WEBVTT captioned by bhavin192, checked by sachac
NOTE Introduction
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.239
Hello, fellow Emacs enthusiasts.
00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:06.799
My name is Edmund Jorgensen.
00:00:06.800 --> 00:00:08.519
I'm a software engineer by day,
00:00:08.520 --> 00:00:10.599
but by night I love to write novels,
00:00:10.600 --> 00:00:11.774
and I lean on Emacs heavily
00:00:11.774 --> 00:00:13.759
for both of these activities.
00:00:13.760 --> 00:00:15.879
Today, I would like to talk to you about how Emacs,
00:00:15.880 --> 00:00:17.319
specifically with Org mode,
00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:18.440
has helped me manage some of the practical
00:00:18.840 --> 00:00:20.940
difficulties of writing long-form prose,
00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:22.039
novels in my case,
00:00:22.040 --> 00:00:24.319
and I'd like to get at this by talking about how
00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:26.439
another, much more famous novelist managed
00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:28.359
some of those same difficulties in a way
00:00:28.360 --> 00:00:30.874
that makes me suspect he might well use Emacs
00:00:30.874 --> 00:00:31.959
and Org mode himself
00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:34.519
if he were still alive and writing today.
00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:35.599
This talk will probably be
00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:36.959
of the most interest to listeners
00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:39.239
who either already write long-form prose in Emacs
00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:40.879
or are considering doing so,
00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:42.039
but I think that anyone
00:00:42.040 --> 00:00:44.079
with an interest in literature or Emacs
00:00:44.080 --> 00:00:45.759
will find something to take away.
NOTE Nabokov's process of writing novels
00:00:45.760 --> 00:00:51.119
So let's get to it.
00:00:51.120 --> 00:00:53.919
Here's a picture of a man lying on a bed,
00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:55.999
writing something on an index card.
00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:57.519
If we didn't know any better,
00:00:57.520 --> 00:00:58.959
we might think that he was just jotting down
00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:01.679
a recipe for beef stew or something like that.
00:01:01.680 --> 00:01:03.839
But in fact, this is not just any old man.
00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:06.174
This is Vladimir Nabokov, one of the most
00:01:06.174 --> 00:01:08.079
celebrated novelists of the 20th century,
00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:09.279
and he's not jotting down
00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:11.479
a recipe for beef stew in this picture.
00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:12.759
He's actually hard at work here,
00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:15.007
composing a classic of English literature
00:01:15.007 --> 00:01:16.559
on an index card.
00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:18.799
That's how he wrote all his novels, in fact,
00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:20.159
on index cards.
00:01:20.160 --> 00:01:22.759
I don't mean that he just took notes on these cards
00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:24.159
or wrote outlines on them.
00:01:24.160 --> 00:01:25.679
He did both of those things as well,
00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:28.919
but he also wrote the actual prose of his novels,
00:01:28.920 --> 00:01:32.799
word by word, sentence by sentence, on index cards.
00:01:32.800 --> 00:01:37.359
Let's see what that looked like at scale.
00:01:37.360 --> 00:01:39.440
This box you see here,
00:01:39.440 --> 00:01:41.239
full of groups of bundled cards,
00:01:41.240 --> 00:01:43.919
is what a novel in progress looked like for Nabokov.
00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:46.079
If you squint, you can see that these cards
00:01:46.080 --> 00:01:47.639
were from the composition of Lolita,
00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:50.559
probably his most famous novel.
00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:53.719
So why did he write novels on index cards?
00:01:53.720 --> 00:01:56.039
It's not necessarily an obvious choice.
00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:58.999
Yes, sadly, Emacs wasn't available to him at the time,
00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.239
but most writers in his day,
00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:02.640
if they weren't using typewriters,
00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:03.919
which were available,
00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:05.999
were using notebooks or loose-leaf sheets
00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:07.359
or something like that.
00:02:07.360 --> 00:02:09.959
Not these tiny little index cards.
00:02:09.960 --> 00:02:11.919
But Nabokov loved index cards.
00:02:11.920 --> 00:02:14.359
He swore by them because they represented
00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:15.199
an elegant solution
00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:17.999
to three of the most pressing practical problems
00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:24.079
that every novelist faces.
