I’ve written this a bunch but the good stuff is worth repeating endlessly: there’s nothing that helps me publish more than writing in the editor.
Whenever I write in something where I can’t directly hit publish, I run into issues:
- Telling myself “oh I’ll fix these things when I copy it over and edit it”: Inevitability, I put too many placeholders in. Every “TK” I casually toss in is another anchor on the editing process. A handful leads to not wanting to edit and finish at all.
- Not being entirely clear on if the writing will be for publishing: This leads to half finished pieces. I’ll start off with something for publishing but then write a note to myself. Then I’m right back to the issue mentioned in the previous bullet. It’s not always easy to distinguish which sentences were for publishing or not. And it can be tempting to just give up on writing a published thing and tell myself “well at least I’m getting practice typing the words, even if it’s private.”
- It’s easier to lose drafts: While I can use an action to publish in Drafts, and also I can set up a workspace to separate things intended for publishing, it’s still too easy for things to get lost in the shuffle if I’m writing finished work in the same place that I write “reminder: drop off suit”.
Anyway, just wanted to hit publish again on something after doing these unfinished actions while on a trip to NYC:
- Wrote 9 thread drafts on the plane (none published)
- Wrote 5 thread drafts in a coffee shop (none published)
- Wrote a very long thread in another coffee shop (not published)
- Recorded something like 90 minutes of voice notes (not published)
If they were private, that’d be okay. But I wrote them all with the intention to hit publish and didn’t get it out.
Write in the editor.