7 Comments
User's avatar
Alison Thompson's avatar

The idea of writing in Dingbats or Wingdings or some other font comprising symbols rather than letters is interesting. Like you said, no chance of reading back and editing on the fly, just progressing forwards. I am definitely going to give that a go because while I don’t tend to wholesale edit as I write, I do tend to stop to correct typos which then disrupts my flow.

Expand full comment
Little Writing Corner's avatar

The thought of doing it in wingdings petrifies me! I’ll soft start by using comic sans first 😂😇 Let me know how you get on! PS if editing as you go is an issue, you can also try changing your screen appearance/contrast so that it’s not so clear/easy and your brain may learn not to edit while in that mode?

Expand full comment
Felicity Martin's avatar

Me too. I’m especially bad at editing a first paragraph rather than just getting on with it. It might help if I can’t read what I’ve written!

Expand full comment
Little Writing Corner's avatar

Aren’t our brains weird lol?! I found even changing the font, helped me to treat it differently. Good luck if you try it x

Expand full comment
Vicky Heath's avatar

Interesting idea about playing with fonts during early drafts. I'll give it a go! I too enjoy the unfussy, spacious Substack font style and page layout - think they benefit both writer and reader.

Expand full comment
Little Writing Corner's avatar

Let me know how you get on, Vicky. I’m attempting to trick my brain into believing my draft novel is different work from my stories by using different fonts. Will see if it works!

Expand full comment
Little Writing Corner's avatar

Leaving a little update to say I used Comic Sans and wrote a whole new chapter this morning, and another tonight. It definitely helped me “shift” into novel-writing mode as I also subbed a short story today - that one had always been in Times New Roman! Good luck everyone! X

Expand full comment