Introduction#
Learning a craft in a field is like "feeling your way across a river by touching stones."
After learning several different crafts, you will clearly feel that progress in almost any field is slow, including drawing, designing animations, editing videos, coding, writing articles, raising fish, planting flowers, and cooking. However, there is usually a step where you slowly climb up and feel relaxed after reaching that step.
When you haven't reached that step yet, you are still "looking for stones." When you feel relaxed after reaching the step, you have "found a few stones" and vaguely discovered some patterns in how the stones are arranged.
Writing has become a bit easier for me this time, and writing has started to feel like creating a specimen of thought.
Fragmentation Revisited#
In my previous articles, "Relaxing Reverse Brain Burning" and "Building the Second Brain," I talked about the harm caused by fragmented information, but fragmentation itself is not without benefits. I think, since it can provide a sense of stress relief when obtaining information, why can't it be used in the creative process?
To achieve this idea, I have to thank the great [Git](Git (git-scm.com)). Because Git is the most advanced "fragmented creation system" I have used so far.
About half a year ago, I linked my note-taking system to GitHub, and every time I made changes and improvements, there would be complete records and backups. In the process of learning and using Git, I gradually understood Git's design philosophy. After that, I began to have a new understanding of writing, project management, and workflow optimization. Of course, I am not a professional programmer, but through coincidences, I have participated in the development of multiple apps, which made me realize that the thinking methods of the programming world are also applicable to writing. (Oh, by the way, calligraphy is not considered writing, it still belongs to visual creation, and I classify it as drawing.)
Git's Design Philosophy#
Git has the following features in its design philosophy:
- Version control
- Branch management
- Collaboration and merging
- Recording and commenting
- Issue tracking and fixing
- Backup and synchronization
The above solutions are based on programming purposes. If we switch to the purpose of personal writing, it is obvious that "collaboration and merging," "recording and commenting," and "issue tracking and fixing" can be temporarily ignored. The reason is simple: we are currently not running an editorial department. The main purpose of writing is still to record our own thought process.
Therefore, we only need to focus on:
- Version control
- Branch management
- Backup and synchronization
Before going into further analysis, there needs to be a preconceived concept, that is, textual creation is also a form of programming. Articles and books are like programs that can run in the human brain, with the difference being that humans have the freedom to choose whether to execute, while machines have no choice.
I found that looking at it from this perspective makes it easier to understand.
Version Control#
Git manages the basic unit called a "repository," which can be simply understood as a project folder.
Version control is the most important design philosophy of Git, essentially recording all changes that occur within this project folder.
Just like Git, you can use version control systems (such as Git itself, GitHub, GitLab, etc.) to track your document versions. After each edit or major modification, you can submit a new version so that you can roll back to previous versions at any time. In Git, there is no concept of "deletion." Just like Time Machine on Mac, you can go back to any moment and add back the content that was deleted earlier.
Branch Management#
Git's branch management feature allows you to experiment with new ideas, structures, or styles during the writing process without affecting the main version of the document. You can create new branches for experimental modifications and then merge them back into the main branch as needed, or keep the branches as alternative options.
Branch management can also be used during the distribution phase.
For example, if you want to publish content on different platforms, you can create different branches based on the characteristics of readers on different platforms, instead of creating multiple versions under the main branch.
Currently, I haven't used branch management features too much because the platforms I currently publish on are limited to my personal website, xlog, and Zhihu, and the number is still manageable.
Backup and Synchronization#
As the name suggests, you can record, organize, and improve text content anytime, anywhere on any platform. In Git, you can push your repository to a remote server or choose to set up your own server to synchronize writing progress between different devices and serve as a backup storage. This way, even if your local computer is damaged or lost, your writing content will still be safely stored in the remote repository.
Fragmented Writing#
In my opinion, writing a fragmented article is like creating a specimen of thought.
