MediocreMan: Page 3

#Self-Promotion · 10 June 2017

#Twitter is such a strange platform. It is all about promotion, especially self-promotion, which means it is all about me. And promoting myself is something I am definitely not comfortable doing. (It was my friends who tried to frame me for doing so.)

I suppose I could get better at bragging if I want to embrace Twitter. After all, I can do it in front of my family. It is usually in jest, but believe it or not, there are a few things I am pretty good at. Like falling off a log. But regardless of the things I can or cannot do, I suppose I ought to embrace the whole social media self-promotion thing. After all, I do want people to read what I write. I want them to buy my books. And I even want them to watch the things I have put on YouTube.

As long as they do not do those things around me.

It is a bit strange. As much as I would like people to like me and follow me on Facebook and Twitter. As much as I would like them to buy my books and other writings. As much as I would like them to watch me on YouTube, I have a hard time when people do those things around me. I feel self-conscious when I hear myself sing on the computer. Or when people read my writing when I am around.

Part of my problem is that I feel like I can always do better. I feel like my writing and teaching and singing can be more polished. Regardless of how good or bad it is. I guess I always feel like my work is never quite done. Or quite good enough for public consumption.

Which does not make any sense at all. I have been putting out weekly writing unfit for human consumption since 2006. It is never quite good enough, but I like to have a weekly output. Polished or unpolished. Blemished or unblemished. Edited or unedited. Out it goes onto the interweb.

Maybe that is why I have a hard time with the whole social media thing. I want to be polished. I want to be ready for prime time. Even though I rarely am. And since I rarely have something to brag about, I keep my tweets to myself. (Except when I am writing a #SixWordStory or commenting on a trending hashtag or promoting my blog.)

I guess if I am going to keep writing, I need to embrace social media promotion. I need to add to the flotsam and jetsam that is the internet and hope people think my 140 characters are good enough to follow me or at least click through to my websites.

When it comes right down to it, I will probably always have a problem with bragging about myself and pointing to me. Which is why I will always think that social media, especially Twitter, is such a strange platform.

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The Lull · 3 June 2017

Kanagawa oki nami ura; The Great Wave off Kanagawa
by Katsushika Hokusai
This work is in the public domain.

There is a thing in writing called the Lull. Or at least that is what I am calling it today. The Lull is the time between finishing one project and starting another. It is an annoying time.

I recently wrote about the effects of the Lull (see Confused), but I never really understood that there was a lull at all until I finished another project. Rather, got a project ready for editing and more editing. But the Lull is exactly what there is when one project is finished and another has not yet begun.

If you have been reading my stuff for very long, you know that I am still striving to be a mediocre writer. And even more so MediocreMan. Part of that striving is just writing. And writing. And writing. I write six days a week. Rain or shine (not that the sun is usually shining when I write). Ideas or not. And I publish something every week of the year. So I never realized that there was anything like the Lull until I started writing more books.

For any writers out there, I must reiterate that edit really is a four-letter word. Literally and figuratively. Which is one reason I like to blog. I can write a piece, read it a time or two, then put it out on the internet. My readers (both real and imaginary) will see it and might even comment on it, but it is out of my mind and I am ready for the next one. Editing is a thing of the past with blogging. Anything can go out on the interweb. Polished or not. Again, one of the great things about blogging.

But when it comes to writing books or screenplays or pretty much any other writing, there is the dreaded editing process. Wash, rinse, repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat. (Oops, reading the wrong directions.) Write, edit, repeat. Write, edit, repeat. Write, edit, repeat. The cycle can go on forever. An infinite loop. At least if we let it.

There is a time to stop the insanity called editing. Some people might say a piece is ready for prime time. Others say their writing is polished and ready for the world to see. I just call stuff “good enough.” Something is good enough for others to read and comment on. Something is good enough for me to put my name on. Something is good enough. Period. That is when I am finished with a book or other project. Or even a blog post.

That editing process is probably where I should be. This thing I called the Lull is really just a time when instead of looking for the next project, I should be looking at my old stuff. I should be getting books ready for print (all but one are only digital so far). I should be editing the stuff that needs to go out digitally. I should be ripping my hair out trying to figure out why the story is not what I thought it was. But such is the life of a writer who is also a blogger. I can put off all that angst with a silly blog post. Like this one.

When it comes right down to it, I can get through the Lull. All I need to do is write, post, and forget. No editing required.

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I Finished · 27 May 2017

Image courtesy of Keith Ferrin.

Not to brag or anything, but I am going to brag a little. I finished reading the Bible in four and a half months. (I know people read it faster, but it is my speed record.)

If you read my first post about starting to read the Bible rapidly, you might remember that my goal was to finish in less than five months. So I accomplished my speed goal.

I also accomplished much more than that.

I realized through reading the whole book quickly that Keith Ferrin was right. The Bible is a book written for the sole purpose of the reader falling in love with the Author. Not the human authors who got their writing orders from above. The divine Author who guided them and their quills. Reading the Bible in a short time period made me realize that it is not a manual to take out whenever life breaks down. It is a love letter that we want to read over and over again. A love letter from the Creator of the universe to all of His creation.

I also realized that the Bible is just one big story. It has a beginning, which even starts, “In the beginning.” And it has an ending. A huge climactic cinematic blockbuster ending. Full of mayhem and all the stuff even Hollywood could not invent. Like all stories, it also has a finish after the finish. And of course, there are lots of twists and turns throughout the middle of the book. Somehow, the Author keeps the story and themes cohesive. Which is something I knew, but never realized until I read the whole thing like one big book. When I stopped reading it like a manual.

I would encourage anybody, the curios who just want to know what the best seller of all time is really all about, the skeptical who want to find inconsistencies and mistakes, the believers who want to know God deeper, to read the Bible rapidly. Read it like one big story. You can even read it chronologically with a little help or with a chronological Bible. I just encourage you to read it in big chunks of time. Like you would any book. Just read.

I do have one caution though. It is the same caution I gave to a former student years ago. When you read the Bible, especially if you read it rapidly in big chunks of time and read it with an open heart, be ready to be changed. After all, it is a love letter written by the Creator of the universe to each individual person who has ever walked or will ever walk the earth. And that unrelenting love shines through.

I will continue to read my Bible quickly each year. It is certainly a great way to get the whole story. And even though I am not that much of a braggart, I can at least brag a little. After all, I finished reading the Bible in just four and a half months.