NOTE Three practical problems novelists face
00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:25.307
Writing a good novel
00:02:25.307 --> 00:02:27.479
is artistically difficult, of course.
00:02:27.480 --> 00:02:28.959
You have to write something interesting
00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:30.107
with a good story,
00:02:30.107 --> 00:02:31.919
something that people want to read.
00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:33.519
But writing any novel at all,
00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:34.999
whether it's good or bad,
00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.719
is brutally, practically difficult.
00:02:37.720 --> 00:02:39.919
You're hacking something like 100,000 words
00:02:39.920 --> 00:02:42.440
into unified shape over a long period of time,
00:02:42.440 --> 00:02:43.799
months or years.
00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:45.719
There are organizational challenges
00:02:45.720 --> 00:02:46.959
inherent in that process,
00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:48.919
and each writer needs practical techniques
00:02:48.920 --> 00:02:51.079
to manage those challenges.
00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:53.399
The most basic challenge, of course, is that,
00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:55.359
unless you're trying to bring back
00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:57.040
the Homeric Bard tradition
00:02:57.040 --> 00:02:59.599
of reciting books from memory in firelit halls,
00:02:59.600 --> 00:03:01.199
you need to actually set down
00:03:01.200 --> 00:03:03.319
those 100,000 words on some medium.
00:03:03.320 --> 00:03:05.839
In Nabokov's case, index cards worked fine for this.
00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:08.439
A little cramped, maybe, but workable.
00:03:08.440 --> 00:03:09.679
Secondly, as you're writing,
00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:11.719
you're bound to think of little but important things
00:03:11.720 --> 00:03:13.919
about the story that you want to record.
00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:16.207
I'm not talking here about big thematic notes
00:03:16.207 --> 00:03:19.039
or research that can go in a separate document,
00:03:19.040 --> 00:03:21.159
but smaller, more contextual notes
00:03:21.160 --> 00:03:23.879
that belong right along the prose that they refer to.
00:03:23.880 --> 00:03:26.639
These might be reminders, like,
00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:28.519
"Remember to clean up this sentence,"
00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:29.707
or questions for yourself
00:03:29.707 --> 00:03:31.907
to consider during rewrites, like,
00:03:31.907 --> 00:03:33.239
"Why does Shirley feel this way here?"
00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:35.599
Nabokov recorded these notes
00:03:35.600 --> 00:03:37.559
in the margins of his cards or on the backs.
00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:39.999
Paper, in general, is great for this kind of
00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:41.039
intertextual note-taking.
00:03:41.040 --> 00:03:44.599
That's not particular to index cards.
00:03:44.600 --> 00:03:47.919
But what Nabokov really loved about index cards
00:03:47.920 --> 00:03:49.519
was how they solved the novelist's
00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:52.119
third and most difficult practical problem,
00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:54.279
which is imposing some kind of structure
00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:55.599
on this mountain of words.
00:03:55.600 --> 00:03:58.519
To have any hope of wrangling a novel into being,
00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:00.119
you need some way to break it down
00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:03.639
into parts, chapters, scenes, snatches of dialogue.
00:04:03.640 --> 00:04:05.839
You need some kind of higher-level outline
00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:07.999
that you can read, navigate, and rearrange
00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:09.919
as you consider and reconsider your story.
00:04:09.920 --> 00:04:11.919
You need structure.
00:04:11.920 --> 00:04:14.879
Index cards gave Nabokov a really powerful way
00:04:14.880 --> 00:04:16.239
to impose this structure
00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:18.559
because they created small, independent
00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:18.999
chunks of prose
00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:21.359
that he could bundle together into groups,
00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:22.759
like we saw in the box.
00:04:22.760 --> 00:04:31.959
This let him navigate his novel in progress quickly.
00:04:31.960 --> 00:04:33.799
He could just flip through those bundles,
00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:36.119
bundle by bundle, instead of card by card.
00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:38.240
He could also impose on
00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:40.079
and modify the structure of his novel
00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:41.999
just by shuffling those bundles around.
