Have you ever imagined the smooth flow of writing with the screen off?

"How to persevere in writing?" —— Seeing the title of a previous article by user@宋雨同, made me think: I am not a professional text worker, and I have not even received any relevant training, so the so-called writing, As far as I can tell it's just random. Because there is no pressure from editors to urge drafts, if an amateur writer like me wants to keep writing, I am afraid it will actually be a test of perseverance.

There are so many things in the world that are more interesting than writing: the variety of film and television works, the ever-ringing social media bells, the delicacies all over the streets and alleys, there are 10,000 reasons for people to enjoy life first, rather than not go. Write boring text.

# wholeheartedly writing

In order to be able to code words wholeheartedly, at this time, I will sacrifice the software artifact I recommend today: Cold Turkey Writer .

Everyone has learned English, but you may not have heard of the English slang term "Cold Turkey" - which means "to end a habit in a quick but not necessarily pleasant way", such as quitting smoking quickly, quitting quickly wine and so on. Cold Turkey Writer (hereinafter referred to as CTW) is such a software that allows you to quickly stop wasteful consumption and focus on writing.

Once you start CTW, you are confined to an empty white two-dimensional space. Here, you can only code, you can't surf the Internet, you can't hang out, and you're not even allowed to quit at will -- unless you reach your preset writing goals. Writing goals can be set to length of time (eg, 5 hours), or length of text (eg, 10,000 words).

If you can't accomplish your goals, your computer will be stuck in this extra-dimensional space all the time, unable to do anything else - of course you don't want to. In order to enjoy the updated film and television works tonight, in order to see who behind the little bell has liked your Matters article again, you have to do your best until you complete the preset writing goal, then save and quit.

#Turn off screen writing

With the help of CTW, you can finally calm down and focus on writing. However, it didn't take long for you to write, and you might suddenly find out - why is this screen so dazzling? Are my eyes tired and should I rest? ...... Then I found another reason to get up and look into the distance for a while, even to have a cup of tea and slide my phone...

According to a report by Roadside News, a study from Oxford University in the United Kingdom showed that the damage of electronic screens to the eyes is much greater than that of ordinary paper, making it difficult for people to stay focused for a long time, especially when we use electronic screens incorrectly to watch film and television works, and When it is used for writing by mistake, the glare caused by the electronic screen will be more and more intense [1].

However, in this day and age, still writing on paper is a bit too old school. Moreover, in order to facilitate sharing on the Internet, even if the first draft is handwritten, it has to be coded and transcribed again, which is really worth the loss. So, writing in front of an electronic screen seems inevitable. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way in the world to enter electronic manuscripts without looking at the electronic screen?

The answer is: there really is a way.

The prerequisite is that you need a MacBook with a Touchbar, plus an iPad, and a supporting device that can hold an iPad, such as this lattice glass door in my room that just happens to hold an iPad. The specific method is:

• First, place your Macbook on your desk with your iPad on top of the back of your MacBook, at eye level or slightly above.
• Once you're in a pose, connect your iPad as a second screen to your MacBook (using the built-in Sidecar feature), and open a writing software (such as the aforementioned CTW) on the iPad's screen.
• Finally, turn off the MacBook screen via the virtual buttons on the Touchbar.

The correct way to use this screenless hardware combination is:

Under normal circumstances, blind typing against a black screen;

When the input method needs to select words, glance at the word selection bar on the Touchbar;

Look up at the iPad screen when you occasionally need to see what you've typed, move the cursor, and backtrack.

In this way, you will be able to complete the electronic entry of a document without looking at the electronic screen 80% of the time. Isn't it very divine (zhē) strange (téng)?

#other things in the writing space

In addition to the aforementioned set of hardware and software configurations, there are the following recommended gadgets on my desk:

A multifunctional multi-color temperature table lamp. It is more beneficial to human health to use white light with cool color light during the day and yellow light with warm color light at night. A total of four different usage scenarios are available for the color temperature, and the light brightness can also be adjusted by the +/- buttons. It comes with a one-button 60-minute countdown function, which can be set to 60 minutes before going to bed at night. Whether it is used for reading time or code word time, it is a very handy tool. The light off task is over, go to bed obediently. Click here for the Amazon purchase link. Because this table lamp is Made in China, I believe there are similar products in China.

The lamp also comes with a standard USB charging port, so you can charge your electronic devices on the desk at any time. I also happened to find a wireless charging case for an old mobile phone. It was originally used as a mobile phone case. Now it is used as a low-cost and portable wireless charger, and it can even be unplugged sometimes. Temporarily take it out of the house when the power is turned off.

Lastly, there is a basket on the desk for storing clutter. Of course, the things received are of various kinds. In order to prevent unnecessary accidents, I have already marked them with mosaics for blurring. The only thing in the basket that is not mosaic is a Lycamobile phone card, which costs 0.1 USD to make up a single product, and Amazon's own free shipping, which is highly recommended. After activation, you can receive a verification code within the validity period even if you do not recharge. Netizens from mainland China naturally understand what it does, so I won't expand it here. If there is a chance in the future, I may publish several special articles.

#more important is the heart

So far, I am very satisfied with my current writing space. With limited imagination, I can't even imagine what a more satisfying writing space would look like. Maybe this is contentment?

However, writing tools are always just tools, and more importantly, their hearts . As @宋宇tong said, don't write when you don't want to, that's the only way she insists on writing[2]. And I am the same, if you really can't write anymore, just stop for a while - the reason why I have this article is just because I set a writing goal of 5 hours in CTW to write the novel "! The latest chapter of "Advance to the New World", but half of the writing was exhausted, so I had to turn to writing this kind of hydrology that does not consume brain cells to fill the 5-hour hard writing goal.

Sorry, readers! "! Advance to the New World" will be suspended for another week. Give me some more time to revise and polish.

[1] This is really made up by me, don't believe it.

[2] This was written by someone else's handwriting, I really didn't make it up. Quote from the original text: “I don’t write when I’m tired, I don’t write when I’m sad, I don’t write when I want to be in a daze, I don’t write when I want to bask in the sun, I don’t write when I want to go out, I don’t write when I feel sick, I don’t write when I want to sleep Don't write a script, don't write a script when you want to watch a drama, don't write a script when you don't want to write a script..."