After viewing an article as a specimen, through continuous exploration and experimentation, I have roughly summarized the following steps:
- Collecting bones
- Building a skeleton
- Assembling completeness
- Continuous improvement
Collecting Bones#
List random fragments of thoughts in advance, which are the topics you are interested in writing about. It can be a passage from a book, a reply in a chat, or even a couple of words. For example, the theme of this article is the sudden inspiration that comes when sitting on the toilet after waking up. This is the "first bone."
After about five days, the bones are collected, and then the draft is officially created to decide to complete it.
If an article is like a living creature, these fragments are scattered bones, and then they are gradually filled with flesh to form paragraphs. Paragraphs themselves are like "Chinese code snippets" and can naturally undergo version iterations.
During the bone collection stage, patience is important because bones cannot grow on their own, they are waiting for you to assemble them. If you are in a hurry to put together something today, it will be a bone structure that doesn't resemble anything. It's better to pick up a bone and examine it slowly, see what kind of creature it resembles, and then see if it might belong to the head, body, or limbs. In this process, many questions will naturally drive you to search for related information. There is currently no need to force yourself to write it completely.
There is also a reason not to force it to be complete. When typing on the keyboard, many new ideas will emerge, and you don't have to finish it all at once. If you don't start writing, you can't even think of so many ideas, and sometimes you may even run out of words. Just like drawing, leave some room for yourself, no need to finish it. Slowly, these paragraphs need to be merged or decomposed. Finally, weave them into a network with coherent logic, forming a structure of bones, flesh, and blood. Just like a living creature.
When one of these fragments can explain a small problem relatively completely, it already meets the conditions for publishing a short article. At this point, there is no need to worry about whether the wording is fancy, just meet the following requirements:
- The sentences are smooth and free of spelling mistakes, with basic readability.
- Clear viewpoints and thoughts.
When these small fragments reach a certain scale, you can try to build a skeleton.
Building a Skeleton#
Of course, bones need to be assembled into a skeleton to be seen. The so-called skeleton is the table of contents of the article.
Organizing the table of contents is the process of assembling various parts into a complete form. If you are not writing poetry or prose, you must pay attention to whether the titles in the table of contents are arranged logically. Otherwise, this "skeleton" will not be firm and will not withstand scrutiny.
There are two approaches that can be considered here:
- Architect's mindset: If you have a faster mind, you may have a clear and concise plan for major chapters from the beginning, so you may have already entered the stage of building a skeleton.
- Archaeologist's mindset: You prefer to start from a specific part, even just a bone. Gradually discover the overall picture of the content.
There is no superiority or inferiority between the above two approaches, each has its advantages and disadvantages.
Assembling Completeness#
Assembling means that the overall framework of the content allows people to see what "species" your specimen of thought belongs to, whether it flies in the sky or runs underground. In other words, there must be a theme that can oversee the entire content.
For example, the theme that is clearly overseeing this article you are currently reading is not "Git" or "specimen of thought," but "fragmented writing."
Completeness means that this specimen of thought, if it were a bird, must have a pair of wings and feathers; if it were a fish, it must have scales and gills. In other words, it must have topics directly related to the theme.
To achieve completeness, the content must be directly related to the theme, and then it can be discussed in detail.
Continuous Improvement#
Improvement means improving the perspective of explanation, the quality and quantity of examples, and other aspects, rather than focusing on the wording and tone of a sentence, which can be left to the computer's automatic grammar and spelling check.
I particularly like what Haruki Murakami said:
Loosen a tight screw a little, tighten a loose screw a little.
Generally speaking, writing fragmented articles is like an art of building a specimen of thought. It allows me to have multiple ideas and thoughts in parallel and systematically capture and organize my thinking into long-lasting written content.
In this process, I can continuously improve my writing skills and deepen my understanding and cognition of the creative process.
Improvement does not require perfection.
When viewed individually, any form of life is imperfect. It is imperfection that allows for sustainability.
When viewed as a whole, perfection is the process of evolution, the result of every tiny decision made by life from changes in conditions to changes in evolutionary direction.
Since the beginning of creation, nature has been demonstrating what the best state of creation is.
This article was first published on CGARTLAB. Feel free to subscribe to the newsletter.