random writing thoughts

What writers secretly want: Typewriters

I read a newsletter from self-publishing guru David Gaughran the other day, in which he waxed rhapsodic over a Remarkable 2 with a type folio (keyboard attachment). The Remarkable 2 is an e-ink tablet that allows you to use an (optional) stylus to write notes, which can later be translated into text, or you can attach the keyboard and type away in case your handwritten scrawls defy translation.

The thing Gaughran emphasized repeatedly was how the Remarkable only does this one thing–it lets you enter text, by hand or by keyboard, and that’s pretty much it (you can also doodle, if you’re so inclined). There are no other apps, no social media, not even a clock to show the time. Just you and the words you’re producing.

There’s another (expensive) device that works on a similar principle: the Freewrite1The price certainly ain’t free. Hope you have something other than your writing dreams to pay for one of these, because they are freaking expensive. It basically fuses a computer keyboard to an e-ink screen and does the same thing: allows you to write, and nothing else. Their website offers this unattributed quote: “Studies show it takes 25 minutes to refocus on a task after an interruption.”

Humans have generally been shown to be terrible at multitasking and yet I see people distracting themselves in more ways now than ever before. They don’t just surf the web, they listen to a podcast while doing so, but also scroll through TikTok while also maybe preparing food in the kitchen, superficially absorbing everything, but with most of this being ephemeral, little dopamine hits to keep their minds occupied until the next distraction, all in service of what, exactly?

For a writer, it’s in service of not writing. Distractions kill the writing process. When I started writing as a wee one, my parents got me a nifty birthday present–a portable Smith Corona typewriter. I still remember walking downtown to The Letterbox, the local stationery store, to buy fresh ribbons for it. I loved typing, though I was terrible at it (and remain so to this day. If I could go back in time, I’d force myself to learn how to touch type). But the thing with that typewriter is it just did that: typing. It was just me and the words. And the only way to revise on the go was to xxxx over your mistakes and act like they never happened. It was great.

The other day I was using iA Writer, a minimalist writing app, and I switched it to typewriter mode, where it keeps everything centred on the page. As you type, the rest of the interface fades away, so it’s just you and the words. It almost feels the same–except I still see the system clock, the dock, chat programs, all kinds of other stuff on screen and around me. I am pretty good at shutting out distractions most of the time, but I get it. They pull you away from your writing. They destroy your writing flow.

And that’s why writers secretly want typewriters.

Labor Day 2022, or Labour Day 2022

A long time ago I had a dream to become a published author and I read somewhere that the biggest English-speaking book market is the good ol’ U.S. of A (this was before TikTok ruined everyone’s attention span and reading became quaint and/or gauche), so when it came to writing, the advice was to make your work as publication-ready as possible for the U.S. market, in anticipation of possible publication.

This led me to shunning my Canadian spelling heritage and switching the dictionary/language in various applications like Microsoft Word to U.S. English. I felt dirty, but also efficient and professional.

I had one story published in a (Canadian) Moose Lodge newsletter when I was 12. This was an actual newsletter, printed on actual paper. It was pretty thrilling when I was 12. This was the sum of all my publication efforts, and it was because the man who ran the newsletter was nice and wanted to encourage me.

But thanks to inertia and a weird need to be efficient, I have kept using the American spelling of words, even though I had long given up the idea of seeing my work formally published. Heck, I skipped National Novel Writing Month in 2020 and didn’t even feel guilty about it!

I am starting to lean back to switching to Canadian spelling. Sure, “labour” has one more letter than “labor” and with my typing speed, it makes a difference, but “labour” has character and flavor flavour. “Labor” has the blood ruthlessly drained from it.

Perhaps I am overthinking this.

I’ll ponder some more on this Labour Day, then make a decision, because I think that may have been one of my New Year resolutions–to be more decisive. Maybe?

LanguageTool’s mad love affair with the comma

While I dearly love the Firefox browser and think everyone should use it instead of helping Google dominate and bend the web to its will by using Chrome, I did find its built-in spelling checker to be just erratic enough in reliability that I began searching for alternatives. One of the weird things the built-in spelling checker would randomly do is start flagging every word as wrong, so you’d get paragraphs of words with squiggly red underlines beneath them. For someone who likes to keep things (relatively) tidy, it drove me batty.

