# 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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