How Long Does It Take To Write?
On The Clock
I'm curious about people's creative processes. Figured I'd post a little about mine.
Writing comes in waves. I do the majority of my posts in one sitting. Basically, a strike while the iron's hot thing. When I've got all the context for a post loaded into my head, I don't like to lose it. Getting it back can be hard1.
Anything I can do to maintain flow is worth it's weight.
Punting (and Hiding) The Prose
Footnotes are a favorite tool. The more I use them, the quicker I get through a piece. No need to spend time weaving caveats into the mix. Just shift them down and keep going2.
The process becomes a back and forth. Covering the footnotes and the core post itself. I'll write a bit in my editor then review it on a preview website.
That flow lays a trap, though. I keep going back to the top. Making edits as I go down the page to get back to where I left off. The longer a piece becomes, the less time I spend working on the bottom.
My hack for that is to wrap early sections in "comment tags". That make them disappear in the preview. Going to the top of the page becomes going to the start of a section instead of the start of the post3. Way easier to get through.
What About The Time
So, how long does it take to write?
As with everything, it depends4.
The best I can do is give you a few examples:
- This piece took 1 hour 12 minutes to go from blank file to final polish.
- The prior post (Using Hash Functions To Make Predictions And Publish Safely1) took four and half hours5.
-
Sometimes, it take me 30min to write a few hundred characters
(The video is five minutes. It would be better if it was two. I may recut it some day, but you'll get the gist pretty quickly.)
Words, Words, Words
All that said, the time doesn't matter to me. Getting the words right does.
-a
Endnotes
Something I've come to realize during my time without a job is just how much energy writing takes.
My writing muscles are in pretty good shape. Regardless, it costs spoons.
Some days, ya got 'em. Some days, you don't.
Footnotes
Something I've found with bipolar disorder: when I'm on the down side of things it's way, way harder to pick something back up I've set down.
That impact makes me hesitant to leave things. Even when I'm on the up side. The fear it won't come back remains even thought the thread isn't active.
Footnotes currently require hand numbering in my website builder. It's a pain in the ass. I'll be addresses that with automation soon.
Of course, I remove the comments tags for the final edits to review the full post.
Variables include: complexity and familiarity of the topic, if it's a code sample of something I know vs something I don't, how many footnotes I make, how many links I reference, etc...
I started as soon as I got up, took my brain meds, and had coffee. Kept going until it was done and posted.
That wasn't pure clicking on the keyboard though. I jump around to discord, matrix, and social networks a bit while I'm writing.
It's a little break after finishing a run of writing. Sometimes, it's five minutes between excursions. Sometimes, it's fifty.