I believe a photo is worth a bazillion words, but these days most of us can only afford the time for about 100. I blame it on inflation and our shortened attention spans.
It’s sad to say but if the paragraph is too dense, or the page scrolls for too long, we just won’t read it. Unless it’s an email from your lover abroad, then maybe.
All throughout school I unconsciously learned to stretch out the word count. If I had a 500 word essay to write and, after I got my ideas out I was 200 words short, what did I do? I added things that weren’t really necessary. Don’t tell me you’ve never done it!
I’ll never forget the story my journalism professor told me about a man who landed a job with two words: “I’m concise.” That was his entire cover letter to a newspaper.
These ideas have inspired me to begin a new project! For the next six years I’m committing to 1 post per week. Every Friday I’ll send you a photo with around 100 words. My goal is to keep creating my art on a regular basis and learn to write short. My own little “just do it” boot camp.
You, my friends, are the most critical part of this project. You see, I’m really bad at meeting personal deadlines. If I don’t have anyone to answer to I won’t push myself as hard.
I’ve been creating photographic art for quite a while now, but it’s always been third to the product photography and pet photography that eats most of my time. I’ve decided I want to put my art first for awhile and I hope you will enjoy taking the journey with me.
Update 1/5/17
What I originally dubbed the “Photo and 100 Words” project has evolved into “Artsy Reflections.”
The 100 word limit was great practice in conciseness and how I made a weekly blog post an achievable goal… but somewhere in the first 100 blog posts I changed the rules to 100-and-something words, and then I finally realized that most posts were never less than 197 words!
I briefly toyed with the idea of moving on to a “Photo and 200 Words” project, but that idea quickly fizzled out when I realized that would limit how little I could write. So a new title, with limitless possibilities, was born!
Don’t worry, I’ll continue slashing the wordiness out of my stories, but I’ll save tons of time NOT obsessively checking the word count tool!
New Artsy Reflections come out every week! My Patrons get a sneak peek of new art 2 days before anyone else, and my Insiders are the 1st to know when new work goes public. Patrons and Insiders also get all kinds of other perks nobody else gets 😉
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Beckster- You know you are an effective writer when your text details a 6 week jaunt to the tropics and it generates a feeling of empathy because it couldn’t last longer. This coming from someone who, in over 5 years, hasn’t experienced much except the world of work and responsibilty. I enjoyed your photos each week for the indigenous flora and fauna of Guatamala. I look forward to viewing your next local of photographic exploration! All the best, Ray Wimbert
Thanks Ray! It really means a lot to know I can get other people to feel what I am through my writing. I’m probably not going anywhere exciting very soon, but there will be plenty more photos. Thanks so much for reading!!!