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I enjoyed reading this piece from Writing Slowly, about whether or not we should publish all our notes online. While they’re still percolating. “Working with garage door up” is a popular way of describing it.
They came up with four pluses and four minuses for publishing all one’s notes online, but it wasn’t a draw. My conclusion is the same: there are positives to the approach but it’s not for them, or for me. Perhaps with a focused subset of notes on a specific topic, but no way with everything.
No one needs to see the literary equivalent of us in our underwear, before we’ve had a shower and cleaned our teeth. While uncombed hair and mismatched clothing are fine, some parts of the thinking process may be best left behind closed doors.
The image that for me best sums up this process of making short notes to create longer pieces of writing is that of my little worm farm. All sorts of scraps get dumped in at the top. And mostly unseen, the worms turn everything into nourishing compost. —Writing Slowly
To me this is like practising the piano when other people are around. I may be repeating the same tune over and over with different dynamics, or trying out melodies that don’t work (yet), but the experience is focused on the music. I’m fully clothed, and some drawers in the practice room stay shut or are hidden out of sight.
To finish off here are some links I saved this week that look useful for future projects:
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