Minimum Queue Publishing

Every time I write a blog or article I really enjoy the process. I love writing and the ensuing process of clarifying my own understanding or even just exploring ongoing ideas in a more legible format.

The perennial challenge is that I don’t make enough time to write on a regular basis. Or to be more specific, I don’t spend enough time finalizing my writing. I’ve got an abundance of ideas, plenty of rough outlines, a handful of drafts, and an empty, neglected coffer of ready-to-publish work tucked away in a long forgotten attic.

Visually, the situation looks a bit like this:

My typical writing experience tends to have the following arc: ideas come all the time, usually in the form of potential titles or a clear theme. Sometimes I’ll elaborate those into rough outlines with key points or ideas. For the cream of the crop, I’ll put in the work to sculpt a rough draft. If the draft is coherent enough, I might reach a sort of event horizon where the finish line is close enough and the gravitational excitement of publishing pulls me over it. Finally, I publish the work and it comes alive on Internet. Afterwards, I go back to twiddling my thumbs, faithfully waiting for the sequel to come out. Then, my stomach sinks when I realize how long the wait is.

the gravitational field of publishing excitement "pulling" my writing across the stages

Recently, I’ve been thinking about ways to reach this motivational event horizon more frequently. My thinking is that if I can successfully do so, the thrill of publishing will work its magic and provide the necessary force to turn an outline into a draft and a draft into a finalized work.

What I’ve realized is that the black hole exerting the gravitational field of writing motivation (i.e. my usually empty coffer of finalized work) needs more mass to exert a stronger force. Why not fill it up a bit before I empty it out?

Instead of publishing as soon as one piece of writing becomes ready-to-publish, I can instead set some self-imposed constraints: never let the coffer go empty. That is, I can only publish a work of writing if there is at least one other work ready to publish. This way I maintain the momentum of writing.

In classical physics, momentum is the product of mass and velocity. There is no one without the other. Projecting this law into the physics of writing means that even if you’re moving (writing), without a buildup of mass (written work), there is no momentum to maintain between publishing [1].

more work in the "finalized" stage creates a stronger gravitational field, pushing the event horizon closer to the idea stage

The law is simple: more written = more momentum for writing.

I’m currently starting with a minimum queue of one, but I can easily imagine it expanding to 2, 3, 4 and beyond.

Keep it moving and keep it massy.

[1]: this is a loose analogy of momentum applied to the experience of writing.