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Q&A The "destroy a day's work every nth day" method of improving one's writing - sensible?

This feels very opinion based (maybe the bulk of my time spent on scifi.se has conditioned me to cringe at opinion, not fact based responses :) - however, as a software developer, there is some pre...

posted 9y ago by NKCampbell‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:09:19Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/21477
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar NKCampbell‭ · 2019-12-08T05:09:19Z (about 5 years ago)
This feels very opinion based (maybe the bulk of my time spent on scifi.se has conditioned me to cringe at opinion, not fact based responses :) - however, as a software developer, there is some precedent for this practice in what is called a "[spike](http://www.scaledagileframework.com/spikes/)" - which is thought of as an experiment or proof of concept.

With a true 'spike' - you always throw away what you write because it wasn't intended to be the final product, but a learning experience. From the experience gained in the spike, you can then start over and construct the code properly and using best practices.

If we take this idea to the writing world, you could 'spike' on thought experiments, writing prompts, etc... with no pressure other than to gain experience and learn. I don't know if I would recommend a set of rules though that demanded you throw out work on actual projects though.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-03-25T15:37:52Z (almost 9 years ago)
Original score: 1