Writing Hell

When it comes to starting, writing, and finishing an article, the process falls into one of three different paths:

FAST AS HELL. This piece is written almost in one sitting, edited almost at the same time, and is likely posted within 24 hours. This happens but doesn't happen a lot. I have a significant head of steam to pull this off.

JUST RIGHT. This is the usual process. It starts with me writing a few paragraphs about the topic, and then I either run out of time or run out of steam. There is a week-long period where that first draft is bumping around my head, and I'm mentally working on it. Less than 50% of the time, I return to the rough draft and continue on the journey of discovering if I have a point and an ending. Each time I return, I greatly increase the chance the piece will be produced, but each time I stop, there is a good chance I will never return. Again, 80% of my writing falls into this bucket. Yes, I have a lot of unfinished work.

SLOW AS HELL. Sometimes a piece gets stuck in my head, and the healthy decay of interest described above does not apply. I keep working on the article, and I keep never finishing it. Why? The reasons vary, but it's usually that I've fallen in love with the idea or just a single line of writing that I want to publish. SLOW AS HELL is slow as hell. This process of loving but not finishing has gone on for years before. I can think of two pieces that fall into this category.

The Cello in Soho Square was SLOW AS HELL — twice! I loved the introduction of Soho Square and the exploration of the Dabbler concept, but I wouldn't find the hook. Months (years?) later, I was writing a different piece regarding playing Destiny (again), and I found the concept of S-TIER. On a long bike ride to nowhere, I realized the Dabbler and the Destiny piece intersected.

So, I stitched the two together, and it didn't work. Too big of a leap, clearly stitched together, with a confusing narrative flow. More time passes. Enough time that my opinions about both topics changed, so the individual pieces needed to be rewritten, and it was in those rewrites I found the hook. It wasn't about the benefits of Dabbling or going deep; it was about… doing the work. Ironic, right?

Here's the final piece, I hope you are working hard on something you love.

Rands.