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+[[!meta title="Managing writing project metadata with org-mode"]]
+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2024 Blaine Mooers"]]
+[[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/project-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. --->
+
+
+# Managing writing project metadata with org-mode
+Blaine Mooers (he/him) - Pronunciation: Blane Moors, <mailto:blaine-mooers@ouhsc.edu>
+
+[[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/project-before)" raw="yes"]]
+
+The planning and writing of a scientific manuscript is an intricate process that requires focused effort.
+Scientists must make many decisions about what to include and exclude from the paper, often capturing these decisions in notes in the margins, appended notes, or external files.
+This ad hoc approach becomes unmanageable when the notes exceed the length of the manuscript, which is often the case.
+Nonetheless, these notes can be vital when responding to reviewers' critiques.
+
+Great scientists like Linus Pauling effectively utilized laboratory notebooks to store metadata on his manuscripts.
+His cross-referencing system resembled that of Niklas Luhmann in his physical zettelkasten.
+These paper-based approaches have pros and cons, but they are no longer popular because of the hard work required to make them work well.
+In comparison, the org-roam-ui view of my zettelkasten provides a garden of endlessly forking paths I can wander in all day.
+
+I sought a more focused approach to managing my attention and the metadata for one writing project.
+I developed a project-specific writing log for this purpose about a decade ago.
+The writing log helps me manage anxieties about forgetting where I left off on an interrupted project (Fear of Forgetting, FoF).
+In this talk, I will highlight the features of my writing log template in org-mode.
+
+The first section supports gathering the initial thoughts about the project needed to assemble a central hypothesis around which to build the paper.
+Subsections support listing the experiments required to address the central hypothesis and the key discussion points.
+These subsections include plans for graphical items like images, data plots, tables, equations, and code blocks.
+Of course, this section will evolve as the results accumulate.
+When largely completed, this section supports drafting a quarter to a third of a manuscript on day one of the project.
+
+The following two sections support project administration and assessment.
+The administration section includes plans to apply for funding and approvals for the work.
+The assessment section supports periodic checks of the project's current state, what holds the manuscript from submission today, and what is missing that makes a larger impact.
+This section includes a timeline and milestones to finish the project promptly.
+These can be displayed in tables that org-mode so strongly supports.
+
+The central section of the template contains daily accounts of accomplishments, decisions, and correspondence about the project.
+I read this section after a hiatus to resume work on the project quickly.
+An open-ended to-do list and a section for collecting ideas for future projects follow the daily log.
+The last section contains protocols and guidelines for the various tasks involved in completing the project.
+
+Here, context switching between the writing log and the manuscript is fine because it usually happens only at the beginning and the end of the writing session. My project-specific approach keeps my mind focused on the project at hand and my FoF under control.
+I share my writing log template in org-mode on GitHub.
+
+About the speaker:
+
+Blaine Mooers is an associate professor of Biochemistry and Physiology at the University of Oklahoma.
+He uses X-ray diffraction to study the molecular structure of proteins and RNAs important in disease.
+He writes grant applications, progress reports, manuscripts, lectures, seminars, and talks each year in Emacs.
+To control his fear of forgetting (FoF), he uses an external document, the **writing log**, to store metadata about each writing project.
+He switched from using LaTeX to Org-mode recently.
+He will discuss the features of the writing log and the joys of editing it in Org-mode.
+
+
+
+[[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/project-after)" raw="yes"]]
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+[[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/project-nav)" raw="yes"]]
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