“I love you,” says my imaginary daughter in the imaginary conversation that I’m pretending that we’re having. “But honestly, your blog posts? They go on and on. I know you’ve got a lot of wisdom, but I can’t stick around waiting for it. I tune out after…”
“After the first 3,000 words?” I ask helpfully.
‘Jeez! Do they go that long,” I imagine her saying. “I didn’t…”
“I’m kidding,” I say. “They’re not that long. But, yeah, they’re pretty long.”
“And too much death, lately,” says someone else. Maybe it’s another imaginary daughter; maybe it’s an imaginary reader. I imagine that they exist.
“Yeah,” I say. “I get it.”
“What about writing something I can read?” she asks.
“Like this?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “Although this is better. And even better if you keep it short.”
“The point is,” I say, “ that I have trouble knowing when to stop. I’ve got so many ideas that want to get out. Once I open the door, they all rush for it.”
“That’s right,” said an idea as it escaped. “Let me out!” And it was out. Not much of an idea, I thought to myself.
“And it would be better if it had some useful information,” said my daughter.
“This is useful,” I say.
“I mean to people.” She says. “Human beings?”
I stopped typing. I’m a human being, but that wasn’t her point. I edited what I wrote.
“I’m working on making something shorter and more useful,” I said. “Maybe the next post. Or the one after it.”
“I love you, Daddy,” she said. “Finish your post.”
I did.
Written with the help of StackEdit, Grammerly, Markdown Here, Blogger, and Google voice typing on Android and Chromebook, plus other stuff.