Are We Writing Ourselves Into Idiocy?
Conventional wisdom clashes with common writer’s advice
Even a fool is thought wise until he opens his mouth. -Proverbs 17:28
The exception to the rule is when he picks up a pen, right?
Muddling through one’s first week on Medium, a repeated theme emerges quickly.
- Write every day!
- Publish 5 times a week!
- Writer’s write because they can’t not write! (Even when they use the same word three times in one sentence and cling to the artistic choice to use a double negative.)
This begs the question — if I write every day and publish consistently, am I doomed to sound like a babbling idiot?
Perhaps the proverb more keenly relates to the editing process than the writing process. After all, choosing when to hold your tongue and when to speak up is an internal editing process at its core.
I’ve always struggled with silence. It has taken years of effort to reign in my desire to fill a silence for the sake of it being filled. The idea of other people feeling uncomfortable makes me uncomfortable and the awkward spiral leads me to blurt something, anything, to stop it.
