Something short and useful

“I love you,” says my imaginary daughter in the imaginary conversation that I’m pretending that we’re having. “But honestly, your blog posts? They go on and on. I know you’ve got a lot of wisdom, but I can’t stick around waiting for it. I tune out after…”

“After the first 3,000 words?” I ask helpfully.

‘Jeez! Do they go that long,” I imagine her saying. “I didn’t…”

“I’m kidding,” I say. “They’re not that long. But, yeah, they’re pretty long.”

“And too much death, lately,” says someone else. Maybe it’s another imaginary daughter; maybe it’s an imaginary reader. I imagine that they exist.

“Yeah,” I say. “I get it.”

“What about writing something I can read?” she asks.

“Like this?” I ask.

“No,” she says. “Although this is better. And even better if you keep it short.”

“The point is,” I say, “ that I have trouble knowing when to stop. I’ve got so many ideas that want to get out. Once I open the door, they all rush for it.”

“That’s right,” said an idea as it escaped. “Let me out!” And it was out. Not much of an idea, I thought to myself.

“And it would be better if it had some useful information,” said my daughter.

“This is useful,” I say.

“I mean to people.” She says. “Human beings?”

I stopped typing. I’m a human being, but that wasn’t her point. I edited what I wrote.

“I’m working on making something shorter and more useful,” I said. “Maybe the next post. Or the one after it.”

“I love you, Daddy,” she said. “Finish your post.”

I did.

Written with the help of
StackEdit,
Grammerly,
Markdown Here,
Blogger, and Google voice typing on Android and Chromebook, plus other stuff.

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