Middle Names

I started off this post with an explanation for the title of this blog.
Here's the short version: I have no middle name. Other people do, I
don't. That's it.

The blog post I wrote went on for about 5 paragraphs and was
excruciatingly dull. So I've started again. This is something that
happens a lot with me. I start writing things, realise they're really
quite rubbish and either delete them or put them to one side and never
go back to them. I write several different versions of the same opening
paragraphs. Each one slightly different, but never quite right. I never
finish anything.

I tried using pen and paper at one point. This is something Neil Gaiman does. He writes his
stories longhand in notebooks, then transcribes them onto computer. The
idea is that this discourages you from tweaking and rewriting as you go,
which is all too easy when using a word processor, and forces you to
carry on until you've finished. Unfortunately, the thought that I have
to choose the right word now, because I can't go back and change it,
tends to paralyze me. I agonise over the choices, never happy with the
result. Maybe it's a technique I should return to once I'm happier with
my writing. Right now, I like being able to delete things and retype
them, polishing as I go.

The downside to this, as mentioned above, is that things never get
finished. It's largely a lack of confidence in what I've written. I
think it's a steaming pile of shite, so why should anyone want to read
it?

It's taken me so long to write this entry, that I'm bored with it. If
I'm bored with it, why would anyone else want to read it? Hmm. I sense a
pattern...