Inkhaven Desiderata

I'm at Inkhaven, and it's the dawn of the first day. I'm one of the few awake, helped along by European jet lag. [1]

(Yes, this will be a meta post, regrettably. I'll try to keep the journalistic entries few and far between. Weekly retrospectives, perhaps? Or more likely, just one big one at the end.)

I'm to publish a newly written post every day for the next month. This will be a challenge for a few reasons: 1. My taste as a reader far outstrips my skill as a writer, amounting to a perfectionist streak. 2. I'm careful about contaminating a premise with poor execution; I often find it difficult to 'backtrack' in writing, and it's frustrating when a great idea becomes, to me, indelibly associated with a shoddy attempt at nailing it down. 3. I usually write at a staid pace, and spend many times longer editing and rewriting, even returning weeks or months later with fresh eyes. 4. As a result, I'm in the habit of considering everything I write a living document, and there's a sense in which publishing a piece feels like sticking the pin in the butterfly.

All in all, the program pushes at my weaknesses, and that's why I'm here. I expect to write a lot of bad things this month, but I hope this will help me write more good things, too. I think of it as going into the coal mine, a little.

I have a list of prompts for myself: roughly one-third reviews, one-third nonfiction, and one-third fiction. I expect to have the most fun with the first, and keep my promise of "obits and agits" with the second. Fiction frightens me most; my notes look like Widdershins Time Loop, Suzhou Psycho Lobster, Multiple Qualia Disorder, and Quantum Proof Vasectomy. As you might be able to tell, these mostly came from waking up in the middle of the night with a blazing idea and writing just enough down to cue the dream-departed memory in the morning. Who even knows how those will turn out...

But beyond writing, I'm excited to meet some writers I admire — mostly to reassure myself that they're corporeal, and human. Remy is sitting across from me, keys softly tapping, so that's one down already. I'm also particularly eager to meet Gwern, Scott Alexander, and Alexander Wales. The venue is brimming with interesting people and sinfully welcoming. [2] It all feels a little unreal.

I plan to publish the more polished pieces on my substack (Serial Sevens) while this site hosts the daily dough. Whether drafts or just dross I'm undecided, but I'm devoting each morning to the minimum, and letting the feedback, edits, and advance work fill the rest of the day. With luck, I'll build myself a buffer these first few days and buy some breathing room to work on longer and better pieces.

I'm at Inkhaven, and it's noon of the first day. I'm on schedule! Hopefully that holds.