sembr

# sembr: use semantic linebreaks for plaintext

semantic linebreaks is an old idea where you put newlines after thought ends.
basically a newline after the periods or thought joining commas.
i'm using lists here to better showcase how this could look like if well presented.
previously i used to format my plaintext to 80 characters.
i never really liked the "write a paragraph per line" style of editing.
now i think semantic linebreaks are superior to 80 character wrapping.
first, it has many technological advantages.
you don't have to reformat your lines after each edit.
that takes out a lot of churn out of this old style text editing.
making edits with a line oriented editor like vim also gets easier.
it's super easy to shuffle text around, or just rewrite small parts.
such edits look much simpler in text diffing tools too.

then there's the other, emotional aspect of it.
now keep in mind, that i still limit myself to 80 characters per line.
with sembreaks this means that all my thoughts must fit 80 characters.
i still permit separate clauses to spill onto separate lines though.
i used this style for a few weeks now in personal writing.
it does feel that it makes my sentencer simpler, perhaps more childish.
but i feel more clarity out of them.
this way i must find the beginning and the end of each thought.
each thought must be short and must stand on its own.
i can't drone on and on without saying anything.
i feel that this creative limitation helps me to think.
it forces me to break down those swirling thoughts into digestible pieces.

i think, though not sure how to show, but this makes reading easier too.
think of the process of programming.
we also put all the statements onto their own, separate lines.
it would look weird if you would format code to 80 characters.
it just feels cleaner when done this way.
so why wouldn't we want this extra clarity from ordinary text too?

this method does make text use up more vertical space.
in some cases this can be a disadvantage.
perhaps in the ancient times the paper was expensive.
or people don't like overly thick books.
but on computer screen i think the extra height is not an issue.

i tried to convert ordinary text into sembreak'd style with this script:

  document.body.innerHTML = document.body.innerHTML.replace(/[:;.?!,] /g, '$&<br>')

it didn't work.
if something wasn't written with the 80 character / thought limit, then sembreaks won't make it easier to read.

it also initally makes the text to look like poetry.
it adds some rythm to the text and it feels a little bit weird to read.
search for "ventilated prose" and see the discussion around this.
with that search term you'll see so other examples of this style.
but i see that a lot of examples are splitting mid-thought.
they use super narrow margins.
they never really recommend a specific character limit.
they let people go with their gut feelings of what is long.
i don't really like this approach, i prefer static limits.

there's also a lot of discussion about how manual wrapping is 70-ies tech.
that this day and age we should just write full paragraphs per line.
i don't really have a good argument against this.
if people don't mind relying on fancy text editors for text editing,
then they should go for it.
i'm old school, and i like relying on less tech to do simple things.
hence i wrap manually and now semantically.
besides, if you write markdown or html, the renderers will reformat anyways.

i started writing my personal emails with this style.
my emails are always plaintext.
looks like nobody was bothered enough to complain about this style.
maybe people don't mind reading text like this.
i'm now trying to write my work emails like this too and see how it goes.
maybe the idea catches on eventually.
maybe someone else will start communicating with me with this style.
then, hopefully, i'll be able to tell if it really makes things nicer or not.
for now i'll just keep the solo experiment going.

edit: changed this post to use lists to demonstrate the idea.
also, i no longer adhere to the 80 character limit
and i'm experimenting with html email:
writing in sembr but then converting that to ordinary formatting before sending.

edit 2: i found a book written in this style:
"several short sentences about writing".
some of the amazon reviews are written in this style too:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307266346.
i also like that it encourages writing short sentences.
that's something i should get better at.
i haven't read the book yet though.

published on 2020-06-02, last modified on 2022-02-15

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