Argh-ness multiplied.
Okay. So I am finding out things about writing a series of redwood posts on a topic of epic proportions: TIME (for pity's sake).
Time is one topic that has had a bazillion words written about it already since it's one of our best human thought constructs and the most complex.
So far I've been through seven (or is it nine?) complete post rewrites and pounded my head against the walls and the desk and so on, thrown books down the hall and growled a lot at the wandering geckos on the ceiling. (I'm here to tell you those actions do not help.)
I confess that River 5, the final post of my series about Time, has gone through a number of ultimately mortifying transformations.
I played with assorted "voices", tried assorted rhythms, tried going high-brow and low-brow and so on.
How about serious, portentous and banal?
What about high-flying, rainbow-eating unicorn food?
I could do gravitas -- i.e., hackneyed whatevers delivered in highbrow, arrogant tones.
I could do gruff and rough and Navy Seal strong.
I could.... I'm sure you've gotten the idea. STILL not happening! (Sigh!)
In the meantime, I have been writing my little IPS (Inner Peace Symptom) squibs and experimenting with assorted other forms of blathering, working through all kinds of finger exercises and slogging along on the Medium writing platform.
(Of course, I've also been keeping soul and body together and all the other mundaneness, as needed.)
It's all good, actually. It's all just part of the process of getting to excellent.
I came up with a cool analogy as a blueprint for writing different kinds and flavors of blog posts and stories when I was responding to a story by one of the other writers on the Medium platform. (It's a custom to react to other people's thoughts on that platform as well.)
Here's what I said:
I just wrote a note to myself in my journal likening writing lengths and styles to cooking up different ways of concocting snackery and meals.
Short-form (anything less than a 3-minute read) is like doing a dish to add to the yum cha assortment, the chacuterie board, or the groaning pupu table. They are short and mostly they can be bursts of intriguing flavors. They should NOT be boring!
Medium form (like around 4 to 8 minutes long) are ordinary, everyday sorts of meals with useful info presented well enough for common usage. They might be street food or food from a favored food truck. They can also be like a show-off potluck dish you want to share with your neighbors. They should NOT be boring.
Long form -- serious informative articles and explorations and books of assorted types -- should be feasts. They really do need to be held to a higher standard. They should be stuffed with fulfilled promises AND they should NOT be boring!
It's really hard to construct a feast if you're doing a pupu dish, sez I. One sparkler does not make a whole New Year fireworks display.
And that's my report for this month.
Hope your holidays are going well and you're taking a lot of breaths between all your crazy runnin'. Hugs to all!
-- Netta
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Thanks for the visit and for taking the time to comment, Mike. I do appreciate it.
-- Netta
Hi Netta
Very timely info, as I’m thinking of writing some Medium dot com posts for backlinks to my guitar site.
Do you really have wandering geckos on the ceiling? Lol 😎
Happy Holidays!
Frank 🎸
That's great, Frank. I tend to throw in a link to one of my Life-Built Poems (LBP) posts every once in a while. It keeps things lively and the LBP posts are useful and very informative expansions of the topics I write about on the Medium platform.
I am truly glad I put together my LBP blog here on Wealthy Affiliates. As a member here, I've learned so much about constructing engaging posts and can play around a bit with the SEO stuff as well.
I also learned a lot about the business side of this blogging gig as well, and even though I'm not particularly good at that part, I am grateful for what I did manage to pick up of the valuable knowledge about things like affiliate marketing, copy-writing and content management and attracting audiences and such.
You were right, you know. Medium may be semi-iconic as a haven for creative writers, but it isn't really built to be a business-oriented platform. Probably there are better choices for that aspect of blogging.
However, Medium does attract a lot of eyes. I'm watching to see what it morphs into.
Oh...the geckos. Those of us who live in the Hawaiian countryside have a tendency to allow the geckos to be a part of the household because they tend to have large appetites for thebugs that wander in and out of our houses as well.
It used to be that those geckos were mostly the common brown or beige-ish house gecko that makes a barking noise and scoots around bold as brass scarfing up little gnats and termites and stuff like that. There were also the chubbier sugar geckos -- shy little guys who mostly come out at night.
A few years ago there was an incursion of the gold dust day geckos -- the ones who were the inspiration for the Geico gecko. Those buggers are fairly large (from four to six inches).
I think the ones in my house ate all the regular brown geckos and now they rule.
I swear that some of them are learning how to stomp around acting like T. rex.
Thanks for the visit, Frank.
Happy holidays to you as well.
-- Netta
I think all of us that try to write regularly run into the same kind of problem now and again. Don't feel like the Lone Ranger.
All we can do is aim for our best shot and hope we make it. Perhaps sleep on it and try fresh in the morning? Sometimes your brain works out an answer at night.
Don't let yourself get too frustrated -- that is not helpful to your mental health. Meanwhile, perhaps table it for a while and try something new. I wish you lots of luck...writing about time is not an easy subject.
People pass through space and call their passing "time." How do you define the subject?
Thanks for the visit, Fran.
Naw...I know. All this angst is just part of my writing process. I am determined to hammer out a decent post and finish out the series before I proceed on to my next biggie, which will be further developments in the "shaping" concept I've been exploring.
Stubborn, that's me.
For real, the annoyance and irritation I vent about is just me letting off some steam. I know that every revision and every failed attempt is just one more way I've found not to do the thing. I'll get there; I mostly always do.
For me, Time and Space are very much entangled and intertwined. Because I'm a Taoish sort, I tend to pay more attention to the interstices, connections, and movements of energy through the Time-Space continuum.
I want to figure out how to navigate through the currents just for the fun of it, I suppose.
I'm working on figuring out how to play the Infinite Game while living in this Finite consensus-world we are building and evolving together. I keep gnawing at it and trying to digest it so I can bring back some good stuff that I can share with my peeps.
Whoosh!
Sometimes I'm just too woo for my own self!
Happy holidays, Fran.
-- Netta
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We've all been there Netta!
Take a step back, do something different and then return with a clear head and different perspective!!
You've got this my friend!! :-)
Thanks, Jessiefido!
Netta
You're most welcome Netta!
Take care my friend! :-)