Making it a habit.


As I've acknowledged before, what started out as "an occasional column" rather quickly evolved into an almost obsessively monthly edition. There were a couple of reasons for this, the primary one being that I needed to pace myself. Putting myself onto a schedule proved to be a good way of pressuring myself, a way of converting what might have remained little more than disconnected thoughts and observations into something more-or-less focused, even coherent. It may be an exaggeration to claim that what ultimately got posted had a discernible beginning, middle and end (it was, after all, hypertext) but at least I'd honed in (and yes, after that also honed out) on an interesting (to me) subject. Sometimes, during the writing of a column, I'd find myself almost binge writing - in one sitting writing/constructing almost an entire column - while at other times two or three sentences would be the maximum that I might succeed in jotting down before admitting to myself that the ideas I wanted to express weren't taking shape. Expecting, even demanding, of myself that a column be finished and ready for posting each month also helped me to fit the Boidem into a schedule that included numerous other tasks. Putting myself on a schedule reminded me that I had to find the time to organize my thoughts and to get around to writing and editing, and also to deal with those other, primarily making-a-living related, tasks. The original "occasional" wasn't powerful enough to create that important bit of breathing on my neck, that small voice that told me that time was running out.



Go to: How to write a Boidem column.