I have also learned this is great for [PICK A COOL NAME FOR A SHIP] and [LOOK UP THE FACTS ABOUT OXYGEN LEVELS] and [WHAT’S THE WORD] and [DOUBLECHECK CHARACTER’S EYE COLOR] and ALL KINDS OF THINGS.
Anything that isn’t critical in the moment, and could be filled in later while I’m currently trying to burn through writing pages that will be lost if I don’t get them out right now? Brackets.
This is seriously the best advice, and it really helps put it into perspective that the first draft is just that- a draft. There’s no reason to agonize over a particularly tricky bit of writing when you could just leave it in brackets and skip to the good parts, the parts you’ve visualized. I also use brackets for [fact-check this], [use a stronger verb], [is this in character?] and other notes as I write, just so I don’t forget what I want to work on when I go back and edit.
Note the good sense of [brackets] not (parentheses).
Parentheses AKA round brackets can appear in fiction, usually as an afterthought in a character’s thoughts or narration (as I saw them used just recently), but square brackets hardly ever do.
- State charges cannot be pardoned by the President of the United States. They have to be pardoned by the governor of the state in which the crime was committed
- the governor of Georgia does not have pardon power, that power was stripped in 1943 by the Georgia state legislature
- TV cameras are forbidden in federal court. TV cameras are permitted in state court. It’s already been stated that Donald Trump’s Georgia trial will be televised
- Donald Trump will be booked, processed, fingerprinted, and have his mug shot taken just like any other person who enters the Fulton country jail. They don’t believe in special treatment down there
- the Georgia RICO statue carries a 5 year mandatory minimum sentence which cannot be revoked by a judge
