I have developed this bad habit — especially for someone who wants to become a full-time freelance writer — of endlessly fiddling with a paragraph instead of moving through the story.
It has become an obsession, trying to make the paragraph perfect instead of actually keeping the words flowing through my mind and out my fingers. There’s always time to go back and fix, polish. When the muse whacks you upside the head, you need to go with it.
Lately, however, I shush the Muse and agonize over the placement of that comma. Then I review my Tweets, check my-email, see if I have made a dime on an AdSense click, and get a drink of water from the kitchen.
By the time I get back to the keyboard, the Muse is asleep on the couch and I can’t recall where I was going with the story. Then I hit the couch, too. Maybe the Muse will rub my temples.
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