Who knew that Blogger had so many templates and options to customize? I spent hours just clicking through all of the pics and backgrounds and design templates. And I convinced myself that this time is just as well spent as, say, writing. HA!
On the writing front - read an excellent article in this week's New Yorker by John McPhee, entitled Draft No. 4. If you can get your hands on the article - read the entire thing. It is wonderful, especially for those of us struggling with self-doubt, self-criticism, and feelings of incompetence and ineptitude.
If you've ever asked yourself, Who am I Kidding? Then this is for you. I'm having one of those days today, as a matter of fact. Who am I kidding? I ask myself that whenever I see a clunky phrase, a trite sentence, adverbs that I was sure I'd deleted several drafts ago. Where do they come from anyway?
So I am taking John McPhee's advice today.
The unrelenting doubt and discouragement that comes with writing is a part of the process. Whether I believe it every day or not, each draft gets better and gets closer to what I want to share with the world.
The very word "draft" is full of mystery. This from Merriam Webster online: "Middle English draght; akin to Old English dragan to draw — First Known Use: 13th century." As writers, we can look at this in many ways, but I particularly (adv.) like the notion of "drawing out the (here, little story, come out, come out, wherever you are!) It's like shaking a bucket of grain after loose horses.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Lynn ... I'm going to try and get McPhee's piece as soon as I hit "publish."