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| author | Sacha Chua <sacha@sachachua.com> | 2023-09-12 20:35:01 -0400 |
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| committer | Sacha Chua <sacha@sachachua.com> | 2023-09-12 20:35:01 -0400 |
| commit | efc18b2900b31705178ff51e7c0d91ac7784783c (patch) | |
| tree | 118d2b6abf49ecee14ad1066b69a7f68fc815839 /2023/talks/nabokov.md | |
| parent | afe18f7545154946ba3318eb97fa3c36799045f0 (diff) | |
| download | emacsconf-wiki-efc18b2900b31705178ff51e7c0d91ac7784783c.tar.xz emacsconf-wiki-efc18b2900b31705178ff51e7c0d91ac7784783c.zip | |
Add emacsconf, hyperdrive, nabokov
Diffstat (limited to '2023/talks/nabokov.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | 2023/talks/nabokov.md | 42 |
1 files changed, 42 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/2023/talks/nabokov.md b/2023/talks/nabokov.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1832fd3d --- /dev/null +++ b/2023/talks/nabokov.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +[[!meta title="Why Nabokov would use Org-Mode if he were writing today"]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2023 Edmund Jorgensen"]] +[[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/nabokov-nav)" raw="yes"]] + +<!-- Initially generated with emacsconf-publish-talk-page and then left alone for manual editing --> +<!-- You can manually edit this file to update the abstract, add links, etc. ---> + + +# Why Nabokov would use Org-Mode if he were writing today +Edmund Jorgensen (he/him) - <https://tomheon.com>, <mailto:ewj@inkwellandoften.com> + +[[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/nabokov-before)" raw="yes"]] + +I've written several novels in Emacs. One of them grew into a monster with a +baker's dozen twisty, interconnected subplots. + +When I started to revise that novel, I had to use an outline to keep all the +subplots straight, but I found it nearly impossible to keep that external +outline consistent with the prose. + +Finally I landed on a workflow using org-mode to keep the outline and the +prose together, which significantly reduced the burden of keeping the two +consistent as I moved and modified sections. I also found a way to use tags +and sparse views over them to enable quick read-throughs of subsets of the +book for continuity checks (which I plan to demo). + +Later--long after finishing the book--I realized this process was essentially +the Emacs update to the writing process that Nabokov used: he wrote on index +cards that served as both prose and outline, so that he could move them around +(which he did incessantly). + +There's something deeply beautiful about org-mode's refusal to treat structure +and prose as different things in a piece of writing--something I think Nabokov +would have appreciated, and something I definitely appreciate, because it +saved my novel. + + +[[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/nabokov-after)" raw="yes"]] + +[[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/nabokov-nav)" raw="yes"]] + + |