500 Words. Maybe.

I’m a freelance writer, over on a platform called Fiverr. Mostly health-related blogs for the general public, but also a fair amount of more technical stuff directed at nurses. (Once, I even did some of the copy for a marketing push that the American Nurses’ Association is doing.) I thoroughly enjoy writing, I’m good at it, and my customers bring rave reviews.

But when it comes to writing my own blogs, I have struggled sooooo hard. I once dawdled for an entire month, trying to come up with fifteen-hundred words that were articulate and profound and elegant, and so on. I finally got it done, kind of, and published it. But I wasn’t happy, because it wasn’t my best work, and I knew it. But I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, or how to correct it.

Then, there was a guy named Richard Miller, whom I once described as “rough, but good.” He calls himself a Missouri hillbilly, a kind of redneck philosopher. One hundred and forty-eight times, he tried to make a formal video, and failed. After going down all kind of wrong paths as to why he couldn’t do it, he realized that formal is not who he is. So he quit trying to “formal” it, sets up with his grill and gets comfortable, and knocks it out of the park on try number one.

He shared this, and it clicked. It realized that this is exactly why I can’t write successful blogs for myself, even though I keep getting five-star reviews when I write for other people.

I’m trying to be what I’m not.

Long, formal, elegant writing. The kind that can be effortlessly condensed into a three point outline. Grammatically perfect, symmetrical, all I’s dotted and T’s crossed. It’s a great aspiration, I suppose, but it isn’t really who I am. I can write an academic paper, in formal third-person prose, and do just fine. But where I really shine, nowadays, is in writing short, pithy Facebook posts. Raw and honest. Simple and to the point.

That is who I am.

So I decided to try something new, as this coronavirus quarantine mess drags on and on.

500 words. Maybe.

Mostly health related, because I’m passionate about it and this is the GESUNDHEIT! Blog, after all. Probably a lot of mindset and thought pattern stuff, because that’s what I’m learning about, and I firmly believe that we must first change the way we think before we can change the way we do. And also that changing the way we do (lifestyle shifts, in technical health coach jargon), is the only real and sustainable way to better health.

This is try number one. Minimal edits. 500 words. Maybe. But real me, not fake me.

I plan to keep doing this, as often as I get a decent inspiration, through the month of April. Because 500 words of real me is a lot better than 1,500 of fake me.