00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:45.307
So that's why Nabokov loved index cards
00:04:45.307 --> 00:04:46.559
for writing novels.
NOTE Org mode for writing novels
00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:48.759
Now I'd love to talk about
00:04:48.760 --> 00:04:51.279
why I love Org mode so much for writing novels
00:04:51.280 --> 00:04:53.999
and how it helps me tackle those same challenges.
00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:01.759
The first practical challenge,
00:05:01.760 --> 00:05:03.759
recording your words on some medium,
00:05:03.760 --> 00:05:04.774
is pretty simple.
00:05:04.774 --> 00:05:06.439
Org mode is a part of Emacs,
00:05:06.440 --> 00:05:09.199
a text editor, so you can just type in your text.
00:05:09.200 --> 00:05:10.919
We're not going to spend any more time on that.
00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:13.439
For the second practical challenge,
00:05:13.440 --> 00:05:16.039
recording small intertextual notes,
00:05:16.040 --> 00:05:19.039
Org mode offers comments, like this one here.
00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:21.959
The comment, "maybe I need to say which store?",
00:05:21.960 --> 00:05:23.239
with the leading pound sign there.
00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:25.874
I think that comments are generally
00:05:25.874 --> 00:05:28.240
underappreciated outside of coding.
00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:29.799
When writing fiction, for example,
00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:32.359
I love that Org mode lets me keep these comments
00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:33.959
close to the prose they refer to.
00:05:33.960 --> 00:05:37.159
I can see right here that I'm talking about
00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:39.119
saying which store in this first line,
00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:40.599
"One day, Bob went to the store."
00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:43.999
I get to keep these things close to
00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:44.999
the prose they refer to
00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:46.519
without ever having to worry that
00:05:46.520 --> 00:05:48.479
they'll accidentally be exported to a reader.
00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:50.540
That's great.
00:05:50.540 --> 00:05:52.807
So let's talk about how Org Mode handles the third
00:05:52.807 --> 00:06:00.919
and most brutal challenge of all, which is structure.
00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:03.039
Here we've taken the same text
00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:04.879
and we've imposed some structure on it.
00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:07.807
Like index cards,
00:06:07.807 --> 00:06:09.639
this is where Org mode really shines.
00:06:09.640 --> 00:06:11.999
Org mode extends outline mode,
00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.359
which is built around the concept of header lines,
00:06:14.360 --> 00:06:15.959
with different levels denoted by
00:06:15.960 --> 00:06:18.079
different numbers of leading asterisks (`*`).
00:06:18.080 --> 00:06:20.674
Personally, I tend to use top line headers
00:06:20.974 --> 00:06:23.359
as chapters and second line headers as scenes.
00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:26.079
You can see that here, where chapter one says
00:06:26.080 --> 00:06:27.319
"Bob and Shirley meet."
00:06:27.320 --> 00:06:29.599
Here's a scene, "Bob goes to the store."
00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.639
And here below is chapter two, yet unwritten,
00:06:32.640 --> 00:06:34.319
where Bob goes to work.
00:06:34.320 --> 00:06:39.679
Pretty exciting. Since Org mode supports folding,
00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:42.159
I can read quickly through a summary of my novel
00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:44.079
at either the chapter or the scene level
00:06:44.080 --> 00:06:46.040
just by flipping through different levels of
00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:48.799
visibility, just like Nabokov could flip through
00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:51.307
different bundles of cards.
00:06:51.307 --> 00:06:52.599
So here's the chapter level.
00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:54.719
I can see at a chapter level,
00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:56.679
"Bob and Shirley meet", "Bob goes to work."
00:06:56.680 --> 00:06:59.079
And then I can get one level more specific
00:06:59.080 --> 00:07:01.159
and see the various scenes in the chapter
00:07:01.160 --> 00:07:02.959
at the second header level.
00:07:02.960 --> 00:07:03.999
And I can, if I want,
00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:10.359
I can go all the way back to the prose level.
00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:12.774
And just like Nabokov shuffling
00:07:12.774 --> 00:07:13.940
his index cards around,
00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:16.759
I can move scenes around as logical units.
