My posts since the last digest

The Barfly — A short story about a mobster or something. I didn’t really like this one. I wrote it quickly and it shows. Usually, for a short story, I’d at least like to sleep once between writing the first draft and publishing the story. That way I can see it with fresh eyes. I didn’t do that here though.
A Letter to Purolator — A snotty letter I wrote to Purolator. Since writing this, I’ve talked to several people who live in different areas that all agree that compared to other companies, Purolator has a reputation for not delivering packages and instead putting a note on your door.
I Gave My First Speech — Reflecting on my first Toastmasters speech.
The Confession — Another story. I’m happier with this one. I also made an audio/video version for some reason, though I don’t think anyone will watch it. But hey, nobody will read the text version either, so… Anyway, I think I want to write more short stories, since I feel like I struggle with some aspects of plot and tension and want to get better.
14 Concerns About Immortality — Actually the first Halfhaven post I wrote, though it sat there as a first draft until the end. I was keeping it in the chamber in case I didn’t have time to write a post or something. The style is inspired by 112 Gripes about the French, a down-to-earth handbook given to US soldiers in 1945 meant to pacify tensions that were growing between the soldiers and the French locals.

Some highlights from other Halfhaven writers (since the last digest)

Pulling at the Gushing Thing (keltan) — I haven’t seen any other poetry for Halfhaven. It’s hard to write 500 words of poetry in 1-2 days, but I thought it had some good moments.
AI Models Are Pretty Decent Tutor-Stylists (Aaron) — Using AI to show what I’d look like wearing an article of clothing is obvious, but I would never have thought to upload an image of myself wearing a garment and ask AI if it fits properly, or critique my outfit in general.
Using Willpower Is a Leading Indicator of Failure (Aaron) — As some Halfhaven writers are finding out, writing regularly can require a lot of willpower. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re brute-forcing something with willpower, you’re probably doing it wrong (or you just shouldn’t be doing that thing at all, because it’s not for you.) This blog post gives more examples of advice that don’t take into account that willpower is a finite resource to be protected.

That’s it. Halfhaven is over. I wrote 30 blog posts in October/November. And so did 6 of the other participants, out of a total of 23. Algon wrote the greatest number of posts, 45, and three participants tied for the least at only one post. The average number of posts per participant was 13.1, which is less than half of the required number. I understand why. While I managed to finish, it was hard. Writing every day is hard. Especially if you still have to live your life and work full time and so on. There were many days I didn’t feel like it, or was too busy, or was sick. But the fact we had two months instead of one made it possible for me. Thanks to whoever came up with that idea. I originally thought it was dumb and overcomplicated, and I was wrong.

Inkhaven, the in-person residency in San Francisco, had a much greater completion rate than Halfhaven. It seems from the tracker like nobody missed a post? I wonder how much of that is because of the encouraging environment, how much comes from the fact that the residents could focus on writing full time, and how much came from the threat of expulsion if they missed a post. While Inkhaven is more like university, Halfhaven is more like Coursera. We Halfhaven participants had none of these advantages, and I’m proud that I managed to do the hard thing in spite of the odds.

My most popular post of the ones I posted to LessWrong was Give Me Your Data: The Rationalist Mind Meld with a score of 114. I think this hit the right balance of thoughtful and appealing to the target audience. My least popular was Unsureism: The Rational Approach to Religious Uncertainty, with a score of -7. My attempt at satire, which LessWrong didn’t like. I didn’t post everything there, and I’m sure there’s a few they would have disliked even more.

I definitely improved my writing a lot during Halfhaven. I feel myself developing a voice, cutting unnecessary fluff, and having more structure to my writing.

Some people are going to keep posting every week, which some people are calling “foreverhaven”, but which I call “having a blog”. I’ll probably do the same. One post every two days isn’t enough to make posts I’m proud of. I ended up spending more than two days on some posts, and blasting out some in an hour or two. I also want to do more short fiction for a while like The Confession. I’ve already written the first draft for my next short story.

Thank you everyone who participated, even if you didn’t finish. Thanks for posting in the Discord and creating an environment where I felt I should keep posting too. Thanks for the interesting posts. And thanks for checking out these digest posts. Good luck with your future writing, and maybe I’ll see you next year!

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