What's the point?


Editing a blog can be a tough job and it takes a brave person to do it.  Fortunately, I have someone who is totally immune to my whining, tears, and emotional sensitivity.  You would think putting a daughter in charge of her mother would be fraught with danger.  So far, Heidi and I have been able to utilize her critical skills to improve Scooter Sagas without killing each other.*  I'm fairly, but not completely, directible and hard to offend (in the blogging context).

"What's your point, Mom?" she says with each post draft.  I know that's coming, so I've learned to prepare for it.  Part of my writing routine now includes as a start, The Point.  Having a single issue, the right illustrations or pictures keeps me from a tendency to put more than one focus in a post.  Like life, dealing with a disability is unpredictable; sometimes one idea, sometimes more than one, sometimes nothing.  Having someone who knows you well has its benefits in preventing disorganized writing.  Heidi often understands what I mean to say, but isn't hesitant to tell me when I'm being confusing, unclear, or inappropriately snarky.  Being appropriately snarky is a genetic trait she and I inherited from my mother, along with the ataxia.**  That's not likely to ever go away—the ataxia or the snarkiness.

Earl is also my editor, but we're married, so his comments have inherent risks.  He is selective in his criticism.  Truth be told, I think he's more than happy to have Heidi be the bad cop.  He may spot an errant comma or a run-on sentence, but he knows she'll take care of it.
Heidi comments that get my attention:
"It's your blog, but..."
"I'm not saying 'Start over', but..."
"You don't need to say that. It doesn't contribute anything."
"I don't have many changes, but..."
"Everyone likes pictures, but you have too many."
"I didn't understand The Lesson.  Relate it to your point.

I revise and tweak until I hear,"It's funny now.  I don't have any more changes."


The Lesson: Suck it up, Tam, and take the criticism. The blog will be better for it.  Yes Heidi, I know I've used the second graphic before...it just seemed even more relevant here.

*Previous post: It's a b-b-book
**Previous post:  Thanks, Mom

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 6, 2014 at 5:03 AM

    Hi Darlin'! You're very lucky to have an editor who is so close to you, so available and helpfully critical. You're right, it takes a special person, one who is hard to find and/or hard to ask!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have contact

Image
Skeeter alerted me to an eyesight problem when I realized there were times when I had to navigate precisely while scooting.  I found myself dealing with my deliberate mono–vision by closing one eye in order to gauge available distance.  How much space was between Earl's car and my car, and between the telephone pole and the edge of the sidewalk?  How much asphalt before the road dropped off into dirt?  It was like my old "contact lens" days when one lens isn't in–blurry around the edge (not exactly double vision) .  Hmm, cataracts (at that time in life) , diminishing acuity (OK,  predictable... ) , Ataxia (a typical symptom for some people) ? Around 1993, I had radial keratotomy (RK) after years of wearing contact lenses or coke bottle glasses for being legally blind.  The surgeons gave me one eye for reading and one for distance (mono–vision) .  It was a good solution for someone in the 40s.  But, as I aged, the difference between the eyes was too significant.
Read more

Resume and Update

Image
It's been almost a year since I last blogged. I'd like to think that I was busy, but in fact, I was just too lazy and got overwhelmed at the thought of writing. The other issue is that not a whole lot new has happened and when friends would say, "You haven't blogged in a while," I just nodded my head and stared blankly. I thought maybe it was time to retire the blog and move on.  I mean-- geez! I started this in 2011. There are nearly 200 posts, two thirds of them after publishing my book.  How much blabbing can a person do?  However, the prospect of not being able to blab was just too much to deal with. So, I decided to dig in and update some old posts-- like, "Whatever happened to...?" or "w hatever happened after...?". Going through old posts was rewarding. I discovered that being honest has paid off in that most of my old observations were still valid.  I was relieved to know that there were few instances of "I wish I hadn't said t
Read more

East Coast Roadtrip

Image
East Coast Fall foliage It had been more than two years since we had ventured on our first roadtrip*.  It was time to move from using a walker to a wheelchair.  That was a particularly difficult humiliation bullet to bite.  I thought I had accepted the inevitability of progression, but I found myself whining, "No-o-o-o!"  Was this the end of the road before absolute immobility? Were my traveling days over?  More importantly, would I strain Earl's back and were my scooting days over? 😱 As with previous transitions, logic and practicality won out.  I was so freakin' slow with a walker. I didn't appreciate how frightening my precarious balance was to others.  Finally, I knew an injury was the bigger personal threat and was to be avoided at all costs.  Thelma and Louise ** became a permanent part of my next chapter.  Wheelchair use gave me greater mobility and freedom than I had expected.  It didn't impact my travel, scooting, and I didn't "
Read more