Monday, October 23, 2006 | by nathan
When I used to write piddling little columns for the Old Gold and Black in college, I never edited myself. I’d come from a high school where – not to blow my own horn or anything, but – I was praised by teachers and peers for being a pretty good writer. I took honors and AP classes, where passing that stupid AP test was the most important thing, and as such we learned to write well and quickly, but not to edit.
So when I wrote my ridiculous columns in the OGB I would write them, read them once – sometimes – and email them off. And oh, my, did I write some terrible, terrible columns. Same sitch in 2002, when I started writing QAF: write, read once (maybe), email. Very little editing. I’d catch typos later on the web and beg Justin to fix them, which he would, dutifully.
Since I have started earning a master’s degree in professional writing I have learned more about editing than I ever wanted to know. Not just how to copy-edit, which is simple, and which I learned in junior high journalism. I learned how to edit my work to make it better, to look over my own writing with a cold eye and say things the way they needed to be said. I love doing it now, and I think my work is a million times better for it. Now, when I write QAF, I sit down on one day and get everything out that I want to say. Then I leave it, and the next day I go back and force the whole thing into 1,500 words. I cut away the fat, I close up rabbit trails, I bring down plates I shouldn’t be trying to spin.
It’s become much tighter, much better. I’m writing work with which I am consistently pleased, and this means I will not have to take up drugs anytime soon.
So I’ve taken on a new project recently: the x365 project, which I’m really enjoying. This dude named Dan wanted to mark his 40th birthday by doing something special, and so he decided to write 40 words about 365 people who had touched his life. Now a whole bunch of people have joined in. The general rule is that you make a list of 365 people who have touched your life. You have to have met them in person – it can’t be a historical figure like your great-great-great-great grandmother, whose story you love, but whom you never met. Dan decided that he had to remember the person’s name; I threw that rule out for myself, because I have some wonderful stories of people who have changed my life, but whose names I do not remember – one-off interactions and the like.
Anyway, every day for a year, you write a certain number of words about each person on your list. Most people, myself included, are using their age – so, on Day 1, I wrote 26 words about my friend Dylan. Day 2 was 26 words about Jay, my old boss at Wake Forest, and so on. I flirted briefly with using only 1 word per person, but I think the words I use for people I don’t like would become monotonous.
Anyway, I’ve been compiling the whole thing in a Word document for over a week, and I’ve been in two minds as to whether to post it to this site. Since I started this whole blogging business in earnest in 2004 I have found that it is fraught with peril; people find this blog whom I would rather not, and I get in all kinds of trouble for saying all kinds of things. This site has never been exactly what I thought it would be, but I have kept it up, often to my own detriment. Now I’m a week into the x365 thing, and I think I am going to post it. I just told my friend Leah about it, and she is thinking about doing it too, which I think is fantastic. The more the merrier, right?
What’s fun about it is trying to condense an entire relationship, a whole interaction often spanning years, into 26 tiny little words. (And yes, when I turn 27 I will add a word. But that’s not for 9 more months.) You have to tighten your language. Every word has to mean something. It’s wonderful.
I have become addicted to 5 different blogs that feature this project, and I’m really enjoying reading little blurbs about people I’ve never met. I hope you will too.
