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#writingprocess

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"…the biggest impact was from the #writingprocess itself.

The initial draft is a representation of your argument laid out in front of you. Rewriting and editing that text so that it flows requires constantly engaging with the thoughts, ideas, and arguments in it. Clarifying the language also clarifies the thoughts. Let the text then rest a bit and then start the process anew when you revisit it. Repeat this often enough and the mud you started with becomes a cohesive logical argument.

It took a lot lot longer than when I’m not foggy, but it mostly worked. A clearer argument is a by-product of having to hone the writing."
@baldur

baldurbjarnason.com/notes/2025

www.baldurbjarnason.comFoggy feeds: the decline in my feed reader subscriptions
More from Baldur Bjarnason

Week 44: Almost there | #DSbook #writingprocess #datascience
Second week of review and edits, checking for typos, adding figures and tables, preparing citations and bibliography listing. Only a few more steps before the final submission. It is like polishing up a PhD thesis, all over again.

For more details, check out:
>> youtube.com/shorts/nzHMO6VVPks
>> apneacoding.blogspot.com/2024/

Week 44: Almost there | #DSbook #writingprocess #datascience
Second week of review and edits, checking for typos, adding figures and tables, preparing citations and bibliography listing. Only a few more steps before the final submission. It is like polishing up a PhD thesis, all over again.

For more details, check out:
>> youtube.com/shorts/nzHMO6VVPks
>> apneacoding.blogspot.com/2024/

Continued thread

No but, disgusting things aside, I just feel things and then I have some words and pictures that come naturally, or a way of dig into something that inspired me. But I have no voice telling me the words, I translate what I feel.
#writer #writerscoffeeclub #writers #poet #poetry #mastopoet #writerslife #writing #writingcommunity #writingwonders #writingprocess #creationprocess #creation #art #inspiration #concept #thinking #artist #artistsonmastodon #artists #artistlife #everydaypoetry

Having gathered my recent poetry into a packet for editing, I am nearing the end of the sheaf, and I am getting burnt out on this editing process.

Each time I read a new one, I feel the little spark that I originally felt in writing it

And editing them feels strangely like I am doing some sort of violence to that lingering version of myself

Continued thread

On getting "unstuck":

* Set a time limit
* 5-minute: only work for 5 minutes and then decide if going to continue.
* Do some backwards planning: if the final thing is do X, then a draft is needed Y; so then I'd need my notes together by Z; which means I need my materials by A; which means I need to order things from the annex or interlibrary loan by B -- so there's still time to get this done!
* make a checklist to see your progress
* Do a Pomodoro!

3/3 fin

Continued thread

On getting "unstuck":

* Turn on/turn off music
* Make an outline, bullet point, etc, and turn that into additive work. (Go from one bullet point, make many)
* Look at others’ work (reading other people): get inspired!
* Physical manifestations of angst: kick a soccer ball or indulge in a scream-session
* Keep trudging through it in hopes that you’ll get through the block
* Try a different angle

2/3

I worked with my freshmen yesterday on how to get "unstuck" when working on a big research project, and here are some of our answers:

* Talk it out with someone
* Take a moment to brainstorm
* Chunk it into super simple tasks
* Write what you’re worried about & review it (it's usually not so bad!)
* Change media (computer > paper > scrap > etc)
* Take a walk
* Change of scenery / food / workout
* Do something else productive

1/3

Thinking about writing process.
I'm a very big world builder / planner / outliner, often spending months planning before I start writing.

But then I inevitably deviate from that plan once the story starts flowing.

it's as if the planning phase is like an archaeologist in their office, figuring out where the hidden mosaic might be, and speculating about what it might look like. And the writing is like being on site, uncovering the story-mosaic, and finding that it's quite different from what you guessed in the planning stage.

Or, the planning stage is like creating a trap for the story-beast, constructing it according to how you think that beast might be. What bait would attract it, what snares would entrap it?

And the writing is finding that story-beast dubiously snuffling around the trap, and realising that you don't need to trap it after all. It's willing to talk to you, if you're patient enough to listen.