All the preparation in the world won’t eliminate necessary changes down the line

I dislike house painting. Inside or outside, I find the process tedious. And big. It’s a big job to cover all those walls. I like the results, of course, but, in my view, the process itself is a bore. So, the last time our walls needed painting, we called in the professionals. They arrived with an enormous number of tools, gizmos and gadgets to do the work. The result was sharp lines between the walls and ceiling and no messes on the floor. How did they manage it?

It’s in the prep work, of course. The painting itself went quite quickly, but the two guys didn’t pick up a paintbrush until all the meticulous prep had been done first — the taping, the floor covering, the paint choosing, the cutting in. Then it was “simply” a matter of covering the walls and ceiling in broad brushstrokes. Done! 

In one way, it is not unlike writing: Get the idea, map the structure, do the research, find the images, only then start putting words on the screen. But unlike the house-painting project, once the words are complete, there is more to be done — no sitting back and admiring the finished product. Once complete, it’s time to send those words out into the world to find readers, and this is a not un-challenging task. I often think about that important stage of the writing process often, and recently wrote an essay on the topic. I'm pleased to say it was published last Friday, on Brevity blog — an excellent publication that has a large subscriber base.  

That essay netted me a few new subscribers to this blog (thank you!), one of whom helped me enormously by telling me it had taken her ten minutes to figure out how to subscribe. I was embarrassed, confessed to her by return email why it was so (I am basically only a few steps above being a luddite), and then I set about figuring out how to improve the process. Which, happily, I did after some digging and persistent experimenting: see the new ‘SUBSCRIBE’ feature in the top left-hand column.

The one-time new paint job in our house is now many years old and could do with some touch-ups, maybe even a serious overhaul. Certainly, the colour in the bedroom has never been quite as we had thought it would be (what can you tell from a paint chip, after all?), but we’ve just lived with it. As I have lived with the unsatisfactory subscribe function on my blog for the past few years (ever since the widget I had included in my original design was discontinued by the platform). It took a friendly reader to nudge me with her comment to improve it. I am grateful she did.

Next time you visit my home, please feel free to tell me that the paint colour in the bedroom is too bright, too much. You will be correct and your friendly critique may just inspire us to change it. Because all the prep in the world cannot ensure that tweaks down the line won’t be necessary.

Housekeeping note: I recently updated the ‘writing as tool for transformation’ website on which the courses I co-facilitate with Deborah Schnitzer are listed. You can find our winter offerings here.

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash