Wednesday, April 08, 2015

100 days | 100 words - an introduction ...


Image: https://thegreatdiscontent.com/100days

I need to learn to be concise. 

Even that sentence is too long, too inflated, too full of unnecessary words. It should read “I need to be concise”. Yes, it is something I need to learn but, more importantly, it is something I need to be.

Not that I am really being concise here. I like to chat when I write ... I like to tell stories and take people on a journey into the “why” of why I think a certain way. It is how I set the scene. The problem is, however, that these tools, these means of communicating, are the antithesis of conciseness. 

Life is busy. Folks are busy. You are busy. You don't have time to read my scene-setting and storytelling, or endure my chat. You just want the facts. In and out. “Just the fax, ma’am” as John Mclain once quipped in a Die Hard movie the number of which I forget. 

So to aid me in my quest for conscious and subconscious conciseness, I have started a thing on here called “100 days | 100 words”. Inspired by #The100DayProject put forward by Elle Luna & The Great Discontent my intention is to write an album / EP review of approximately 100 words each day for 100 days.  

“Basically, if you can dream it, you can do it. The only premise? Participants have to do the same action every day for 100 days, and they have to document every instance of 100. Sounds totally cool, right? That’s what I thought when I first read about this project on Design Observer. Not only were the projects clever, but they also offered an opportunity to grow in one of the ways my friends and I were craving: discipline. The great surrender is the process; showing up day after day is the goal. For the 100-Day Project, it’s not about fetishizing finished products—it’s about the process.”
I have had a creative dip lately ... my creative mojo flatlined if I am truly honest ... and have come to realise that I need to learn the discipline of showing up day after day after day. I need to surrender to the process. I need to switch off the TV and Facebook, and just write. 

100 words isn’t a lot but it is more than enough to get the point across. I take too long getting to the point ... as evidenced here. That is what I need to learn - that's what being concise is - I need to get to the point. 

So here we go. 

Oh and I started two days ago.

Double oh and it took me until today to nail 100 words on the dot. It isn't as easy as you’d think. 

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