I ran this morning, 7.3 km. I changed the route and headed north from the village. It has a hill! I ran downhill for 2 km, then uphill for 2km. It felt good to be out. I came back, showered, shaved(!) and sat down at the computer.
I edited a prologue section. It will become today’s 789 Serialized. It actually became three or four. I need to decide. Is 789 words the minimum or the maximum. I think it feels too little, this morning.
On the run, I thought about arbitrary rules for writing. I have had many over the years. I realized, yesterday. The point is I set them. They work for me, for a time. The particular don’t matters.
Craig Mod talks about his rules. A portrait on his walks by 10 a.m. A pop-up newsletter post a day. Mad rules. But stick to them.
Mad rules for me, are not for anyone else. What is 789 Serialized but some mad rules for me to write every day for a month? At least 789 words a day. But, maybe more.
On the run, I took notes for my self-evaluation. It was due a month ago, one of those academic chores I resent. I need to get it in. But I wonder if I think of these chores the wrong way. Why not see them as something to share? To publish as a newsletter. Online, publicly. Online, privately. I’m not sure. But think of an audience as more than an overworked administrator who may or may not read it.
For this book writing diary newsletter, my thoughts turn to the problem of coding huge quantities of text—field notes, morning pages, book drafts, articles, essays, old chapters, pieces of text, blog posts, articles. All of this is my archive. My fichero, as I’ve come to think of it. (Fichero from the Colombian for a box of index cards). It is now about 500,000 words coded, and another 3,000,000 words uncoded. How did I write that much? Why did I write that much.
One, is that I’ve accumulated text files of repeated text. Different versions of the same thing. Different drafts. Cruft that has duplicated. How to deal? Cut and don’t make more.
On cutting, six months ago, I wrote a script to delete second and subsequence instances of the same words, sentences, or paragraphs. Dejatext. I use it all the time.
On not making any more duplicated text, the issue is how to stop creating duplicate words. I have another script I use to code text. It takes text I’ve coded, and splits it into new text files, and brings together codes. It works well. I run it, and organize my notes. It’s good. But, one of the mistakes I’ve made over the years is letting repeated text pile up. Drafts and drafts and then I forget which is the most recent.
One issue. A reticence to delete. I leave words in the archive, even as I use them. Why? Why not take the text, code it, move it from the archive, synthesize it, publish it, and move it along.
How should this workflow function? What’s the actual process? Should I edit the original text file, or the coded version? It seems most logical to edit the coded text—then discard the original. That way, I can iterate toward order over time.
The key question is whether structur.py supports that approach. I may need to revise it.
How would this work? An inbox of notebooks and other sources; a to-code folder with raw uncoded text files; a coded folder with text organized by code; a codes.txt file listing possible codes; and a synthesis folder where ideas are developed. This way, I’d not have duplicating text.
Right now, I’m not sure if structur.py can append new material to existing code files. That’s what it needs to do: allow new material to be added to existing coded text. The coded folder should be able to receive more material over time.
Another issue: how does it handle text that’s already been processed? One possibility is that the system always regenerates empty coded files from codes.txt. If a code is moved or deleted, it’s recreated empty—ready to receive new codes text. That might make sense.
In that model, codes.txt acts as the master list. The coded folder always mirrors those codes. Structur recreates empty code files if needed, letting me keep feeding in new material. This would support then an iterative process of coding and synthesis.
A project for after finishing my 789 Serialized post for today.
Update: 8:30 PM: I fixed structur.py, squashed a bunch of bugs, posted it to GitHub. I also added unit testing to dejatext. Structur now works more reliably, and I deleted some duplicates, and pulled out some malformed text. Long day. But, good changes.
