“You are not your resume, you are your work.” – Seth Godin
Editing is a pain in the ass.
A chapter I published was 13000 words and I had to edit it to 10000.
My research partner and I had a chapter for another book that was 7500 words and we had to slice and dice it down to 6500.
I have a parent meeting on Saturday where I have to distill an entire education philosophy and program into two hours.
This is why these vignettes are a challenge.
How do I keep them between 500-600 without losing the essence?
2020 is my year of comfort…and then I should have added the following two words in parentheses.
2020 is my year of comfort (through editing.)
A lot of these vignettes start out at 1000 words and I have to take half of the story and delete it. I have to choose what I can leave out for me and my delicate space of memories.
I leave you now with my friend Italo Calvino:
“I think that my first impulse arises from a hypersensitivity or allergy. It seems to me that language is always used in a random, approximate, careless manner, and this distresses me unbearably. Please don’t think that my reaction is the result of intolerance towards my neighbor: the worst discomfort of all comes from hearing myself speak. That’s why I try to talk as little as possible. If I prefer writing, it is because I can revise each sentence until I reach the point where – if not exactly satisfied with my words – I am able at least to eliminate those reasons for dissatisfaction that I can put a finger on. Literature – and I mean the literature that matches up to those requirements – is the promised land in which language becomes what it really ought to be.”
― Italo Calvino, Six Memos For The Next Millennium
Language – like life with a little thoughtful editing – can become what it really ought to be.
(FYI: This post has 344 words.)
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