian 4y ago> Contrary to the title of this Reddit, I don't personally make swords, because it's a specialized craft that requires much detailed knowledge of metallurgy! I have done a little hand forging of crude objects like coat hooks. I leave the actual sword making to pros. https://old.reddit.com/r/books/comments/11h6hg5/i_am_neal_stephenson_scifi_author_geek_and_now/jas7qxe/?context=3 https://old.reddit.com/r/books/comments/11h6hg5/i_am_neal_st...
- krisoft 4y agoThat's a bit sad. When I read the title my first reaction was: "He clearly loves swords. I'm happy for him that he found a way to try his hand making swords." But turns out the title lied. Also I would say he is letting the "perfect" be his enemy. Nobody ever woke up being a master sword smith. Everyone who ever made a great swords made a bunch of crappy swords first, followed by some mediocre ones before they made a great one. > it's a specialized craft Yes it is. > that requires much detailed knowledge of metallurgy Being among the best sword makers, crafting the best swords? Maybe. Some amount of practical knowledge of metallurgy helps there. I wouldn't over estimate the required knowledge though. You are not growing monocrystaline turbine blades. You are not manufacturing subsafe valves for a deep submersible rescue vessel, or a nuclear attack submarine. You are making a sword. But in general: Just try to do a thing! I have much more respect for a backyard sword smith who made a crappy sword which looks kinda bad and can't hold and edge, than for a sword snob who has thousand excuses why they can't do a thing.
- susam 4y agoFrom https://old.reddit.com/r/books/comments/11h6hg5/_/jasbgk0/ https://old.reddit.com/r/books/comments/11h6hg5/_/jasbgk0/ > doolio_: Are you still using Emacs? > NealStephenson: YEs, every day
- pxc 4y agoBummed he didn't answer what was his favorite Emacs package.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoInteresting to see and read the questions and responses around blockchain technology. He seems to provide a pretty balanced response and I have the best wishes for his crypto platform. In my opinion it seems like a chain and Marketplace for digital rights management is one of the best fits for the technology.
- divbzero 4y agoThe auction for the sword inspired by Snow Crash ends in three days. I’m surprised that the current bid for the sword ($55,000) [1] exceeds the current bid of for the original manuscript ($35,000) [2]. [1]: https://www.sothebys.com/buy/0e467c5b-32fa-4c5f-a1c9-3590c40229cb/lots/bd827429-c713-4945-939e-1d4bfc663564 https://www.sothebys.com/buy/0e467c5b-32fa-4c5f-a1c9-3590c40... [2]: https://www.sothebys.com/buy/0e467c5b-32fa-4c5f-a1c9-3590c40229cb/lots/7a6c7e46-a7b9-441b-b62c-d691b466c16c https://www.sothebys.com/buy/0e467c5b-32fa-4c5f-a1c9-3590c40...
- krisoft 4y ago> I’m surprised that the current bid for the sword ($55,000) [1] exceeds the current bid of for the original manuscript ($35,000) [2]. Why are you surprised? I think about it like this: imagine you bought both and you are having a party. Folks come over, they have a good time, on one shelf they see a bunch of crumpled paper with pen scribles. They will most likely ignore that shelf because it looks like junk. On the other shelf they see a badass sword, clearly a piece of art. Much more likely that they compliment you on it. Much more likely that they will remember it, much more likely that they ask you for the story of it. I love the book, but I’m absolutely not surprised that a cool looking unique object fetches more money than one which looks like junk.
- zamnos 4y agoI mean, after spending $35k, you don't just throw it on a shelf (or maybe you do - I don't have that kind of money), you'd set it on a pedestal in a darkened room so the spotlights make it pop.
- krisoft 4y ago> or maybe you do - I don't have that kind of money I can assure you I'm talking about hypotheticals here. > you'd set it on a pedestal in a darkened room so the spotlights make it pop I assumed the same. You do the same with both. But which pops more? The intricate sword (which comes with its own illuminated display system) or the crumpled papers?
- bobby_bbb 4y agoFun! Whenever someone asks me which book of his I like best, the answer always seems to be, whichever one I just re-read last. (Well, except for Dodo.)
- themadturk 4y agoThank heavens...I was afraid I was the only one who hated Dodo. More than any author I love, my history with Stephenson is mixed. Couldn't get past the first chapter of Anathem (though I plan to try again this year). Have tried twice to get through the first book of the Baroque Cycle (it's just a slog...a slog full of great writing, but a slog anyway). Those are huge pieces of Stephenson that are just blanks for me. I didn't finish Dodo, either (a minor piece). But the rest? Gems.
- JohnFen 4y agoYou aren't alone -- that pretty much parallels my own opinions. Not to take anything away from his masterpieces such as Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, which I adore beyond measure, but my favorite book is still The Big U. It's simpler than his later works, and he was still learning his craft when he wrote it, but it brings me such undiluted joy that none of that matters.
- erikw 4y agoAnathem and The Baroque Cycle both took me two tries as well. The second half of Anathem is an action-adventure book mix of Zodiac and Seveneves, so it gets really engaging. The Baroque Cycle eventually sucked me in because I felt like I really got to know the characters, but it never gets fast-paced.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoInteresting, I thought the second half of Anathem wend down hill. The first half reminded me of Hesse's The Glass Bead Game
- lproven 4y ago> Thank heavens...I was afraid I was the only one who hated Dodo. Couldn't finish it. I've read everything else he's written and between liked it and _loved_ it... including the nonfiction. Only RAFOD was unfinishable, and _Fall ODIH_ I finished but didn't find worth it.
- slothtrop 4y agoThanks for pointing this out, I would have missed it. Favorite living author of mine. One answer I was looking for: his next work's going to be historical fiction. Well I'll take it.
- robswc 4y agoPerfect, I can finally ask him what _really_ happens at the end of his books! /s But really, I did wish Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash had a bit more of an epilogue. I know it may not be needed but it would be more satisfying.
- enneff 4y agoREAMDE had a neat and clean concluding chapter and imo it actually made the book worse for it. So be careful what you wish for.
- celestialcheese 4y agoMost of the critique I hear Stephenson get is that he writes an incredible 400 page book in 800 pages. I agree with you, though. His world building and stories pull me in unlike almost any other author - the more the better IMO.
- robswc 4y ago>Most of the critique I hear Stephenson get is that he writes an incredible 400 page book in 800 pages. LOL, if that's not the truth! I'm a sucker for expansive world building, lore and details, so it actually works for me but I can 100% agree with the critique.
- lostmsu 4y agoChatGPT-based tool to make books shorter.
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- paulpauper 4y ago"Can you summarize all your books please in 2-3 sentences?" I find writing by hand helps too in terms of finding ideas in ways that being at the computer does not.
- thot_experiment 4y agoIt was my turn this month and I had my book club read Diamond Age. While I absolutely love the book and think it's god damn prescient, it's been the most contentious book that we've read so far. This man does not know how to write a satisfying ending. I still absolutely love his work though, despite the extremely lackluster and rushed ways he wraps things up in his books.
- gizajob 4y agoYeah the Diamond Age is profoundly brilliant for about 2/3rds, but the last act just gets too weird for its own good and doesn't really resolve. Still fantastic to be in that world though.
- stuaxo 4y agoThe first chapter is very different to the rest of the book. I hated the first chapter so much it took me about 5 tries to get through it, but then I really enjoyed the rest of the book.