The Writer and the Editor
291 words about what to write.
“The issue, as it stands gargantuan and cumbersome before me, is that of what to create?”
This sentence from an August post in a weekly and non-public writing project I share with a friend still rattles around my mind. Not because it’s profound, or in any way meaningful, but because it needs editing.
Its imperfections taunt me, gnawing at my sanity.
The post is 400 sloppy words of me lamenting the direction of this very blog. As I do so often, I’m writing through the creative block.
What’s with the word choice? The phrasing? The tone? The pomposity?
It’s not the Writer who shares these thoughts, but the Editor. Two heads of the same beast.
The Writer thirsts for words. Fill the page by any means possible because the antithesis of productivity is white space.
The Editor seeks perfection.
No one is more ruthless than the Editor. He’ll sniff out a poorly written line from weeks ago and hound you with searing cringe until it’s fixed. Any empty mind is at risk—in the dead of night, while cycling to work, even when p*ssing at the urinal.
The persistence continues when he finally pulls you back to the computer.
That irritable old bastard tinkers relentlessly until the line reads as it should.
Until the tone isn’t so grandiose: “The issue, as it stands before me, is that of what to create?”
And the word choice fits: “The question, as it stands before me, is that of what to create?”
And the syntax is less archaic: “The question is, what do I create?”
And it reads with a little less cringe: “The question is, what do I write about?”
And perhaps a little more like me:
“What the bloody hell should I write about?”
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*A special thank you to my good friend Matty for the feedback and edits on this post.