Shortform #113 Writing under the influence of panic, stress, etc. considered harmful
See yesterday’s shortform, but more broadly, I’ve noticed that if I let stressors I’m feeling into my writing, my writing is worse, specifically: less concise, less clear (vagueness is not a virtue; nor am I trying to entice close reading, one ought not need to be a Straussian to read what I write), and not as coherent.
I noticed that I initially felt significant stress about this post, because I wasn’t going to post it before 9:30 (my bedtime). I sat with that stress, and determined that I’d feel worse if I didn’t take a few extra minutes to keep up my daily post commitment, and this post became what it is now instead of the rather bad first draft that you don’t get to see.
To convey a sense of what I mean by the impact of stressors on my writing if I allow them to influence what I write, please notice how you feel if you’re late to work, school, or an important event and how that negatively impacts your thought processes, reasoning, and induces general mindkilled-ness.
Harm occurs if the stressor(s) are not processed or set aside because then one either feels bad afterwards, publishes something they don’t like, or simply experiences the stress more fully instead of letting it wash away.
Now it’s definitely time for bed, but I feel relaxed and really enjoyed the experience of writing this more-meta-than-usual post. Ciao :)
Shortform #113 Writing under the influence of panic, stress, etc. considered harmful
See yesterday’s shortform, but more broadly, I’ve noticed that if I let stressors I’m feeling into my writing, my writing is worse, specifically: less concise, less clear (vagueness is not a virtue; nor am I trying to entice close reading, one ought not need to be a Straussian to read what I write), and not as coherent.
I noticed that I initially felt significant stress about this post, because I wasn’t going to post it before 9:30 (my bedtime). I sat with that stress, and determined that I’d feel worse if I didn’t take a few extra minutes to keep up my daily post commitment, and this post became what it is now instead of the rather bad first draft that you don’t get to see.
To convey a sense of what I mean by the impact of stressors on my writing if I allow them to influence what I write, please notice how you feel if you’re late to work, school, or an important event and how that negatively impacts your thought processes, reasoning, and induces general mindkilled-ness.
Harm occurs if the stressor(s) are not processed or set aside because then one either feels bad afterwards, publishes something they don’t like, or simply experiences the stress more fully instead of letting it wash away.
Now it’s definitely time for bed, but I feel relaxed and really enjoyed the experience of writing this more-meta-than-usual post. Ciao :)