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Originally published at Internet.comAlthough I've earned a living from editing, engineering, and programming, in my heart of hearts I've always thought of myself primarily as a writer. This has provided some solace on the innumerable occasions when I couldn't get some piece of hardware or software to work. Facing a life of considerably more drama, Mario Vargas Llosa described the attitude when he reflected, "If I survive this, I'll probably write an interesting book."
As a writer, I've tried to find ways of bringing insights from the craft of writing to the world of programming, and vice versa. Sometimes the tips work, and sometimes they don't. Ernest Hemingway, for example, is credited with the insight that the best way to keep your momentum is to not stop at a stopping place. That is, you don't stop writing for the day at the end of a chapter or even a page, you stop in the middle of a scene, perhaps even a sentence. The idea is that when you return to work the next day, you will be able to reread (or retype) some of your previous work and recapture the momentum you had. Unfortunately, this approach is better suited to novelists working in isolation than programmers working in an interrupt-rich environment. When you're programming, your creative momentum only lasts until the next compile error or breakpoint signal arrives...
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