Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing)

Reblogged from my personal blog kenthinksaloud. 

It sounded like such a good idea at the time. Yeah of course I’d love give a talk at TEDx Whitehaven!

And I did want to – I do want to.

But, that old, old problem which faces most writers has arisen as I’ve struggled to write my talk for the last few weeks: having a big picture which is perfect but the details terrify you into doing nothing.

I’ve literally ummed and ahhed over single sentences for hours. Do I put this in? Oh THIS MUST go in! But is it too much? Maybe it shouldn’t go in. I could put it in then take it out later. But what if it is too much and detracts from THE BIG PICTURE? Maybe I’ll leave it out and put it in at the end if it still seems appropriate? But what if I forget about it? I’ll just note it down here…with the thirty or so other MUST HAVE ideas I’ve come up with…

And so on it goes.

Day in. Day out.

I can’t help it, you know. I’m a ‘big picture’ kind of a guy. I can see the vision, grasp it and lead it to fruition. But the details…well that’s not so easy for me. I’ll get them done but it would be less painful if I took out my kidney with a spoon. Really. It’s THAT painful a process.

But – there is light at the end of the tunnel. The secret weapon that works for some writers at least, though not all. Thankfully, it works well for me: The TEDx people have given me A DEADLINE!

Thank the maker! Now I have something to work against; a galvanising push to get the bloomin’ thing written. Admittedly, I’ll be working right up to the last minute to get it in on time. But it WILL be written. In fact, I’m so inspired I’m going to get on with it now.

Or I could write a blog post about it instead. After all, the deadline isn’t quite YET. And I have a perfectly clear BIG PICTURE of how it’s going to work. It’ll be a cinch to write…