I remember back when I was learning to play squash. Tiny room, hard, bouncy rubber ball, running people, flailing rackets. I spent a lot of the time getting:
a) round bruises from being hit by a ricocheting ball, and
b) footprint-shaped bruises from being run over by my teacher.
This is because I was so astounded every time I actually hit the ball, I would stand in place and look to see where it would go.
"Get out of the way," my teacher would yell as she shoved me aside. "Stop admiring yourself and keep moving!"
It's good to celebrate what I've done, such as write posts in this blog. I'm proud of them.
It's not good to keep reading and re-reading the posts over and over, marveling at my brilliance (but it sure is a nice, cheap thrill). That way I'll never move beyond just writing, to writing better. I'll never get enough distance from the writing to finally see the flaws and less-than-perfect phrasing, so that I can move towards improving and getting stronger.
I used to think, "I don't want to be a writer, I just want to have written."
Now that I've started writing this blog, I've changed my mind. I want to write, and keep writing better and better.
Otherwise, what's the point?
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