* I am not allowed to use a blogging system I wrote. (Really, I've written three or four at this point and need to stop, and there are plenty of existing systems that still align with my idiosyncratic constraints.)
* The blog must not have any meta content about blog tooling.
(I cheated a little on the latter by having an extra "site" blog for that - which lets me get the words out but doesn't "count" for the writing goal. A useful outlet, but it meant an extra month or so before "real writing" outnumbered meta writing :-)
For me, I can't learn anything unless I actually have a purpose for it. So if I wanted to learn how to write a static site system, I would also need to think of a reason I need one!
I wouldn't be surprised if programmers had, collectively, written more game engines than actual games.
Tailored to web developers, there definitively are more half-finished frameworks sitting on people's disks than finished web applications, I'm sure my ratio is pretty close to 1/1 over the years.
Those losers who still need Perl on their servers better be ready for a mind explosion
...thought, me back in (too lazy to look up which year it was). I probably published like two things with it, spent (what felt like) a million person hours on it, just to abandon it and use Textpattern.
(I admit, I am guilty).
But I am also currently writing version 2 of an app that utilizes a general-purpose application server that I wrote (took about seven months), at first. It's been shipping for a couple of years. The server does great, but is unwieldy. I suggest against writing general-purpose servers.
The new version uses a newer, more focused, server that is a lot lighter.
It’s a classic move.
Start a new diet, so you join a gym and or buy a bunch of workout stuff.
I won’t knock it though. An important minority of my yak-shaving endeavors have led to long term positive outcomes.
When I only have a pen and paper (which I used extensively for writing at school), many things may be inconvenient, but there's no way to fix it. This may turn into a source of a low-key stress, and interfere with my writing much more than tweaking a computer would.
I use Emacs, an ultimate tweaker's tool, for writing every day. Last time I had to tweak something in it was a few weeks ago, and it took maybe 2-3 minutes. It's a small price to pay for a tool that just does what you need, when you need it, with zero mental load, and zero frustration.
For notes during study pen and paper are constraining and force me to organize the thoughts in my mind first and then commit them. Mistakes needing to be corrected here is good: It reminds me what I misunderstood.
But, like the sibling poster, the writing goes onto the computer for later editing.
It’s pretty much the single function of pen and paper.
Go Tim Ferris way - notebook where the first page is left for the table of contents, and number all even-numbered pages as first step.
Scrivener just matched my workflow - usually for technical reports. Lot of cut/paste from a variety of sources.
But how do you archive these cards? That always drove me mad so I use them only for something “encyclopaedical” otherwise it is too much messy.
It's mainly the capturing of the ideas that I prefer writing physically. After that, being able to move them around my digital system makes them most useful because I can have dynamic views that surface priorities and related notes without having to physically sift through the stacks.
I am sure it is because I don't hold my pen/pencil correctly, but I think after 43 years I am not going to suddenly fix that.
Fountain pens are nice too since you don't need any pressure.
My writing looks a lot better if I just force myself to slow down and be deliberate, but honestly it's a constant battle. I'd definitely benefit from practicing penmanship on it's own.
Several thousand more like.
I've had many writing classes in school and different holders for the pen etc but I never managed to improve at all. Writing is just not for everyone.
Use a fountain pen. You can't press too hard: it bends and breaks the nib.
Disposable ones are good enough now, e.g. the Pilot V-Pen.
https://cultpens.com/products/pilot-vpen-v4-disposable-fount...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12114947
"George R.R. Martin Writes on a DOS-Based Word Processor From the 1980s". No internet, no multi tasking.
That said this one did write something. But I'd say for anyone else writr 10000+ words on whatever before a single word on your setup.
Is your "writing job" one where the end goal is like short random articles on some giant aggregate, or something like instructional content for businesses or something? Where a human typing things was just a means to an end, rather than what I'd assume OP's doing where they're writing for their own joy and/or because people love their specific voice? Because that's the only way my brain can rationalize it right now.
How do you think the ownership of these passages? Created by yourself or both of you? In what degree you would consider the line between you and her efforts?
That said, I do think there's a bit of irony to solving your "paying attention to writing" problem by setting up your OS from scratch, choosing to swap out the default networking stack, installing a novel flavor of your preferred text editor because you're "trying to get to know it a bit more," customizing your battery readouts, tweaking the login sequence, and then, after all that effort to make sure you'd have the perfect environment for uninterrupted writing sessions, installing tmux so that you'll be able to do multiple things at a time.