I just had this light bulb moment about separating the writing and editing processes a few weeks ago. I am grad student and writing is an essential part of my job. I am not as good as I would like to be, but writing first and editing later removed a lot of mental load for me. I experimented with a couple of systems in the past, but always got paralyzed by my inner critic commenting on every sentence. It was exhausting to even produce "one page worth" of writing a day. I thought that as I was editing while writing, it would be of great quality, but it was usually of pretty bad quality. Last week I just connected a bluetooth keyboard to my phone, opened up my favorite writing app[1], and started typing while staring out of a window. I was dishing out page after page of moderate quality writing. I would then wait a day or two and edit it. It was far easier to convert the moderate quality stuff by removing the fluff than to try producing great quality writing directly as I did before.

Appendix: Previous systems

1) Try writing perfect prose on the first try: This is paralyzing. I would just sit staring at my computer screen for hours, thinking of the perfect introduction and perfect sentences. I have since realized that this is bad for my mental health and productivity.

2) Write on paper: I then tried writing on paper. Got more done than just staring at the screen. It is difficult for me to write for extended periods of time like this. My hands start aching, and my handwriting goes from bad to illegible. Typing everything out also adds unnecessary friction.

3) Hemingway mode: I was looking at markdown editors for Pop OS when I stumbled upon "Hemingway mode" on GhostWriter[2]. This disables your backspace key. Not being able to edit was frustrating for me at first, but I got used to this. I also implemented this on my MacBook by using BetterTouchTool to disable backspace in iA writer. The typewriter and focus modes on iA writer are helpful for a smoother writing experience. I wrote more using this system, but still spent a lot of time looking at the sentence I was writing and trying to make it better in my mind before I typed.

4) Typing blind, or "type the first draft without looking at it": I was trying to find a hardware solution to this problem. I almost convinced myself to buy a $500 typing machine with an eink display. That is overkill for me. I figured I could make my own by somehow displaying the text I was typing on a kindle. I found out about the kindleberry Pi[3] but that had too many moving parts. I tried using seashells[4] to output my terminal display from the mac on a website in kindle browser. That failed. While testing that, I realized I typed fine enough without looking at the screen! Spent that day experimenting with some keyboards and apps. I now use a small cheap bluetooth keyboard connected to my phone, or a nice mechanical keyboard connected to my iPad. I set up a GitHub repo for my markdown notes, syncing with my iCloud Drive iA writer folder through Working Copy. The repo is for redundant backup and to access the notes on my Pop OS desktop. I mostly write on my phone or iPad now, use my laptop to edit it later. I wake up, meditate and start typing while staring out of the window. I get about 1000 or so words out in about 30 minutes. This is better for ideation and stream of consciousness writing. For more technical stuff, I type blind to get ideas and general framework in place, and use Hemingway mode to type out the rest. Been very happy with this system so far. Writing is a joy again!

[1] https://ia.net/writer

[2] https://wereturtle.github.io/ghostwriter/

[3] http://maxogden.com/kindleberry-wireless.html

[4] https://seashells.io, it seems down right now. Some info here https://github.com/anishathalye/seashells