method and madness by [[Alan Jacobs]]

via In which I describe my writing “methods." by [[Alan Jacobs]]

reply:

@ayjay Thanks for sharing this. My method is often very much like yours. Lots of internal distillation, slowly over time. I remember hearing a story that Mozart wrote music "like a cow pees" (in one giant and immediate flood and then done). I feel like large works of writing, composing, etc. springing, as if fully formed from the head of Zeus is more common than is acknowledged. Cory Doctorow hints at a similar sort of method in his own work in The Memex Method. I'm also reminded of bits of what neuroscientist Barbara Oakley calls "diffuse thinking" or a more internalized version of Michael Ondaatje's "thinkering" described in The English Patient.

https://happiful.com/what-is-thinkering/

thinkering<br /> a portmanteau of thinking and tinkering<br /> It describes the sort of mindful thinking and exploration one does when interacting with objects using one's hands.

quoted here as first appearing in Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient

link to: Barbara Oakley and ideas of diffuse thinking