What does it take for you to get a project out the door? At what point are you ready to let it out into the world? I think we often hold onto projects for too long. It's a form of fear. We think that what we're making isn't good enough and that if we just give it a little more attention then it will be really good. The Goldilocks Amount of Time: Just Right So it's a balancing act. You don't want to put garbage into the world. And you don't want to hold on forever. You have to find the middle ground. I had a powerful experience with this when I wrote my second book. The first one, of course, took me a long time and I labored … [Read more...]
Poetry and Page Numbers
Updated 7/12/2018 When I write poems for poetry slams I have a tendency to rework a line over and over. I want it perfect. I move words around, play around with contractions...I generally obsess. And over the past year I've written over 300 haiku - a poetry form that demands precision because you only have 17 syllables. It required me to spend a lot of time thinking about each word. But there's a time and a place. For example, it doesn't help me to obsess over every little word when I'm writing a 1,000 word article. Give Things the Right Amount of Attention This has been an important lesson as I've written, edited, and formatted … [Read more...]