I once thought I could not draw; yet I drew continuously for 2 years. I should be able to do that with writing. The time spent is not even that different. Think: I used to draw even on weekends and into the night just to complete the day’s plate. I used to draw even in restaurants.

I want to write exactly the way I drew.

In order to do so I need to fight excuses. Those were coming from three areas: 1) expectations; 2) infrastructure; and 3) need,

Expectations

The key strategic decision that made daily drawing possible was the decision to use A5 paper instead of A4 or higher. The smaller format made it possible to complete a work faster. Since my objective was to draw everyday, it did not matter that the work was unsellable. I have, however, given them out as gifts. Framed even.

I had already decided that I didn’t need to draw “beautifully”. The key expectation I threw out the window was perspective: forget the lines. Later I learned that the eye does not actually “see” according to perspective lines that many artists, and that I, used.

I just drew what pleased me. I may not have produced sellable stuff, but I did make a few appreciative contacts on Instagram.

Infrastructure

What ignited my drawing project was an optical device, a mirror which, combined with my cell phone, allowed me to trace photos on paper. This device eliminated the excuse that “I can’t draw what I see.” With practice I no longer needed the device.

SuperSave was another minor app that I found useful. It allows copying pictures from Instagram into Gallery on the Android. With this I could line up drawing projects, usually in groups of 20.

A very important tool is the drawing board. What this allowed me to do was to design a simple ritual: taping my paper down with masking tape. Once this was done, it was much easier to finish the drawing project.

Whenever I felt lazy, I just began by taping my paper on the board (easy). And with SuperSave and my pipeline of pictures, I no longer needed inspiration. Inspiration came in the course of actually making the works.

Need

Did I need to draw? Not for professional or any utilitarian reason. I went into this project telling myself that if I could do it, I could do anything. I needed to see that it was possible.

When I look at all those drawings now on Instagram, and many more that are not, I could not believe I actually did it.

Now writing.

What I expect in writing is to post on WordPress once a day, for the next two years at least. Some of the posts are private, and so there are gaps. Just before this one, I posted an article that is visible only to certain people. And a post is not very long.

The infrastructure that is enabling my writing are two apps: JDarkroom and Scrivener. JDarkroom I have been using for some years now. It emulates the green-on-black screen reminiscent of DOS. I like it because it has few distractions.

Scrivener is new. It is a great app for organizing content. My posts form part of a bigger Scrivener project that is designed to become at least one book. At the moment I’m not fully optimized yet because I lost a number of Scrivener files migrating from Dropbox to OneDrive.

And, of course, I have notebooks that I scribble on at any time. I transfer the contents to Scrivener or JDarkroom later.

I need to write for professional reasons. The “small” writing I do, the posting, the Scrivener and JDarkroom work, these are warm up exercises for the bigger task: scientific journal articles. Once I start writing, it doesn’t take much to continue writing. Scientific articles are just more difficult to write because they combine research and data analysis.

A new development: ChatGPT. I used it to write two posts. ChatGPT took 20 seconds to do its thing, and I spent 20 minutes editing what it did. An exothermic reaction needs an initial energy investment called the activation energy. A catalyst lowers that cost. Coffee is a catalyst that kickstarts the day but is not the product of the day. ChatGPT for me is the coffee of writing.

Finally, how do I envision the final product?

I do not normally describe my more important goals publicly. However, I could say this: 365 x 2 articles in WordPress between December 23, 2022 and December 22, 2024.

(Calamba, 23_0202)