This week we’re running a community writing experiment. The test: to rewrite part of a work-in-progress using a writing tip Oliver Burkeman told Bec about for This Might Work podcast.
Read more: Starting afresh! Join me for a community editing experiment
Monday 17 August: Let’s get organised
We kicked off the workshop with the recording of Bec’s original call with Oliver where he shared the tip. And heard her nervous laughter as he described deleting his documents!
“A technique that I find incredibly helpful, although I’m a bit worried that it strikes most people as massively eccentric, is that when I’m working on a piece of writing, I go through multiple cycles of printing out the section that I’m working on deleting it from the file that I wrote it in and typing it back in from the paper onto the computer.”
- Oliver Burkeman
Everyone grabbed their note books and pens and got to planning.
Prompts to explore
Do you have a project?
Yes? Write it down. Give it a name.
No? Write down all the potential projects in a big messy brain dump. Pick one – it could be the most exciting (tingle factor) the most urgent or important.
What’s your first step? Find it, read it, print it out or simply get started!
Advice from Matt Bell
Bec then shared some quotes from author Matt Bell and his book Refuse To Be Done:
“Whatever you do, don’t cut and paste to save time. Instead, retype everything. - Yes, everything."
- Matt Bell
Bell offers some tips - he uses two monitors but having a tablet or a printout can recreate that.
Don’t cut and paste! You’ll find it unbearable to retype a bad sentence, but you won’t be as hard on anything you copy. You need that discomfort to improve it, as you’ll make slightly different or considered choices.
Bell suggests deleting or crossing out any material you’ve used from the first draft once it’s been transferred and rewritten into the second.
Finally, work more linearly, going through scene by scene - and if you get stuck on something take some time out to figure out why.
What do you need to prepare?
How will you do this and what do you need?
Tools: Printer, paper, computer setup, notebook and pens
A place to edit and retype: tidy your desk, plump your cushions, brew a tea, or coffee, sweet treats
Any rituals to make it more fun: special mug, lucky gonk, a candle, music
When will you do it? Check calendar – schedule, join a writer’s hour or focusmate
“You need to give yourself the feeling that you’re starting afresh, except this time you have the whole thing printed out. It’s just such a luxury. It feels great. It’s like, oh, I’m starting afresh only this time. I don’t need to start afresh.”
- Oliver Burkeman
🎧 Series one of This Might Work is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Next steps
Share your project in the comments for accountability. Also, we’d love to hear any questions and get a progress update as you test out Oliver’s approach.
If you didn’t sign up for the workshop, just email or comment and we’ll send you a link to the recording. And if you’d like to join now - it’s not too late - just register for the Zoom and we’ll see you on Friday 21 August for the feedback session.
Happy editing!
Cheers, Bec
Hi! I listened to the recording of the Monday Zoom call and am using the approach you outlined for editing my first Substack post which has been sitting in draft form for months at this point. I did not delete anything from the original document (too scared :)), though now I'm thinking that may have been more satisfying! I simply printed out the draft and opened up a new blank document and have been typing my essay back in. It has been more liberating than I expected it would be. I haven't rewritten the whole thing yet but I decided to go off in a different direction after the first sentence and I like it better. I'm pretty sure if I were simply revising the printed document, this wouldn't have happened. I'm excited to continue down this road and see where it takes me. Thank you for running this community-wide experiment! I won't be able to make it to tomorrow's session but will catch up on the recording later.
I'm really (REALLY) behind on Substack reading so I didn't know about this until @Jenny Cooke mentioned it at the weekend. I then completely missed the kick off session but I think I'm going to give this experiment a go. I'm open to any and all experiments to try to move forward. I have a few shortish articles that are possibly at earlier than draft stage (if that's possible) so I'll see how I go with the first and take it from there! I hope to join you on Friday too.