00:07:16.760 --> 00:07:18.199
Let's say, for example,
00:07:18.200 --> 00:07:20.399
that we wanted to move Bob's thoughts about life,
00:07:20.400 --> 00:07:22.919
which are down here, up further.
00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:26.959
Well, I can grab "Bob thinks about life,"
00:07:26.960 --> 00:07:30.479
and I can move it up or down as a logical unit.
00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:34.719
But Org mode offers some even more powerful tricks
00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:36.519
for structuring and navigating your novel,
00:07:36.520 --> 00:07:38.559
beyond what even index cards can do.
00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.974
For example, you can use tags
00:07:41.974 --> 00:07:44.479
on your scene headings. You can see these here.
00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:46.599
They're the prominent colon separated words
00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:47.559
on the header lines.
00:07:47.560 --> 00:07:49.839
In this case, I'm using `bob` and `shirley`.
00:07:49.840 --> 00:07:52.719
These tags can represent characters
00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:53.674
who appear in the scene,
00:07:53.674 --> 00:07:54.239
which is what I'm doing here,
00:07:54.640 --> 00:07:57.207
or locations in which the scenes occur,
00:07:57.207 --> 00:07:59.159
or plot lines that the scenes further,
00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:00.479
really anything that you want.
00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:04.239
And you can then use Org mode's sparse view features
00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:07.559
to query a set of tags and trim your novel down to
00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:09.519
a subset of related scenes.
00:08:09.520 --> 00:08:12.559
For example, let's say we want to filter down to
00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:14.799
only the scenes in which Shirley appears.
00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:25.759
This could allow us to read quickly through
00:08:25.760 --> 00:08:27.439
just a subset of the prose,
00:08:27.440 --> 00:08:29.599
the prose that referred to Shirley in some way.
00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:31.359
Maybe we want to do that
00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:33.279
to check continuity for her character,
00:08:33.280 --> 00:08:35.519
or make sure that her character develops
00:08:35.520 --> 00:08:36.999
along a compelling arc,
00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:38.319
or even just to get a sense
00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:40.399
of how much airtime she gets in the novel.
00:08:44.040 --> 00:08:49.759
Thanks for listening to this whirlwind exploration
00:08:49.760 --> 00:08:51.879
of some of the practical challenges of writing
00:08:51.880 --> 00:08:53.599
novels and other long-form prose,
00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:55.599
and how Org mode can help tackle them.
NOTE Takeaways and next steps
00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:57.879
I'd like to leave you with a couple takeaways
00:08:57.880 --> 00:08:59.759
and next steps for those who are interested.
00:08:59.760 --> 00:09:01.907
First, if you're writing a novel
00:09:01.907 --> 00:09:02.840
or other long-form prose,
00:09:02.841 --> 00:09:04.874
or even considering doing so,
00:09:04.874 --> 00:09:06.107
take a look at Org mode,
00:09:06.108 --> 00:09:08.374
especially if you're already familiar with Emacs.
00:09:08.375 --> 00:09:10.474
It won't solve the artistic problem
00:09:10.475 --> 00:09:11.874
of writing an interesting book for you,
00:09:11.875 --> 00:09:13.907
not even with a ChatGPT plugin,
00:09:13.908 --> 00:09:15.874
but it's a fantastic tool for managing
00:09:15.875 --> 00:09:16.874
some of the practical challenges
00:09:16.875 --> 00:09:19.840
that come with hacking 100,000 words into shape
00:09:19.841 --> 00:09:22.740
over the months or years that that process takes.
00:09:22.741 --> 00:09:25.839
Second, if you're interested in learning more
00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:27.959
about some of the advanced features of Org mode
00:09:27.960 --> 00:09:29.519
and how they can help in this process,
00:09:29.520 --> 00:09:32.319
I wrote a long blog post about my difficulties
00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:34.879
writing a novel with 13 interconnected subplots,
00:09:34.880 --> 00:09:37.759
and how Emacs and Org mode saved it from imploding.
00:09:37.760 --> 00:09:43.999
I'll put a link here below. [ewj.io/emacs]
00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:50.840
Thanks for listening, and Emacs on!