In recent years, grammar/style checkers have come into vogue, with all of them pretty much following the same model:

  • Plugins for all major browsers
  • Basic features like spelling checker free to use
  • Premium features like style checking requiring a subscription
  • Subscription prices being on the edge of “lol no” territory

I tried Grammarly, which is easily the best-promoted of the bunch, and ProWritingAid. Both were fine but not quite right for various niggling reasons that I’ve since forgotten. Maybe they nagged too often to upgrade to the subscription or something.

Another one I tried is the plain-named LanguageTool, which sounds more like a description of the software before it gets a spicy, memorable name. All I needed was a good spelling checker and it works very well at this part. Better yet for me, it works with a single left-click on the word and presents a very nice-looking pop-up with the correct spelling ready to be clicked on pretty much every time. Yay. Now, LT (as I call it, now that we’ve established a relationship), also offers basic grammar checking for free, so I’ve left it on, figuring it couldn’t hurt, could it? Depending on who you ask, it can, actually! See the video Grammarly is Garbage, and Here’s Why as just one example (I’m not picking on Grammarly specifically, this is just the most recent video of its type that I’ve seen).

What I have discovered about LT’s grammar checker is this: It is madly in love with commas, as seen in the screenshot below.

Its comma rule can be summed up as:

If you use the word 'and' it must be preceded by a comma OR THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT MAY END

In some cases it’s right, in others it’s weird and in a few, it’s flat-out wrong, like this one, which demands a comma be added after ‘pretty’:

Adding a comma after ‘pretty’ would seem to make sense, because ‘it’s pretty’ is a complete, if short, thought. But in the context of the sentence it’s a silly suggestion because the sentence is so short, no one is going to get confused by not having a pause after ‘pretty’ and wonder what the heck is going on.

Now, I do have the option to Turn off rule everywhere (see screenshot below), which would presumably eliminate it flagging missing commas even when sentences are crying out desperately for them. And part of me really wants to do that. But commas are also kind of my bane, and I do often leave them out when they should be in–or sprinkle them too liberally. Basically, commas make me crazy. So the rule stays. For now.

In conclusion, is Esperanto better than English? Should we all be switching to it? Practice our telepathy for better, clearer communication? Lobby the grammar authorities to just eliminate the comma entirely? So many options.

Also, apologies for my whimsical use/misuse of double and single quotation marks. LanguageTool doesn’t flag those.

Substack gonna Substack (again)

I have a piddly little newsletter on Substack and after four issues, have been mulling over what to do for Issue #5 and all others going forward. In the end I decided I needed to offer more than funny/random links, I needed to offer stuff that was uniquely me, because you can’t get that stuff anywhere else unless someone clones me in my sleep.

And while it’s been challenging to get together all-original stuff™ for future newsletters, Substack keep making it harder for me to think of having a future on the platform, because I continue to question their motives and their competence.

I found their editorial on “censorship” to be a facile and weak defense of being hands-off in moderating content on their platform. It just means they are allowing hate and disinformation to find a home on Substack. They seem to be blind to where this may ultimately lead–but with more writers abandoning Substack, they might figure it out eventually.

Here’s a recent story on writers leaving on Mashable: Why Substack writers are leaving the platform, again

But while this is an ongoing (and serious) concern, it’s not even what I’m going to discuss here. It’s the release of their new iOS app and the rollout of it, and how it feels like a calculated move to benefit Substack, possibly at the expense of the writers it offers a home to.

In its initial release (which they will be changing–more on this in a bit), anyone installing the app on an iPhone or iPad would see an option to “pause email notifications” as shown in the tweet below. This option was enabled by default.

(I’ve also included a redundant image of the screenshot in the event the tweet goes away.)

Image
Pause email notifications = Never see a newsletter in your inbox again

From Casey Newton’s Platformer (hosted on Substack):

(Substack co-founder and CEO Chris) Best told me there were practical considerations for this design choice. Many people enable notifications for both Substack and email, and receiving duplicate notifications might be frustrating.

