More personal

Yesterday, I didn't write anything except maybe a few FB posts.

Today, again, I spent the day writing personal stuff. What I find interesting in my process of purely personal writing is that I have to apply many of the same skills that I use for any other form of writing--unless I'm writing in my journal, in which case there are no rules (not even necessarily sense, certainly not legibility). But if I'm writing something that I'm going to share with even one other person--often even a relatively insignificant email, but certainly anything of substance--then I want it to have a logical progression, and have a hell of a hard time not running away with the text (something that could be two pages turning into four).

Any reader of this blog knows that I tend to verbosity, to put it mildly. Put a keyboard under my fingers and watch the verbal avalanche. And perhaps the most difficult task I face as a writer of anything at all is trimming down my precious and wonderful words, saying more with less.

And it's important to do that because, although I love following every jot and tittle of my thinking, it can be overwhelming to others: there is the risk of my reader getting so bogged down that my actual point is lost in minutiae.

I also can blather just fine on a computer screen, but when I get down to the real dirty work of forcing myself into tighter focus and clarity, I absolutely must do at least some of that on paper. There have been studies done: when we read a long scroll of something, it's hard to remember what went where, and the same is true of what we write ourselves. Note to self: when tutoring (assuming I start getting clients at some point), if a student worries about being repetitious or wandering off topic, point out that neurological fact. I know it's a challenge to eschew (gesundheit) the ease of working on the screen, and even when I've edited something by hand, further changes invariably happen when I go back to the keyboard. But that stage of paper and pen (or pencil) is necessary.

I don't yet know what I'll do tomorrow. I hope I can get myself to focus on the website for a chunk of the day. That's not sustained writing, but it's a part of the writing process, as I have to think carefully about what to say, what goes where, and so on. All kinda fascinating. (And full confession: I tend to get lost in the weeds, looking for the perfect free image to download, size as needed, and add to each page I create.) But we'll see. The siren call of that personal communique may prove irresistible. I know it's best to let it simmer on the back burners for as long as I can stand; I just don't know how long I can stand.

I wish I felt that way about my creative writing. Perhaps that will come in time.