title: Re: Working pre-medium and in-medium
date: Sat Jun 27 2026

# Re: Working pre-medium and in-medium

gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/~drupe/phlog/260622_working_pre-medium_and_in-medium.txt

Like drupe, I've also spent some time
going back to writing things by hand,
and for lots of the same reasons.  For
me, I became wary of how writing at a
keyboard made me think, and how it was
different to how I thought when I was
writing longhand.  I think that writing
by hand, by its sheer slowness, allows
space for you to consider more ways a
sentence might continue after you finish
the word you are writing.  But, drupe
says he has started writing phlog posts
by hand--I don't think these things are
worth spending the time on.

There are, of course, many more stages
to the writing process.  If you are
sitting down to something serious, like
a novel or screenplay, and you are going
to do it by hand, I think it probably
works something like this for lots of
people:

    1. Ideation: mind maps on plain
       paper, tear-off pads

    2. Organising: taking those ideas,
       putting each one on an index card
       and putting those cards in order.

    3. Pre-rough draft: writing a
       'treatment', fleshing out the
       cards into something that more
       concretely says "and then this
       specific thing happens", rather
       than "something like this happens
       next"

    4. First draft: take your treatment
       and write it in the medium you
       are aiming for.  For example, if
       you are writing a film, this is
       the first time you write "INT.  A
       DARK ALLEY - NIGHT" and write
       real dialogue.  This should be
       longhand.

    5. Re-drafting: at some point you
       get this stuff to a computer.  I
       think this should be held off as
       long as possible.  If you write
       on a pad with tear-off pages you
       can make lots of edits and
       rewrite sections before it
       becomes truly unmanageable.  When
       you think "I really need a clean,
       printed copy of this to get
       further" you'll know it is time
       to type it up, print it, and then
       carry on editing.