But the company also believes in the superiority of the app as a place to read. “Email is great for all of the reasons it has always been great,” Best said. “It’s low friction. It’s this direct connection where you can reach out, unmediated by the algorithm. But it’s obviously not the best version of that reading experience.”

Let’s step back and examine what Substack, at its base level is, and how it works:

  • Substack hosts newsletters from a variety of writers on a variety of topics
  • In exchange for 10% of revenue (if the writer offers paid subscriptions) Substack handles almost all of the business/technical stuff. The writer uses the provided editor/tools to put together a newsletter, hits the Publish button, and is done.
  • The newsletter then makes its way to the email inbox of anyone who has subscribed (and is also available for viewing on the Substack website)

It’s pretty simple and works as expected.

What that “Pause email notifications” does is not pause notifications. The wording is either deliberately or ineptly misleading. What it does is prevent newsletters from being sent to a subscriber’s email address. That meant that if you installed the app and didn’t change the defaults when setting it up, you would never again get any newsletters from Substack in your inbox, which is, you know, the entire point of Substack. That the CEO apparently thought this was fine because email is “not the best version of that reading experience” is telling. I find it hard to believe the ambiguous wording of this option was anything but deliberate, in order to get people to shut off newsletter emails entirely and make the app the only handy way to view newsletters (I suspect few people search for them on the Substack website, but do not have any definitive info on this one way or the other).

They have since changed this toggle to default to off after getting a great big ol’ backlash over it (no surprise there–perhaps they thought it would be smaller and they’d be able to ride it out) and have said a future update will remove the option from the onboarding process of the app and will just be something that can be toggled on under settings, should the user wish to do so.

I toggled this option off when I installed the app on my iPhone after realizing what it would do. This morning, I noticed several of my newsletters did not arrive in my inbox as they should have. I opened the app and the option was toggled back on. Great.

What I have since done:

  • Removed the app from both my iPhone and iPad
  • Begun setting up a trial on Ghost to see how easily I can move my piddly little newsletter over
  • Mulled cancelling the subs I have paid subscriptions for. I am very good at mulling.

At this point, I have little confidence that the people behind Substack care about the effects of spreading disinformation and hate (they will continue to rail against “censorship” all day long, I suppose, while their platform continues to grow ever more toxic). I have no confidence in their vision for the platform, as the way they initially set up the onboarding experience of the iOS app suggests an attempt to corral writers’ work into an app over which they will have no control. I am no longer comfortable providing them money through the subs I have.

I love the idea of Substack. But I am rapidly souring on the people behind it and the decisions they are making. It sucks.

The dreaded writer’s blocks

No, this isn’t about my effort or lack thereof during National Novel Writing Month (that will be another post), this is about a quote from an overview of various writing programs:

This program focuses on productivity, allowing you to successfully avoid the dreaded writer’s blocks.

First, I want to know, who is this dreaded writer?

Second, what’s up with his/her/their blocks? I understand wanting to avoid them–blocks sound like they could hurt–but what are they? What are they made of? Where do they come from? Can I get some and also become a dreaded writer?

Bonus observation: Why do so many pages covering writing apps have such poor writing? Is it meant to be ironic? Have the authors of these pieces suffered from too many of the dreaded writer’s blocks?

‘Twas the night before NaNoWriMo…

And all through the condo I was breathing a sigh of relief over not taking part this year.

Honestly, I’m looking forward to having a bunch of free time for other stuff in November. There may be a cure for my writing ills, but the last few years suggest to me that the cure is not National Novel Writing Month.

It feels a bit weird sitting out for the first time in ten years (!), but it also feels right. And nice.

Now to maybe write something without the pressure of 1,667 words per day…

Cloudy with a chance of doom

The chance of doom is minimal, but you never know.

Today the sun has departed and the clouds have rolled in. My mind is similarly clouded as I question the effectiveness of the so-called “extra strength” cough medicine I took this morning that has not particularly stopped me from coughing. Maybe it’s a perspective thing. If I hadn’t taken the cough medicine, I would be on the floor, in endless coughing spasms, my sides sore, feeling worn out from the effort. In that light, the cough medicine is actually working pretty good.

