Different Lengths

4 minutes

I’ve spent the week trying to write things at/of different lengths. Sitting down with a timer, set to 20mins or 40. Just practicing to see how I go.

20mins gives me 600-ish words. 40 mins, 1000.

2.5k words takes about 2.5 hours and 5k takes about 6.

The D&D One and the Metaverse post I published yesterday was supposed to be 2.5k words. But by the time I’d finished it was 4.5k (including Quotebacks). It took me two days (Friday+Saturday), noodling on it in between other things to write, edit, and post.

I’ve also written quite a bit in in Gdocs etc. Here’s what I’ve found

  • 4.5k is far closer to the length of texts/reports/book chapters I’ve been commissioned to write, a length I’m comfortable writing to.
  • 1k of course it the length of Permanently Moved, which I’ve explored thoroughly
  • 2.5k however is the classic ‘University essay’ length. I’m struggling with it as a form/container.

I’m not sure why I’m finding 2.5k it so difficult.

Is it because I despised writing so much at university? 2.5k words at the time felt like writing war and peace? My intuition tells me that being comfortable with 1k and 5k words means that a 2.5k thing would be 2x 301’s with a short introduction and closing words.

But it really doesn’t work that way at all. Within the 1k container of 301 I’ve explored: 3 Act Writing, 5 Point topic exploration, ‘Idea Trains’, 1 narrative hung between idea/topic ‘locations’, lists, reflections etc. 1k texts, especially 301 also have a brutal editing process – not only am I trying to hit a word count, i’m trying to write something I can say out loud. 1 idea per sentence basically.

The only thing I really know about 2.5k word writing is completely hung over from school. Introduction, body, conclusion. Perhaps – Introduction, argument, counter/contrasting argument, conclusion.

A lot of the non fiction books – and the course I took during the pandemic was focused on to short non-fiction (articles) and longer narrative non-fiction (books like Good Prose by Tracy Kidder).

*slaps top of 2.5k word non-fiction post/essay*

Whilst I have 2 more weeks left of not making/writing 301, I think I might try and pump out some blog posts in the 2.5k length range. Just to see what what the container length feels like.

If anyone wants to hear me write about something, suggestions in the comments below, in DM’s or Discord Chat please!

Text above was written in 10mins.


Photo 365

229/365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

  • Worked on the new show, sent loads of emails
  • Call with a relative about doing the music for the new show
  • Band Practice
  • Fell in to a hole about One D&D so so deep. I’m scarred by what passes for ‘commentary’ online.
  • Moved my POV or perhaps mental position towards my to do list. What needs doing and when? Semi successful so far – more time needed to see.

Dipping the Stacks

Kids Are Back in Classrooms and Laptops Are Still Spying on Them | WIRED

89 percent of teachers have said that their schools will continue using student-monitoring software. (By monitoring software, they mean spyware)

NFT communities greenlight Web3 films: A decentralized future for fans and Hollywood – Cointelegraph Magazine

In the centralized movie industry, independent filmmakers are often denied a share of a successful film’s profits, while fans are locked out of the filmmaking process. Web3 filmmakers intend to flip that model.

A weather reporter is blown away when he realizes β€” on air β€” that his map is a touchscreen | Boing Boing

Chicago’s ABC7 meteorologist Greg Dutra was utterly amazed to find out, while reporting live, that his weather map was actually a touch screen.

Dogs are symbolic containers of human hopes, desires and vices | Aeon Essays

In all its baroque and sometimes cruelly overbred forms, the dog is a paramount symbol of both human hopes and foibles

While Rome Collapsed, the Citizens Fought Over the Colors Blue and Green

The time you get to the late Empire, almost every major social disturbance gets described by commentators in terms of these two factions.

Reading

Finished up my re-read of The War of Art, still reading Matthew Ball’s Metaverse book.

Currently reading a 40k book in the evenings: The Triumph of Saint Katherine. It’s a fantastic bit of world building around one of the zaniest models in the zaniest models in the table top game.

I’m also reading Wired Love: a Romance of Dots and Dashes. Incredible novel.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

The Cursed Who Perform The Larvagod Rites | Mammoth Volume

This new album from Swedish stoner/doom/groove band Mammoth Volume is fantastic!

There isn’t much to say about it other then IT ROCKS. If you like Green lung then you’ll enjoy Mammoth Volume’s vocal stylings. The riffs are lest technical and far more stoner friendly. Great album. It’s a sonic hammer to smash into your ear holes.

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