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Showing posts from May, 2023

How to Brighten a Dark Staircase

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When I was very young my father taught me to go with my first answer. When a question was asked and an answer popped into my head, that answer was right, and unless I was certain it was wrong I should stick with it. Don't second guess myself. When I was in college my English professor believed the soul of writing was editing. Anybody can scribble words on a page but the process of agonizing over word choices and punctuation decisions was where writing actually happened. That's where the scribbling becomes a masterpiece. Sorry Dr. Brown, but I'm going with my father's advice. When I write the first word that comes to mind is the truth. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Editing is for wimps. I am what I feel and what I feel needs to be committed to the page while I feel it to truly reveal who I am. Going back and rewording what I wrote seems like lying. Someone might say "That's fine for a journal but what about technical writing? Fiction writing? B