Posts Tagged ‘practical’

0
5
Jan

A Method for Typing Very Quick Drafts

When I type a draft of a story or something, or especially when I’m freewriting, I love being able to type incredibly fast without having to stop or think or edit. To that end, I’ve developed a way to type without ever using Backspace that still lets you go back and sew up a pristine draft very easily once you’re done with the initial headlong scramble of typing.

First, never touch Backspace. And never move the cursor back with the mouse or arrow keys.

Second, whenever you make an error, simply press Enter and start again from the most recent correct word (or easily recognizable phrase).

Use double carriage returns when you start a new paragraph. Type Nix when you want to delete to the top of the paragraph and start over, or Nix to Top when you want to delete everything you’ve written so far.

Then type. Really, really fast. Build up momentum and plunge forward. Don’t worry about correcting anything as you go, just start new lines and keep going. You may start the same line twenty times, but don’t even worry about it. You won’t lose any information and you’ll get into this beautiful groove of forward motion. Soon the need to edit as you go will begin to drop away, like those things that drop away from a rocket.

When you’re done with the manic scribbly typing of the first draft, it’s really easy to go back and fix your manuscript up, especially if you use keyboard shortcuts like I do. Start at the bottom. Skip to the top of the last paragraph. Delete backward until the word in front of your cursor replaces a word that looks the same. Skip to the top of the next paragraph. Repeat. If you hit a blank line, press backspace to delete it and you’ll preserve the intended paragraph break.

It makes more sense when you try it. And there’s something magical about watching your weirdo screwy swath of errors mechanically crunch itself down into a clean draft. Give it a try. You’ll see.

I’m still refining it and still forming the habits that will make it fully useful. But it’s nifty, and I thought some of you might enjoy it.

A couple protips for the advanced user:

– If you make a mistake within the first word of a new line, end it with a slash (/). When you’re fixing it afterward, delete the entirety of any line that ends in a slash.

– I’m not sure what the theory should be on exceptions to the no-backspace rule. Sometimes it seems like a quick fix of one or two letters is much more efficient than moving to a new line and retyping a correct word. That may be true, or maybe it varies from user to user. Same with inserting an idea a few sentences back.

– And, of course, there’s the question of whether you’re losing forward momentum by going back to retype your last correct word so frequently. The hypothesis behind this method is that there is enough of a psychological payoff to getting entirely out of edit mode and into a no-holds-barred headlong rush of typing that it will make up for the minor inefficiencies of the system. And the system is also designed to undercut and avoid a lot of the more substantial inefficiencies of editing your work as you go.

So that’s a tool I’m working on. What do you think? Is it useful? Can you think of any improvements?

0
28
Oct

Two Dilemmas

Unemployment is a fascinating situation. So far I’ve discovered two really interesting dilemmas:

1. Progress through useless activity

Any job-search action I take has a very low probability of success and no guarantee of any usefulness, at maximum. Finding a job listing, sending in a resume or making contact with an interesting local resident may be the thing that gets me a job, but 999 times out of 1000, it’s not. Since each individual step seems so unlikely it registers psychologically as useless, there’s little motivation to take the steps. But if I refuse to take the steps because each one provides (nearly) zero results for non-zero effort, I will never find success. So basically the goal here is to keep doing things that feel useless, constantly. Very intriguing.

2. The genuineness dilemma

I think my biggest asset is that I’m naively, almost startlingly non-mercenary. I am quite specifically here to serve the people of Baltimore, just because Jesus loves them and I consider them valuable. It’s what I care about and currently my deepest measure of personal success.

So I’ll go to fairly significant expense and effort just to find ways I can help people, then help them in those ways. I could be a secretary, mop floors as a janitor, head up of a non-profit or stay unemployed and take people out for coffee, and I’ll be largely content and purposeful in any of those cases.

Content minus the fact that I’m not providing for my family, of course, and that’s an important pressure. Because the pressure to provide means that I want to get a job, and wanting to get a job means I’ll start turning whatever assets I have to influence people to want to hire me, which means that I’ll start being genuine and non-mercenary with an ulterior motive, which, we sadly conclude, is no longer non-mercenary, and is therefore no longer an asset.

So essentially my goal is to stay true, stay joyful, keep my value and purpose centered on Jesus, trust him to provide employment and/or money as the (true) need arises, and in the meantime keep doing important, useless things.