As Far As I Can Tell


Thesis Helpers

I’ve spent the last two weeks pushing everything else out of the way to focus on my thesis paper. I don’t have a lot of experience writing long essays, which may be the reason I write very slowly. Another factor is that I’m developing my argument as I write so half my time is spent re-reading and making notes, not actually writing.

In the last week I started using a new writing program for the Mac called WriteRoom that I highly recommend. It’s a simple text editor, but designed to block out all the things that distract you when you’re sitting at a computer. The colors are customizable, it goes full screen to cover up everything else, and it has no tool bars or icons — just your words. I customized mine to be completely monochromatic: dark gray background, white page, and black text. If you need to write, to really just focus on the words, close all your other programs and launch WriteRoom.

After a period of trial and error I also found some good music to write to. Below are the albums I’m playing on repeat in the library. Just hearing one of them now triggers a “writing mode” response in my brain.

  • Telefon Tel Aviv - Immediate Action 8 + Fahrenheit Fair Enough
  • Solo Andata - Fyris Swan
  • E*vax - Parking Lot Music

Sometimes I also mix in:

  • Savath + Savalas - Fok Songs for Trains, Trees and Honey
  • Juana Molina - Son
  • Cloud Mireya - Singular

 

Comments

Glad we can help with the writing :) peace SA

Posted by: solo andata on November 12, 2006 12:39 AM

hey simon! i totally lost track of you for a bit. then i come back and i see you talking abuot writeroom—which was a big part of me winning NaNoWriMo this year! Things never change, you smartypants, you.

Posted by: jim on December 7, 2006 3:52 PM


As far as who can tell?


Chicago, IL

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