This week's "How Did I Miss That?" column did really well.
My Veteran's Day op-ed topped the charts.
I wish I knew how to make this flickering flame burn consistently. With my mother in law's savings bleeding more quickly than I can milk the stock market, I'm facing a pressure to monetize my writing I haven't seen before, so it's not just ego....but a writer without ego is similar to an elected official without ego who is similar to a unicorn.
In the folklore, the Devil comes to you and offers great popularity in exchange for lying or writing trash. That hasn't happened. I always intend truth and literacy. Sometimes that intention is rewarded and sometimes not.
I believe the title change from "Friday News Dump" to "How Did I Miss That?," something I permitted but did not originate, really helped.
I know page placement matters, but I don't control that.
I mention my work on Facebook and on Daily Kos, but that does not explain why one column rocks and another column just sits like a rock. There is no tingle in the keyboard that tips me off.
This sense of puzzlement first came to me when I worked for The Daily Texan and one of my columns got nominated for the Robert F. Kennedy Prize. I was aware enough of my own abilities not to be shocked at the nomination, but I was shocked at which column got it. I would not have placed that one among my top ten.
I think about writers I really admire...say, Bob Dylan in one genre and Barbara Kingsolver in another...and I know that their work does not uniformly blow your socks off. I find myself wondering if they have any feel for which works will leave the audience barefoot? I doubt it, because once you've "made it," why would you publish something you know to be less than outstanding?
When you accept a contract to write to a regular deadline, you must give up any thoughts of being perfect. Your promise to produce on time rules all. It was that ability to turn loose of my words to meet a promise I had made that was the most valuable lesson I learned on the Texan. When I worked on The Rag, that degree of pressure was seldom present. We always had more copy than we needed, so I could always back out if I was not satisfied.
Now I wonder if meeting deadlines has blinded me? In my rush to be on time and good enough, can I no longer see what's really outstanding, and therefore aim to produce it?
I am learning the cosmic truth uttered by the immortal Oat Willie:
Onward...through the fog!