#AmWriting
Some pieces I wrote about (and during) the writing process.
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Unpolished words
There are good reasons why your first draft should be bad.
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A good reason not to write in books
I don’t want Former Me telling me which bits of the book are most noteworthy.
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Keeping sources and ideas separate
In which I am astonished by a reminder of how I used to work.
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Officially buzzing
After a frustrating six months, progress on my book is emerging from the doldrums!
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My makeshift desks
In which I unwittingly mimic my hero with the aid of an old chopping board.
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My notes ‘tagsonomy’
An overly nerdish description of the taxonomy I use to classify my various notes.
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Sitting on a rock with a brew, gazing out to sea
There are important elements of writing that feel like skiving.
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My unplanned archives
Collections of informally documented stuff have become my archives of sorts.
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Converting my notes into a chapter
How I used my note-making system to research and write a chapter of my Darwin book.
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Fools and dilettantes
How the problems I’ve been encountering lately are a sign (I hope) that my book is starting to come together.
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No going back
How was I ever able to organise my thoughts without ‘atomising’ them—breaking them down into smaller and smaller discrete notes—and then linking them together?
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Everything I needed was already in my notes!
I’ve known it from the start, but this new way of making notes is perfect for the way I tend to work. It’s what I’ve been looking for all these years.