I'm really good at procrastiprose, a term that had escaped my attention before now. For example, I've done a fair amount of writing and writing -related stuff lately while avoiding writing the article for which the deadline is in two days' time!
Mark, just terrific! Usually I hate “procrastiprose” and I’ve vowed not to publish it myself (it’s one of my rules). I hate it because it usually doesn’t offer anything new to think about it--it’s just transparently self-justifying and self-loathing and, I don’t know, embarrassing. But yours is interesting, not least because you’ve put such depth and analysis into it. I mean, a spreadsheet with word counts!!! I knew you and I shared parts of a brain, but I didn’t know it was the spreadsheet part. More reasons I like this one: I love a good neologism and I’m gonna use this one! And I love the “shitty first draft” bit, in part because it’s another way of describing the way I motivate myself to write that which is swirling around in my brain. I tell myself “barf it out,” and everybody knows that something that is barfed out is not going to be pretty; it’s going to be shitty. What do I barf out? A shitty first draft! (I barfed one out yesterday, considered sending it to someone else to review, but then realized I was only looking for them to tell me what I already knew: I needed to just throw it out and write something else. Do you have a neologism for a draft so bad that it’s never shared?”
I'll have to think about a word for the hopelessly bad draft. I might look to Latin or Greek to see if there's inspiration there. I first thought of "ka-ka." The whole digital reduction thing is interesting to me, because matters of quantification are so exalted in our culture about now and quantities also have their limits for many things. (Just like qualitative measures lack in certain areas.) Writing inhabits a space that is puzzling and privileged; it's a space where life and experience touch the mind. A new sense, of sorts.
I just hope that AI doesn't encroach too much and spoils the truer signals of writing.
Good post. Funny, but I always thought writing was procrastination by sitting down to write and suddenly realizing the dishwasher must be cleared. The quote about four o'clock in the morning is true. Usually relative peace at that hour.
Another great post, Mark! I love the river analogy. Not fanciful, as you put it: rather, it's delightful, and I dare say a pretty accurate representation!
Great line here: "Writing defies numerical compressions like word counts." Oh boy, it does!
And it's all very well having a target - specific word counts keep us real when it comes to fulfilling a writing brief, for instance - but given my penchant for editing (the editing stage pleases me so much that I'd often rather skip the WRITING part to go straight to editing - yeah, I know that's impossible, but that's how I feel!) I commonly find my word count shrinking alarmingly....!
I know from email correspondence with you that you ruminate like I do over your prose projects. But you are also much more disciplined when it comes to organizing, so perhaps the ol' spreadsheet trick would work for you as a set of milestones. Editing is refreshing, and I think easier than the first draft. At least for me. Grant proposals are very much like a brief. I've written a lot of them, and I always seem to have 18 pages drafted for a 15-page limit. The maximums are enforced by government agencies especially, so there's no squeaking by with a 16 pager for a 15 page maximum. Funny thing is that once I cut down and compress the 18-page draft to the 15-page limit ... well, the thing just reads better! That's the magic that makes editing fun. (And, for grants, it's especially fun if they're funded!)
Well, Mark, I may give the impression of being disciplined when it comes to organising, but I'm not sure I'd pass an exam in it, put it that way! 🤣
Interesting about those three extra pages you end up with for your grant proposals - I wonder if your subconscious self is giving you those so that you CAN do that brutal page-squeezing edit? 🤔
I'm really good at procrastiprose, a term that had escaped my attention before now. For example, I've done a fair amount of writing and writing -related stuff lately while avoiding writing the article for which the deadline is in two days' time!
Mark, just terrific! Usually I hate “procrastiprose” and I’ve vowed not to publish it myself (it’s one of my rules). I hate it because it usually doesn’t offer anything new to think about it--it’s just transparently self-justifying and self-loathing and, I don’t know, embarrassing. But yours is interesting, not least because you’ve put such depth and analysis into it. I mean, a spreadsheet with word counts!!! I knew you and I shared parts of a brain, but I didn’t know it was the spreadsheet part. More reasons I like this one: I love a good neologism and I’m gonna use this one! And I love the “shitty first draft” bit, in part because it’s another way of describing the way I motivate myself to write that which is swirling around in my brain. I tell myself “barf it out,” and everybody knows that something that is barfed out is not going to be pretty; it’s going to be shitty. What do I barf out? A shitty first draft! (I barfed one out yesterday, considered sending it to someone else to review, but then realized I was only looking for them to tell me what I already knew: I needed to just throw it out and write something else. Do you have a neologism for a draft so bad that it’s never shared?”
I'll have to think about a word for the hopelessly bad draft. I might look to Latin or Greek to see if there's inspiration there. I first thought of "ka-ka." The whole digital reduction thing is interesting to me, because matters of quantification are so exalted in our culture about now and quantities also have their limits for many things. (Just like qualitative measures lack in certain areas.) Writing inhabits a space that is puzzling and privileged; it's a space where life and experience touch the mind. A new sense, of sorts.
I just hope that AI doesn't encroach too much and spoils the truer signals of writing.
Good post. Funny, but I always thought writing was procrastination by sitting down to write and suddenly realizing the dishwasher must be cleared. The quote about four o'clock in the morning is true. Usually relative peace at that hour.
Ha! Bond Girl Bride enforces the dishwasher clearing around the DeLong household, and writing never is a good enough excuse to procrastinate on that!
Ha yes! Everybody clears the dishwasher at our house - finance specialists, writers and musicians. We are an equal opportunity household.
Another great post, Mark! I love the river analogy. Not fanciful, as you put it: rather, it's delightful, and I dare say a pretty accurate representation!
Great line here: "Writing defies numerical compressions like word counts." Oh boy, it does!
And it's all very well having a target - specific word counts keep us real when it comes to fulfilling a writing brief, for instance - but given my penchant for editing (the editing stage pleases me so much that I'd often rather skip the WRITING part to go straight to editing - yeah, I know that's impossible, but that's how I feel!) I commonly find my word count shrinking alarmingly....!
I know from email correspondence with you that you ruminate like I do over your prose projects. But you are also much more disciplined when it comes to organizing, so perhaps the ol' spreadsheet trick would work for you as a set of milestones. Editing is refreshing, and I think easier than the first draft. At least for me. Grant proposals are very much like a brief. I've written a lot of them, and I always seem to have 18 pages drafted for a 15-page limit. The maximums are enforced by government agencies especially, so there's no squeaking by with a 16 pager for a 15 page maximum. Funny thing is that once I cut down and compress the 18-page draft to the 15-page limit ... well, the thing just reads better! That's the magic that makes editing fun. (And, for grants, it's especially fun if they're funded!)
Well, Mark, I may give the impression of being disciplined when it comes to organising, but I'm not sure I'd pass an exam in it, put it that way! 🤣
Interesting about those three extra pages you end up with for your grant proposals - I wonder if your subconscious self is giving you those so that you CAN do that brutal page-squeezing edit? 🤔