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| Duccio, "Before Anna" |
Slow to dive in, this morning. There may be a couple of reasons why. One is that I may have forgotten that this 5:30 AM half-hour of writing is primarily for the sake of developing my writing chops. Practicing the craft. Working it out. It’s primarily an exercise to get the brain going in the morning, but also to get the act of writing going in an increasingly proficient manner.
I foresee that I could be easily adding some bad habits. The kind that come along when you’re self-taught. But I’d rather get accustomed to producing than stifle any production for fear I may be doing it wrong. It’s hard to imagine much harm done to anyone by my honing the ability to dash out 300-500 word bursts.
Right now, I’ve begun with the 250-word burst. It was 200 before that, but I soon realized that was not quite challenging enough. Or, rather, that it wasn’t nearly long enough for me to develop a single thought to my satisfaction. So it became 250.
Very recently it’s become 250 in 30 minutes. Or better, 250 before 6 AM. Lauds are at six. Followed by a half-hour meditation. That goes right into getting set for the day, dressed, showering, etc. By 7:15 or 7:20 depending, I should be ready for Prime and whatever comes next—typically confessions and 8:00 AM Mass.
Cranking out the 250 by 6:00 AM, though, has become the scope of the exercise. At least for now.
I’ve been working on this MBS project on remedying the pastor’s mishandling of the MBS. There, you see. Just putting it so succinctly has brought about another aspect, namely, “What is the scope of the parish priest’s responsibility with respect to the MBS?” This is different from “How does the pastor safeguard the MBS?” Or, “How do pastors remedy the mishandling of the MBS?” Is it possible, to catalogue the entire scope of the pastor’s responsibility regarding the MBS? Yes, of course, it is. But that’s more than I’m bargaining for right here. Will it not suffice to indicate the pastor’s larger responsibility in general and focus specifically on a small portion of it? After all, you’ve got to start somewhere, right?
This last 100-word burst is brought to you by yesterday’s exercise to articulate, as succinctly as possible, the scope of the work. A Pastor’s guide to preventing and remedying common mishandling of the MBS. Keep working at it.
I also think this time can be useful in developing that Rectory blog, and also what I’ll put up on the parish website, too. Frequency of publishing might not be the idea. But frequency of writing is more like it. By honing the writing craft, it’ll help ultimately what content eventually does get published.
Image: Duccio, "Before Anna"
