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Steven Foster's avatar

I'm a fan of all the Latin that made it into this piece! Years ago I worked on a project building large compute clusters to process DNA assays for genomic research. This essay helped me map how the assay effort of my writing is helping me get deeper into what makes me, me. Much like assessing my own DNA.

There's a whole other bit to this though. Once one can produce essays and assays with regular frequency, one gains super powers of more accurate self triage as issues arise and perhaps, concentrated expression towards a desired state. You captured this opportunity well with the Stephen King quote and reframe. I wouldn't mind reading a piece from you focused on this idea alone.

No suprise here that Becky was apart of this. This one is so rich I know I'll read it again and again and get more from it. Well done.

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Erin Nolan's avatar

I love the alchemist metaphor, it’s a topic I fell into last year through a book called “Alchemy: The Poetry of Matter” by Brian Cotnoir—been fascinated by ever since. The word alchemy alone makes anything feel more fun and exciting to me, which is exactly what I need when it comes to my editing mindset. 🧪

Your diagram showing the rearrangement named paragraphs of bullets works really well for my visual mind, and reminds me a bit of my process for UX design. Naming your paragraphs to do this is such a solid pro tip.

I have two podcast recommendations for you or anyone else interested in digging more into this topic:

1) The Ezra Klein Show: This Conversation Made Me a Sharper Editor — talks about the process of creating something from nothing, super relevant to drafting and the experience of the “rewrite” from a visual artist perspective.

2) The Ezra Klein Show: Best of: George Saunders on Kindness in a Cruel World — talks about how editing allows you to explore different perspectives or lenses of your own mindset… by the time you’re done, you may have actually changed how you feel or who you are in some small way.

🌱 Thanks for planting the seed in my mind to explore this metaphor further.

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