Or online writing is different?
Spurred ever onward by a recent resource, I had to ponder the encounter with an older me running into a younger me.
It is a scary encounter, but I was brave — or foolish — enough to include some previously unpublished, very early writing. Some of it predates the internets. I might not be proud of all my children, but I like some of the rough-hewn corners, still present.
Sort of begs a question if I “spill more ink,” in a metaphorical sense, about Drawer for Wishes than is contained in the book. True, one story was written on a phone, and one story predates the internet, conceived and executed before I left the confines of the university. One story summarily rejected by high-brow literary circles.
So I do run into a former version of myself. It’s not always bad, and I can marvel at some invention.
Part of that is workflow, and part of that is a gradual honing of my craft. I’ll never be a better writer, but I don’t stop trying to make improvements. Better skills, more tightly-wound prose. Exercise the visual muscles, it all works into the equation.
Since my adult writing career is primarily focused online, maybe a dozen years ago, I quit trying to crack the code for print, since I write solely online? I’m tailored for it. Naturally tailored for online.
What has changed is that I work at being more concise these days.
There is a precision required, or so it seems, and yet, space, too, without a lumbering word count, or worse, column-inches dictating the story’s length.
At the risk of being branded a sexist pig, oink, I am, the expression I heard?
“Like a (female’s) skirt, long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting.”
Hat tip to a certain professor. That kind of sexist banter would probably not be allowed these days.
