Writer’s Shock
Holy frickin’ crap. I don’t know how you professional writer types manage. I just wrapped up and submitted a piece for the Take A Friend To Orchestra Month at Adaptistration, and I have to say, it’s taken rather a lot out of me. I must’ve written, rewritten and re-rewritten my contribution about fifteen times, and I still feel like it isn’t really ready. What we’re hoping is that a large proportion of that worry is due to that classic too-much-exposure problem: you know, when the more you see something the more alien it becomes. It’s like when you were a kid and you tried saying “tortoise” over and over again, and after a minute or two you couldn’t remember what a tortoise was anymore.
The thing is, when I’m typing stuff to go up on this site right here it’s not nearly so difficult. Maybe that’s because I can get away with whatever I like. here, I’m a rather forgiving and accepting boss to myself. It’s very different when you are producing something for someone else, especially when it’s all official with, like, banners and stuff:
I’m really thrilled and honored to take part, especially when looking at all the amazingly impressive credentials of all the contributers who aren’t me. That also makes it more than a little bit scary though, given that everyone else’s biographical description is something like “vice president of being awesome at music” and mine is “physics graduate student”. I only hope that my contribution will actually be interesting or useful to somebody, and I have a newfound respect for professional authors.