Hey subscribers, this is a co-authored post by us—Dominik and Harrison. If you’re a writer (or you want to write) but find it a struggle, then this one’s for you.
The video in this post shows us building a new word processor that helps solve a key struggle in the writing process. If you want to know more before watching the video, here’s some context:
The hard thing about writing
One reason why we find writing so hard is that we end up editing work we haven’t finished creating yet. But creating and editing are like fire and ice. They require a different awareness, posture, and skillset.
When we’re trying to write a first draft, we may do it quickly as a stream of consciousness. Or we may do it slowly as carefully formulated sentences. In either case, the trap is stopping to read what we’ve only just written.
When we do this, we inevitably spot things that need fiddling with and we start fiddling with them. Now we’ve slipped from Creator mode to Editor mode — and this repeated switching of skills is incredibly draining.
Eventually we no longer feel excited about our idea. Writing begins to hurt. It feels like we’re grinding.
The burnt aftertaste effect
This grinding feeling, together with the fact that what we’ve written has now been meddled with by two squabbling personalities, puts doubts in our mind: doubts about our idea, and doubts about our ability.
We slam shut our laptop and walk away feeling shit.
And what’s worse, those shitty feelings leave a bitter taste in our mouth, putting us off from returning to the project.
Another unfinished draft languishes on our computer never to be published, a reminder that the writing process beat us once again.
The incongruent outcome
But even if we do manage to finish a piece despite this writerly schizophrenia, there’s a bigger problem.
Let’s say we’ve grinded through a 3000-word article. How many times do you think we will have read the top half compared to the bottom? How many times will we have tinkered with the first three paragraphs compared to the last? Clearly, an order of magnitude more times.
Which means that the Creator and the Editor will have inflicted their damage more heavily on the first half than the last, resulting in work that feels unbalanced to anybody reading it.
So basically, what we’re saying is that editing while we’re creating is a terrible idea all round.
Instead, let the Creator create
Instead of letting the overbearing Editor storm the studio with his clipboard and red biro, wouldn’t it be better to use a studio that the Editor doesn’t have access to?
That’s where this new word processor comes in.
To achieve this, it will hide every completed sentence that we write (triggered when we type a full stop and hit the space bar). Then it will save them all in the database as a single piece of writing.
This should allow us to stay in Creator mode till a first draft is complete, without second-guessing, and without grinding our gears.
Once enough time has passed such that we’ve gotten the necessary distance required to be effective editors, then we can download a copy of the draft, read it in full for the first time, and see what needs editing (if anything).
Our hope is that this will give us the freedom to be fully ourselves creatively, without interruption, without criticism, and without control.
The tool is almost ready to test. And we’d love you to test it too. If you want to, or if you just want to follow our progress, make sure you subscribe to our publications so you don’t miss it.
Dominik writes Dominik’s Notebook
Harrison writes Creative Thought Partner
Speak soon, enjoy the video, watch this space, and happy writing!
Things mentioned in the call are below:
mentioned at 04:40 about her workshop on Research. 
https://www.masterclass.com/classes/david-sedaris-teaches-storytelling-and-humor
https://www.squibler.io/dangerous-writing-prompt-app
Harrisons Prompt:
“You are an AI expert, here is what I need my research assistant to do. Give me a prompt that I can give to an LLM that would ask me questions about my book to create the perfect research plan”
Video Harrison mentions:
Before we hit record we talked about 80s dance music. I’ve (Dominik) been starting my days with this song. Enjoy!
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