The Writing Life
Be so good they can’t ignore you.
– Steve Martin
The “good” found in Martin’s quote is a relative word. Its definition varies by the person using the saying. In my mind, though, the “good” to which he refers has a close kinship with integrity.
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Accept and except are another pair of words that often are mistaken for each other. The root cause is the sound; their similarity in sound sometimes leads to what can only be called an identity crisis. The one’s exchanged for the other and has no idea what to do in the sentence because it isn’t the right word nor is it equipped to handle whatever responsibilities the sentence is trying to place on it.
I have a simple process for filing my in-process work: I name it by the keywords found in its title. If the work is on its way to the final stages in my editorial process, those keywords serve as a reminder of the topic and help me to figure out how it fits into my editorial calendar. If the work is still in draft stage, i.e., it isn’t ready for another stages besides the initial writing one, the file name demarcates that: word-word-draft.
I can’t answer the question “Should I have a blog?” in a resounding affirmative. That may be a strange answer to some. I think, though, that many people and businesses have blogs because they feel or have been told they should have one. They then stumble their way around blogging because they don’t know why they have a blog or what to do with it.
I’m sometimes asked how I get things done when I’m a perfectionist. It’s an understandable question. Perfectionists tend to strive for perfection, so why would they do anything if they knew failure was a potential result?
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