Guys like Dave Berry are amazing. They churned out column after column of weekly or daily wit. I find myself, with my slower pace and higher investment of time into each longer piece, feeling the emptiness that pushing the ”publish” button creates. I won’t lie to you, sometimes I reach a point of publishing simply to clear the plate, knowing that they aren’t “done”. Writing never is; at some point you cut the umbilical.
Maybe I’m at a stall point, or it just feels like a scene or chapter point.
I’m learning on the fly.
Here’s something else you might like to know. Everything here is “first draft”. No rewrites and only editing for grammar, punctuation, and an occasional fact-check.
I’m told that writers don’t do that, on the whole. Other than an editor or maybe a writing group who read each other’s work. Maybe not even then.
That makes me a little bit of a maverick. Reckless.
It also means that I may have finally found my backyard 100 mph fastball.
I don’t get much feedback, and I don’t expect or demand it, but when I can get someone who’s already in the game to give a perspective on how I’m doing and where I’m at, it’s gold. No, more like Rhodium.
The one thing a camera can’t see is itself.
I had a good conversation with a friend, a writer and professor, whom I’ve known over twenty years. He read my last piece and gave me a much-needed evaluation.
He said I’d be the best student amongst his college seniors.
Wow! I’m still digesting that. On one hand, I feel like I’m cheating. I can draw on much more life experience and I’ve had about thirty more years to read things that really matter, like Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes.
Still hard to take a positive compliment after all these years.
He had other things to say some of which I knew were good, but honestly I didn’t fully understand. I don’t have the shorthand language one gathers through analyzing works for six years of college and a few decades writing and teaching.
All I’ve got is “three chords and the truth”. I can do it, I don’t have all the tools to evaluate what I’ve done.
That’s coming, God willing and the creek don’t rise.
Thanks for reading. Keep stickin’ it out with me for as long as I’m not letting you down. Nobody deserves an audience. That’s earned.
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I've got a post-publishing 'hangover'
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Photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash
Now what??
Guys like Dave Berry are amazing. They churned out column after column of weekly or daily wit. I find myself, with my slower pace and higher investment of time into each longer piece, feeling the emptiness that pushing the ”publish” button creates. I won’t lie to you, sometimes I reach a point of publishing simply to clear the plate, knowing that they aren’t “done”. Writing never is; at some point you cut the umbilical.
Maybe I’m at a stall point, or it just feels like a scene or chapter point.
I’m learning on the fly.
Here’s something else you might like to know. Everything here is “first draft”. No rewrites and only editing for grammar, punctuation, and an occasional fact-check.
I’m told that writers don’t do that, on the whole. Other than an editor or maybe a writing group who read each other’s work. Maybe not even then.
That makes me a little bit of a maverick. Reckless.
It also means that I may have finally found my backyard 100 mph fastball.
I don’t get much feedback, and I don’t expect or demand it, but when I can get someone who’s already in the game to give a perspective on how I’m doing and where I’m at, it’s gold. No, more like Rhodium.
The one thing a camera can’t see is itself.
I had a good conversation with a friend, a writer and professor, whom I’ve known over twenty years. He read my last piece and gave me a much-needed evaluation.
He said I’d be the best student amongst his college seniors.
Wow! I’m still digesting that. On one hand, I feel like I’m cheating. I can draw on much more life experience and I’ve had about thirty more years to read things that really matter, like Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes.
Still hard to take a positive compliment after all these years.
He had other things to say some of which I knew were good, but honestly I didn’t fully understand. I don’t have the shorthand language one gathers through analyzing works for six years of college and a few decades writing and teaching.
All I’ve got is “three chords and the truth”. I can do it, I don’t have all the tools to evaluate what I’ve done.
That’s coming, God willing and the creek don’t rise.
Thanks for reading. Keep stickin’ it out with me for as long as I’m not letting you down. Nobody deserves an audience. That’s earned.
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