Framing Matters.
Life is not what happens to us… it’s how we chose to react.
Dear Reader,
Writing here brings many challenges. I enjoy, embrace, and tackle most of them successfully, most of the time.
Weekly deadlines keep me on track and ‘industrious.’ Organizing thoughts into coherent and understandable structure is an oddly fulfilling (and therapeutic) process. Wrangling ideas into something enjoyable and valuable for you, my dear reader… that’s a completely different skillset, but also fun. :)
Almost finished articles being significantly re-written on publish day? That happens too, but thankfully not very often. Today it happened again. This week I needed another pause. This ‘article’ you’re reading now was a blank page at noon today.
Part 3 of our series on using boundaries to protect our time, energy, and identity, must wait another week. Writing about crafting boundaries around identity is… harder than I thought.
Attempting to do so has been instructive.
Writing the conclusion of this series has been a particularly fun challenge. I thought it would be difficult to write about identity while trying to avoid politics. As the article has come together, I’ve realized that’s not the hard part.
The difficulty stems primarily from two places. First, it is perhaps the most personal topic I’ve delved into here… certainly in a while. Second, after covering boundaries around time and energy separately, the core of what was truly key to protecting my identity along the road From War to Writing began to emerge. That meant my article evolved and needed to be reworked. The framing needed to adjust, and that changed almost the entire article. Those changes continued last night and only fell into place this morning. They need a little more time to be fully woven into this tapestry of healing, and I couldn’t rush it out today.
My pace needs to be sustainable… I can’t force it. On that piece in particular, I need to get the framing right.
It also feels like that article will be a key piece in the evolution of my work here, and that sparked a few thoughts worth sharing today.
Don’t Force It
Pushing too hard too often throughout my career caused burnout. With more active, deliberate control over my life now, I’d like to avoid repeating the same mistakes in this season.
Even with significant and measurable progress along my journey, maintaining a sustainable pace is still vital. I see my writing here as many things, and one of them is a refuge from the chaos… a predictable, stable, long-term commitment.
I’m learning how to not “force it.”
That means learning how to NOT push out an article hastily ‘finished’ under duress… even a conclusion to a 3-part series.
I want to provide about 1,500 words of fresh insight each week… but sometimes we’ll do something else. As my work here evolves, that standard may evolve as well.
Thank you for your patience with my pace along this journey. :)
Framing Matters
I’ve heard it said that life is not what happens to us… it’s how we chose to react.
That sounds a lot like ‘framing’ or choosing our perspective. That’s healthy for healing, and also a key part of writing.
Framing my experiences in a way that is useful and engaging to you is among the most important skills as a writer… and that can be its own daunting challenge.
One small tweak in framing can change an entire article. When I realize the framing of an article needs to change, while I’m writing it, that often leads to a lot more time and energy to finish it than I expected.
That’s been happening much more lately.
I think it’s a sign of my work maturing, but it feels like a hiccup in my process, or perhaps a sign my process needs to evolve a bit.
Regardless, I’m trying to be more deliberate and precise with my framing. Doing so is disrupting my flow a bit. Thanks again for your patience. :)
Part 3 of this series feels like the last major piece of laying the foundation for the PBA Framework… at least as far as boundaries are concerned.
I need to get the framing right.
My Work is Evolving
For a while now, I’ve been feeling a pull to encapsulate my work here… and it is growing. That is starting to impact my writing process. It feels different and is probably a ‘good thing.’
A book is starting to look like a do-able logistical challenge rather than some nebulous ‘maybe someday’ or ‘nah, I can’t actually write a book.’
Weekly challenges with writing have become more familiar. (Do anything 80+ times and I hope it starts to feel familiar!) I’ve gotten a solid feel for how much of my articles needed to be written by which time throughout the week. I’ve learned to recognize which ideas need more depth or connection. I find myself blindsided by wrangling incomplete thoughts on publish day far less often than before.
But… there’s a progression. As some challenges become easier to tackle, new ones arise. As my body of work grows, there are more published ideas to consider… more lines to stay between… more guardrails to mind… and a larger, increasingly more visible tapestry of healing to consider.
What’s Next?
After starting here from scratch, a ‘bigger picture’ has come into focus on a few occasions. We’ve paused occasionally to evaluate where we’ve been and where we’re going… but we kept moving forward along the same road… adding more depth and perspective to the road From War to Writing.
At some point, we will need to double-back. The best ideas from my memoir and the PBA Framework need to be refined, packaged, and made available in a book or something.
The path toward a book may become a guide for our journey here at some point.
The review I attempted on My Second Attempt at Solitude may get done slowly, here, in public, to make that next step possible.
Regardless, Part 3 to conclude our series on boundaries will hopefully be ready next week. :)
Wrap
Writing this series on boundaries, particularly the final part on identity, made me realize I’m getting into some deeper topics I haven’t written about yet. I may need to crack a seal or two on things I’ve chosen not share or explore because they seem important to complete my work on the PBA Framework and my memoir.
This journey — of healing, of growing, of writing, of creating — is quite an adventure.
Thank you for being part of the ride.
Until next Saturday, I wish you a pleasant week.
Yours, from war to writing,
- Terry 8^)