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About 10 years ago I started seeing writing as a creative practice very similar to playing an instrument. If you want to get good at playing an instrument there
by gnatman 4y ago
About 10 years ago I started seeing writing as a creative practice very similar to playing an instrument. If you want to get good at playing an instrument there's no shortcut to replace playing a LOT.
I found that when I wrote on a computer I was too distracted by where the writing would go. I was conscious of writing for an audience, and would get too caught up on saying things in a particular way- stopping starting deleting rewriting.
I ended up getting a Selectric III, the pinnacle of mechanical typewriter achievement. It is a beautiful, heavy, loud machine. While there is a corrective function, I've never used it. Writing on a typewriter is like a one way valve- words come out of your hands and can't be put back in. I was focused on pushing out as many pages as I could, practicing on the instrument for an hour a day or more. It changed my writing style and helped me discover a personal voice.
I still use the Selectric for writing letters to friends, and for "daily driver" writing use an Alphasmart NEO (another beautiful purpose-built machine).
Edit to comment on TFA: I use an "IBM Selectric Script" ball. A sort of light cursive.
- bayofpigs 4y ago[dead]
- eropple 4y agoPeople really sleep on AlphaSmarts. I first encountered them in middle school and bought one myself as an adult as a zero-frills notepad. It's great.
- delecti 4y agoAn amusingly similar and related strategy I've heard is to just switch your word processor to Comic Sans. The unprofessional look of it can have the same sort of effect to short circuit the tendency to second guess as you're writing. It's much cheaper to get started with as well.
- CodeWriter23 4y ago* your
- delecti 4y agoNo? I used "you're" correctly. You might be parsing my sentence incorrectly.
- scrollaway 4y agoTo defend GP, I don't think you should be using a contraction there. It's a bit like how you shouldn't just say "Will you take the trash out?" "Yes, I'll".
- delecti 4y agoAgree to disagree I guess, because "the tendency to second guess as you're writing" sounds like a totally natural object phrase to me.
- Majromax 4y agoTo join in the pedantry, I think that the better phrasing would be "to second guess as you write." The sentence uses "as" as a conjunction, and the former phrase is "it short circuits [...]". That phrase uses the simple present tense, so I think the default parallelism is to continue the tense into the subordinate clause. In particular, I think that the use of the present progressive in "as you're writing" makes the sentence more imminent, as if it's referring to a specific instance, e.g. "The dinner bell interrupts me as I'm writing this sentence." That's less consistent with "the tendency to," which to me speaks in a more abstract way.
- anonymouskimmer 4y agoI think bringing it into the first person, by removing the pronoun, is best: "to second guess while writing". I also think changing "to short circuit" to "of short circuiting" reads better, though if that change is made, additionally dropping "sort of" reads best. "The unprofessional look of it can have the same effect of short circuiting the tendency to second guess while writing." I can't comment on your grammatical critique. The technical aspects of grammar are taxing to me beyond the 'intuitive' level.