Comments on: Writing

By: Bill Ruhsam

Bill Ruhsam — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:10:32 +0000

Steph: I myself can write in a distracted environment as long as I’m not creating content. I guess the only real analogy I have at the moment is for Talking Traffic. If I’m writing an episode about a topic that I happen to know backwards and forwards then Jenn and the Cat and my Phone and the Internet really have no power over me but if I have to research and think, I’m doomed. And wow that sentence is terrible.

Annie: I’d like to give Wave a shot for a few things. I have an entirely geeky application in mind for me and Jenn whilst working together in the house, in separate rooms (no more shouting or IM’ing across the house). Hopefully when the full version is released there will be a “done” or “send” button if you want it.

Q: “Hey! How do you spell Chameleon?”
A: “C - H - U - ^h - A - M - E - E - L - ^h - ^h - ^h - E - L - E - O - N”

By: annie

annie — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:56:53 +0000

If only I could convince my students of this magic: read & write. They miss the point at how they’ll be better people for it.

Ick. Wave sounds a lot like some of the early chat features I encountered. It drove me nuts watching someone else’s painfully slow typing. I always had to resist jumping in with my answer when I’d realized what they were trying to say. Also, I’m not the most pleasant person to watch type. There are some words that I cannot type correctly w/out the included back space corrections (it’s just how my brain & fingers encoded things).

By: steph

steph — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:53:49 +0000

I write for a living, and unfortunately this has kind of ruined me for creative writing. I spend so much time writing for money that I find it hard to spend time doing it for “free” when I could be playing with my daughter or mountain biking. It’s become more of a chore than a pleasure.

One thing I’ve learned about writing– it’s an intensely personal process. What works for you may not work for someone else. You really need to experiment with your ideal environment and conditions. For example, I need near complete silence and as close to zero distraction as possible (and no wifi! Think library carrel). And when I get stuck (practically hourly), the absolute best solution for me is to go out and jog or ride. This really does not fit into the corporate ideal….

I do enjoy NaNoWriMo– the online camaraderie and the rush of a deadline is hard to beat!