Meanwhile, this flu or whatever it is has reached the annoying stage. I try to remain positive and think how much better I’ll feel when it’s moved along, but right now a nap would be seriously nice. Just curl up on the cold tile floor, right here. I don’t need carpeting. Or a pillow. I’m surprised I’m not napping right now, in this chair, as I type.

Changing gears, I looked through my blog a few days ago semi-randomly. I do this from time to time, usually starting out by searching for something specific, and ending down the rabbit hole that can keep me checking YouTube videos for hours when I totally didn’t mean to do that.

One of the things I re-discovered is how in-depth some of the writing prompts I worked on were. There are complete stories, albeit short ones, on this very blog. I thought to myself, “Neat!” and “I should do more of this.”

So starting tomorrow, when I am hopefully feeling a bit better, I am going to tackle a prompt whenever I have nothing else to write about. Get the ol’ creative juices going again. Maybe this time it will stick. Stranger things–such as the election of Trump–have happened.

This post brought to you by Day 3 of the flu or convincingly flu-like.

Still technically writing every day

I have not found my groove yet early in this new year when it comes to writing, but I am writing something every day, as I had vowed to do. So yay for sticking to it for nearly a whole week so far! Only 51 more to go.

Part of the problem is my mind feels cluttered by negative thingamabobs, mainly but not exclusively related to a growing professional dissatisfaction. Maybe all those years of not working in a field I am passionate about is finally having an effect. I’m not saying there is something I am passionate about–clearly I struggle with writing, no matter how many books I read on the subject, and how diligently I follow all the little tricks and things to keep you going–but I can’t help but think there might be something I’d be generally more satisfied in doing in my work life.

But every time I take one of those “This is the work you SHOULD be doing!” tests, the results are always somewhat dubious. So I’m not sure how to go about investigating a possible career side-step. I’m also aware that I’m not exactly a 20-something that can freely experiment with a bunch of different jobs to see what sticks (or maybe I could, who knows?)

Anyway, the important thing is I wrote something today and maybe I’ll hit the treadmill again tomorrow. Also, only two more months until we are back on Daylight Saving Time, hooray. All right, this concluding paragraph was a little random. Maybe I accidentally lapsed into free writing. There are worse things that could happen. Like scurvy or the return of parachute pants.

A neat but weird idea for writing

I thought of this while looking at my wrist, which is where my Apple Watch is, and realizing how much of my interaction with my watch is via Siri (voice commands for the uninitiated).

Sometimes it’s handy to do a little writing during the commute when you’re smushed in with everyone else, by pecking out a few sentences on your phone. Except actually doing this completely sucks because pecking out anything on a phone is a maddening exercise in madness and commutes are awful enough without trying to enhance the effect.

But doing some quick voice dictation would be pretty easy and sometimes even accurate enough to not qualify for one of those “Oh, autocorrect, you lovable scamp!” websites. The only problem here is dictating a story into your phone on a crowded train will do nothing but enhance your reputation for being a scary and/or eccentric person.

The solution?

Some fancy technology that allows your voice to transmit to your device while being completely silent to everyone around you. Yes, you’d still look like a kook talking to yourself, but at least you’d do so while preserving your voice and preventing others from hearing and therefore swiping your million dollar ideas.

Hmm, I swear this idea sounded better when I spoke it aloud to myself.

Here’s a Pinterest (or whatever you call them) question I have answered myself

Under the usual headline of “We found some fresh pins for you” I looked over my latest email from Pinterest (a name that is equal parts dumb and clever). Most of these messages contain collections of tips on writing because I indicated writing was my primary interest when I signed up, rather than drag racing or bocci.

Here’s a “pinterest” from the latest missive I received, along with what I suggest is the only possible correct response:

How to make your novel impossible for the reader to put down
[expand more_text=”Click for answer” height=”0″ hide_less=”yes” link_color=”#1e73be” link_style=”underlined”]Super glue on the cover[/expand]

Websites for writers that have been eaten by monsters (perhaps)

The domain writersdigest.com is not available. However, writersdigested.com is. Think of the possibilities. Think of Harlan Ellison trapped in the stomach of some great mythological monster like the hydra or the leprechaun.

Then think again about how the domain is still available and maybe there’s a reason for that.

But still, Harlan Ellison trapped in the stomach of a leprechaun. It demands to be written.