The Secret of Great Writing: More or Less

Both things are true

Once upon a time
On a day just like today
While I should could have been writing
I read two posts instead.

One about how writers need to take more time to edit.
The other one about publishing fast and getting it off your desk.

Yep and yep.
They were both persuasive.
As usual… both things are true.

Refine more.
Publish more.
Strive for excellence.
Don’t fall prey to perfectionism.
Inhale
Exhale.
Elevate.
Move boldly forward.
To everything there is a season.

The secret is
Knowing the moment.
Your moment.

---

I’ve been sorting through my archive.
It traveled - ha ha that sounds like I didn’t have to box and ship it - it traveled - Got itself a TSA preferred traveller card - booked a rental car…

I moved it home.
Finally.
First I moved it moved it from the house I divorced in, and sold -
To my parents.
While I was finding my footing.

Then Mom died and Dad moved back east
So I moved it to my sweetheart’s parents’.
They lived conveniently nearby.
His dad died - during Covid.
His mom followed this November.

So we’re cleaning out the house.
And my archive has landed back in my lap.
By lap I mean living room.
It wouldn’t fit in my lap lap.
But I love the word lap - maybe becuase my name is LAPides.
Ha ha.
So here it is.
Now flavored with the musky spice of ‘limited time’.

I so want to Kondo the whole thing.
But I can’t.
Ok I can.
But I don’t want to.
I want to and I don’t want to..
Both things are true.

Like everyone I was initially mesmerized by Marie K.
But then she told me to throw away all the paper.
I means she’s a writer.
Then she said 30 books.
So I tossed hers.

Sometimes what looks like clutter
Is storytelling.
Sometimes what looks like order
Is loneliness.

I’ve skated through the file boxes.
Tossed some obviously irrelevant stuff.
It really is satisfying.
I’ll give Ms Kondo that.

But there are so many
Unfinished, unproduced, undeveloped projects.
Of course.
I bother saying of course because of the legions of creatives
Who come into The Infinite Creator bereft.
All their unfinished, unproduced, unloved projects!
I promise you everyone has these, I say.
They seem shocked.

In my archive
I found some forgotten writing, that blew me away.
Some produced things I wasn’t crazy about.
And everything in between.
Hard drives.
Pitch decks.
High school notebooks.
One where on one page
I am hopeful and sophisticated in my life analysis.
And on the next page
In big Flair pen block letters…
Fuck Everything!
Ha ha ha.
Both things are true.

One day while we were packing up the archives etc to bring home
I was sitting at the dining room table.
Squeezing in some work
I looked spat the hutch filled with a tea cup collection.
Which to bubble wrap and save?
Which to pack into the give away?
Should we slow down and edit more carefully?
Or move boldly forward.
Fast.
”Publish” more.
The more I practice this balance in writing.
The more I recognize the decision in life.

If we’re lucky we learn to write
So we live differently.
We live differently
So we can be better writers.
Both things are true.

Infinitely yours…
xx
B

PS It’s an UnCabaret week! Tickets here!

This Friday 6/27 at El Cid on Silverlake Los Angeles!

I’m guessing you might need a laugh right about now. Great line up. Thrilled to have OG UnCabber Tim Bagley with us - he’s been busy being brilliant acting - Someone Somewhere etc. He;s bringing his pal Katie O’Brien first time UnCabber show runner extraordinaire. Always thrilled to have Jamie Bridgers and Daniel Webb! Plus this show is a benefit for UpRising Yoga - they bring yoga to underserved communities - foster kids, incarcerated communities - etc -and Jill So Chill is both a comedian and the Founder and we’re grateful for her work and so happy to welcome her!