Jan 5, 2013

Lowering the bar: a technique for following tough acts

I was pretty pleased with (logical) yesterday's post, "Reality Isn't Optional," apart from the time that it took to get it out. I started on the day after my blog says I posted it, but didn't post it until I was happy. That took a few days of editing and rewriting, making my thinking clearer and the prose better, and correcting my many spelling and grammar errors (some of which may still be there).

But it took more time than those few days to write it. I originally created the Reality Isn't Optional blog a couple of years ago, and it's taken until now to get my thoughts in good enough order and my moxie up enough to post something. And I did a lot of thinking and researching before I created the blog. But I finally got my first post done! (Technically, as I write this, I didn't. I only posted it here, but by the time you read this, I will have posted it there. Honest.)

The door is open. And now that I've opened that door I've got a few more posts in mind, each of which may end up taking similar amounts of time to meet my quality standard. On the other hand, I might surprise myself.

My problem is that post set my bar high, and because it was high, and because I like to mix metaphors, that made it a tough act to follow. So I did what comes naturally to me: I didn't follow it the tough act.

Silly me.

That's not what I want at all.

My "Lapse Management" policy designed to prevent non-posting didn't work, so I'm going to refine it, or replace it with another: if I don't have something to write I'll write about not having something to write. Going meta. That's a big thing with me.

I'll just lower the bar. That's how I'll follow my own tough acts.

The underlying theory is a) that it will be easier for me to improve the quality of my words when they are flowing than to get them flowing in the first place and b) as I've told myself many times, and as other, better writers have told me: the hard part isn't writing; it's sitting down.

 So I'm sitting.

And writing.

And now I'm posting.
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