Yes, a reader could see it that way. But that's selective & away from the overall point of my post. I had, with ed, an individual approach to writing a novel draft in ~72 days. So the question for the slashdot reader is simply: Fine, but is what he writes dreck? The link to cetus-editions was only to give, gratis (free download), the slashdot reader a chance to decide if I write fiction well or not.

You state my case very well. Many novelists don't get the book done because they spend time writing the "perfect" Chapter One (that is, going back and fiddling before they finish creating the oneness of the "one mess.")

Thanks! I wouldn't suggest another writer out of a 1,000 would try my approach. But the idea that there is a balance point of diminishing utility once a writer goes to personal computers & increasingly full-featured software environment is for me something to think about. As I mentioned in a reply to another post Jonathan Franzen has pretty much stripped his Dell laptop bare for similar reasons -- get rid of the distractions!

My experience with ed is that for producing a text file, it has the brutal efficiency of a one-way thumb screw. When writing a novel draft, there is no point in even checking the spelling of a word if that keeps one from getting down the immediacy of the story. BTW, Ray Bradbury originally suggested 1,000 words a day. He suggested quantity first and quality will follow. I think that is true of much human endeavor.

I'd reply by asserting all writers have to reach their own accomodation with personal computers as tools for their work. I think I have reasons for my choice/exploration & think it's not yearning for romantic authenticity, but freedom from distraction. Time magazine recently said this about Jonathan Franzen's use of a Dell laptop. Again, note the individual choices he made. Some insist he is quirky & cranky & worse, but he did get the book done. 'He uses a heavy, obsolete Dell laptop from which he has scoured any trace of hearts and solitaire, down to the level of the operating system. Because Franzen believes you can't write serious fiction on a computer that's connected to the Internet, he not only removed the Dell's wireless card but also permanently blocked its Ethernet port. "What you have to do," he explains, "is you plug in an Ethernet cable with superglue, and then you saw off the little head of it."' -- Time