show-trailing-whitespace is my friend

When I am writing prose in Emacs and I have sprawlbrain, I usually type one or more spaces at the end of all the places I know I need to continue writing or editing, and they’ll show up because of how show-trailing-whitespace is on.

So I can write a few words about things I need to remember to address without losing my place. It helps me “bookmark” what I’m doing.

Sprawlbraininess can differ from day to day because sometimes I have zero and other times I have like five or six such bookmarks in a given post, even a super short one.

I used to outline with org-mode (I probably still would for a larger project) but for quick and dirty post writing, this method helps me similarly lay out my thoughts ahead of time in markdown-mode.

I also need to really remember this about myself so that I don’t go get a “Freewrite” or similar typewriter emulator.

I am too sprawlbrainy to work with the whole “minimal, distraction-free writing” tools. In hindsight, the times in my life where I’ve been the most textually prolific have been when I’ve been using Emacs with all the bells & whistles on.

Emacs Basics