Slowing down for Florrida
I needed to make a new category. I was tired. So, now we have a new state. Florrida. And because it’s a category, I can’t correct it.
This is symbolic of a larger issue for me. A daily blog, especially of all-horse-stuff, is gonna grind me down to a nub. Don’t get me wrong – I love it. But I spent a couple of hours yesterday on a short post.
I’m not schizophrenic, but I hear the voices of my old editors:
“I can’t use this if you don’t have art. (photos)”
“Get another source to corroborate this.”
“Use something timely. Save the evergreen stuff.”
You can take the girl out of journalism, but you can’t take the journalism out of the girl.
So, I wanted to create content for today, to have “money in the bank.” So the Old Editors’ Voices start up again. What’s going on now? Hunt, search. Oh, let’s do that. Click. click. Now doublecheck it. Get some art. Make it fun. Get yourself out of the story. Write it tight. Put yourself into the story. Oh, right — a category.
Florrida.
Don’t ya just love internal dialog? Yesh. Sometimes we’re our own worse enemies. Put aside what others think. Who’s name is on this blog anyway?
bethyarnall
March 8, 2008
Rhonda,
Maybe a daily blog is too much right now. You don’t want to get all stressed out or you’ll be tempted to drop it completely. Take a deep breath and let it out, relax and chill. It’ll seem better tomorrow.
Lyndi
Lyndi Lamont
March 8, 2008
Beth — I’m just glad it’s my old editors and j-school teachers barking orders in my head — but not my mother!
Anyway, I deeply appreciate your support and enthusiasm. One of the beauties of blogging is being my own editor. But I also see blogging as sort of a cousin to journalism, a training that runs deep. In a similar fashion, IMO, we as fiction writers are also trained, like to write in Scene&Sequel and avoiding passive voice. My bossy “internal editors” (ghosts of newsrooms past?) work pretty much along the same lines, IMO.
Of course, I could be taking this blogging stuff entirely too seriously.
Lyndi — I agree that a daily blog is too much for me right now. I’m doing it for the class but then, that’s it for a while. Besides, I’m still in first draft of my first novel, which I haven’t touched for at least a week.
Thanks again, Beth and Lyndi. Maybe I need to take a break in Florida.
Rhonda/remlane
March 8, 2008