How do I do this

A glimpse into how I write these posts

It’s less streamlined than you think, and certainly more chaotic.

Uhm let’s begin with a confession, I owe you three articles, an exploration of the selection process for my everyday watch, which at the time might not see the light of day; a review of my newest acquisition, the GD-350; and lastly, exploration of the Messiah complex we all watch nerds tend to have, thanks to a post by my friendh The Timist.

Now, as I promised on the last article, not only to keep ths page alive, but also as an outlet for myself, as these past days have proven rather weird, as getting used to a new routine in a new country is never easy, I wanted to write this hopefully interesting article on how I come up and write with these articles, that, at the time of writing, 157 of you like and enjoy.

Wtouot further ado, let’s begin

The Idea Process

This part is the easiest as I’m a natural thinker, therefore I always have something scratching at the bock of my mind, and it just needs a catalyst to let the ideas flow.

The initial sound of the gun certainly varies from article to article, as for long research oriented posts such as the Longines and Rolex ones, is just a nagging feeling of finding 5 different articles regarding the history of Longines, but none being expansive enough to my taste, and then deciding to take matters into my own hands, while more thoughtful articles come from either something else I read or experiences, like the one-watch collection post.

There are also more simpler ideas like this precise post, or when I want to express that I want Longines, simple announcement or update post; which simply pop into my head and start writing.

Bear in mind, no idea ever goes to waste, as eeven the most basic one can work asanidea for the an article even years down the line, as we will see later.

It is not that complicated, especially because when the idea hits, I jump straight into Substack and write it down with a short description or promt, so it remains on the draft section for it to be developed later.

Which lead us to…

Before the writing

Now that the idea is in place and it’s rough outline is there we must fill in the blanks or at the very least graft some muscle into that skeleton.

Like in the previous process, it really depends on what I will be writting that weekend to mentally and properly prepeare the article in question.

If the article is one that requires an extensive amount of research, it usually involves at leat three afernnons of full research, separating the wheat from the shaft and the more anecdotal accounts from more substantiated ones, making notes along the passages I copied an dpasted on the draft file, for thenn to finally synthesthize them into a logical narrative that leaves you and I satidfied.

When it comes to thoughtful pieces, like the three grails one, I mainly try to anotate my main arguments in either list format or a in the from of small paragraphs for each one, then seeing how to weave them together, and how to properly substantiate them, usually with anecdotes from friends in the watch commnity and my own lived experiences.

Lastly in more “free-form” articles I simply start from from the written idea summary and work from there, case in point, this precise artile.

It is also important to note that in this pahse the general tone of the article is set, even though it is usually decided upon based on the subject matter and type of article, in this phase is when it takes a more solid shape.

Putting Pen to Paper

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

When the day comes to write the article, usually the same day of publication, and sometimes a day or many in advance, is the most difficult day of them all, as distractions run rampant, especially in race day, and general fatigue can set in.

In terms of “technique” and “ambiance”, I simply pop a pódcast or some music, get a glass of water, crack pen a can of some bubbly beverage, and simply start writing.

During this process I just weave the ideas in order, ye it sounds easy, but many a times I’ve scrapped articles because they were not flowing correctly, nor making sense, or worse, realized I was not saying anything, thus starting all over again or rescuing old ideas from the drafts (now more mature, like the one watch collection article), or literally inventing a article right there on the spot.

While writing, perspective ends up being key, as one aspect of a watch that is often overlooked, for example a hidden story, ends up taking center stage, thus salvaging the article last minute from the jaws of the draft folder.

In this stage the tone is solidified, as it is also important to note that that the type of article dictates the final tone, as many of you know the thoughtful ones I usually end up being slightly verbose, and grand, while in the deep dives, I try to be more direct and to the point, while being cheeky here and there, that is important, as the tone can influence the reader in many ways.

Although I must confess that the tone is usually dictated by the title, subtitle and overall subject matter.

Finishing touches and publication

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

Lastly the complementary images and proofreading enter the frey.

Regarding the photos I try to use my own photographs from try outs or shoots from pieces of my own collectio, but if the subject is rare or hard to obtain some images with credit to their respective creators or companies wll certainly do.

Mind you if I can talk to the original creator of the photograph, and get their permission is even better!

Lastly, in the proofread I simply check fro orthographic and spelling mistakes, maybe adding a paragraph or two, a sentence here or there to make things flow more easily.

After everything is done I simply publish it or set a time and date for it and bingo, new article is born.

As little secret I sometimes “double upload”, which I update the article after upload, while listening to it in the text to speech feature of Substack to see if there were any writing issues, and the re-uploading the edited version, don’t worry, apart from spelling mistakes and a connector or article here or there nothing major changes.

I hope you enjoyed today’s artcle, pulling back the couratin and seeing how I do things here at Cove Watches HQ, it was vey interesting to dissect my own writing style, but it was a very fun dissection!

I am still not 100% settled in in Spain, mostly the timezone change, and prepping my stuff, but we are getting there, wish me luck!

Next week a post about a complex we watch nerds tend to have, especially when having a large following,…

As always…