I’ve been slowly working my way through last years posts to see if there’s anything I deem worthy of expounding on. I’m committed to one day writing a book and I’m seeing what I thought was good and what needs work. What I noticed over a number of posts was something that I just explicitly told someone else who asked for writing advice, not to do. Waste words.
As last year started and the days rolled on, I found myself constantly writing about “how I didn’t know if I was going to keep writing forever” or “I even wrote for 27 days in a row before (maybe more, I didn’t go back and count), but for any of a number of reasons, it didn’t take.” Over and over I use this equivalent to the “um” a 6 year old can’t not use while collecting her thoughts. It’s a crutch that I have grown accustomed to using while I let an idea form.
A crutch. We all have them and really, if it’s a mechanism for me to get to bigger idea, there’s not a harm in it, except for keeping it in the post. I did it no less than 20 times last year. Wasted words, verbalizing nothing, wasting our time and the printed space while I tried to figure out what I wanted to say. Okay in theory (I’m doing it RIGHT NOW!!) but not great if I want to advance my writing.
To be fair, I didn’t realize it in real time. I mean, I know I noticed it but thought it was way few and far between. Upon re-reading, it’s a lot. Which really, it’s good that I noticed. I can always adjust what I write and delete the garbage. It’s just that I haven’t.
Economy of words. To get the point across in just the right amount of them.
Point.
Proven.
#hugsandhi5s
#assslapsandfistbumps
