tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7823625636675642409.post9117718665096802428..comments2024-03-14T04:07:39.792-07:00Comments on Earl Pomerantz: Just Thinking...: "Looking Behind The Curtain - Part... I No Longer Recall What" Earl Pomerantzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16963705121297866334noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7823625636675642409.post-18859596372338052852019-12-12T10:54:08.110-08:002019-12-12T10:54:08.110-08:00When do you consider it "a draft"? Do yo...When do you consider it "a draft"? Do you say that after X number of changes, it's a draft or do you have to sit back and read the whole thing to consider it a draft? Or do you have to get to the point where your think it could be published (or sent to the editor) and then just read it one more time?<br /><br />I find your posts on how you write very informative. Not only because it helps explain how you and other professional writers are able to write things that are good enough for people to say, "Boy, that guy can write!" But also because I find that writing for books and TV and films and blogs is very much like writing software.<br /><br />I have tried for years to finish the sentence, "Writing software is like...," and nothing seems to come as close as it being like writing stories and articles. You seem to go through the same trials and blocks as we do when trying to tell a computer what to do in order for something useful to happen. If we (writers of stories and writers of software) aren't careful, we can go into endless revisions without ever releasing anything.<br /><br />I think that by studying professional story writing, we Software Engineers (so called) could learn proven techniques that might limit the number of Boeing-737-Max-like catastrophes we see in programming. How do you get to correct? How do you get to useful? And how do you avoid confusing?<br /><br />Years ago (1994), a book came out that helped software writers by focusing on designing to recognized patterns of useful, general and well understood solutions. The writers examined thousands of successful and useful programs and found that the reusable parts could be classified as 23 design patterns. It revolutionized the profession. In later years, some more patterns were added but it all started with ideas that came from architecture (through Christopher Alexander).<br /><br />It's time to start using ideas from another classic profession that goes back even further.JEDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07538398157297345338noreply@blogger.com