Notes from a Hired Pen: What an optimal writing process looks like

Readers!

 

 

Last week, I was struggling with a tricky assignment. It’s a neuroscience article, where I’m explaining a complicated topic to a non-science audience. And while the client wasn’t new, I hadn’t written for this editor before, and I wanted to make sure they’d hire me again. My own brain was also slightly fried after an early morning run on a very humid day. Not ideal.

I sat down to write and peddled around the internet for a while before I decided that was enough. Here’s how I got it done.

• I put on a movie.
• I created three subheads of the main topics I needed to cover, then tackled them one at a time.
• I tweaked it a bit until I had a pretty bad first draft.
• I closed the file.
• I walked the dog.
• I ate lunch.
• I took a nap.
• I walked the dog again.
• I opened up the file and immediately saw what I needed to fix. Viola. Done.

I’ve been writing long enough to know this would happen. I’ve gotten some of my best ideas, turns of phrases, and unwound hundreds of writing knots when running, walking the dog, or staring at the ocean on a hot summer day. I came up with the idea for this newsletter while taking a shower. This is what writers were doing back in the dark ages when everybody smoked: take a small mental rest to hopefully solve the problem (but don’t smoke it’s horrible). Whenever I can’t figure out a way through a writing predicament, giving my brain something else to do — without procrastinating to the point I blow a deadline — usually works.

Not once did I ever consider using the lying plagiarism machine. In Marisa Kabas’ Linkedin AI hater experiment, some schmuck told her (and then me) that independent journalists need to optimize their workflows. You want me to optimize that process? How? By turning over the actual function of my brain to a machine that only works because it stole from me? I think the fuck not.

I don’t want to optimize my life. I want to live it. And writing is never going to be an efficient process, because while our brains are very good at a lot of things (I should know since I write about neuroscience), stuff like this doesn’t always happen in a straight line. I’m not going to force it into one with a technology that is making people dumber. And as I said to the rude PR person I mentioned last week: lol ok. Also whoops.

One more thing before I go: I’ve switched search engines to Duck Duck Go’s NO AI option. I’ve also added the “No AI” extension to my browser. It’s fantastic. Here’s how to do it.

 

Recent Bylines

“When a cyberattack hits the physical world,” Virginia Tech Engineer 

“When technology becomes a headache instead of a solution,” HR Dive

 

What I’m Reading

• After Hours at Dooryard Books by Cat Sebastian. Sebastian’s had a busy year! This queer romance is about a bookstore in New York City in 1968 with the motley crew who makes up a family here, including a singer songwriter whose husband was just killed in Vietnam, her openly gay brother in law and a mystery addition who seems too tight laced to have found a haven there. Someone asked me for a romance novel with some heft, and I recommended this one. Not that there’s anything wrong with fluffy romance novels — I read plenty of them! — but Sebastian’s books often deal with weighty topics, and do so well.
• Long Island by Colm Tóibín. This is a sequel to his book Brooklyn where we find our Irish immigrant protagonist Eilis 25 years later, married the Italian American she chose over an Irish lad back home, which turned out to have mixed results. Tobin is a very skilled writer, but I kept wondering why we were here. Did we really need to revisit these characters? I assume he’s going to write a third book too. It just felt like a “what if” exercise that didn’t quite pay off.

 

What I’m Watching

• All Creatures Great and Small (seasons 3 and 4). I checked out both seasons from the library in anticipation of the long, rainy Memorial Day weekend and it was the right call. My British veterinarians were cozy company. Season 3 takes place in 1939, with the undercurrent of whether the age-eligible veterinarians should sign up even though they were in a “reserved occupation” and considered essential on the home front. It’s especially poignant since Siegfried, the oldest, served in WW I and knows how horrible war can be. Season 4 is full wartime. I have two more seasons to go before I’m caught up with the series in real time!
• For All Mankind (season 5). This show, which is an alternative history asking what would have happened if Russia got to the moon first, has lost the juice. But I stuck with it, and will stick with the final season 6 whenever it comes out. Ed’s sendoff was a highlight, but space war is SO BORING, except for the last 10 minutes of the last episode of the season. I hope they figure out a better idea for season 6 because I want them to go out on a high note! This show has brought me so much joy. But yeah this clunked.
• The Exception. WWII drama with Christopher Plummer playing Kaiser Wilhelm in Holland, and Lily James in…well, what she’s really doing becomes obvious over time. It’s fine! It’s not an angle of WW II history I’d ever really thought about, which is why I’m glad Kanopy had it.
• Greenland. A comet named Clarke is hurtling to Earth promising an extinction event worse than what happened to the dinosaurs ahhhhhhhh! And that’s pretty much it in this perfectly serviceable disaster action movie with Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin. There’s a sequel. Maybe I’ll watch it. Maybe I won’t! But I don’t have an intense yearning to do so.

 

Nail Polish of the Week

Lime of My Life by OPI A shimmery bright green? In summer? Sure! I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Trying something unexpected can be a good thing.

 

Until next time!

Jen A. Miller (she/her)

Running: A Love Story

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