MUSING #12 : Editing Me

MUSE: Looking at my website and realizing it needs major editing. 

MUSING: 

As a writer I am well practiced in editing my work. But usually the work is fictional stories in prose and script format, so even though they are my words I don’t feel to attached to them. I learned long ago to be willing to ‘kill my darling’ (aka ideas when idea my work). My website, however, is a representation of me and the words are meant to be about me in my personal voice. And there’s the key word: personal. So it feels very different, and in ways much more difficult to edit writing that is meant to be ME. Even though I feel more emotional about the process, I do see the importance of it. I’m a true believe in personal change and consistent evolution, so it’s important to reflect that on the platforms that represent us. But it does cause an interesting reaction: questioning one’s choices to begin with. 

I find myself looking at my website (which I spent hours and hours creating last summer) and questioning how I could have thought it looked good and represented me well to begin with. The layout is messy, the color scheme is boring, and the descriptions are too wordy. If it was someone else’s website I would question if they were actually a professional creative! But at the time of creation, after those hours and hours of staring at the screen, what I created made sense in my head and I was proud of making my first ever website. And that’s key to remember. It was my first time, so of course it wasn’t going to be perfect. I’m not promoting myself as a website creative. 

And now, with fresh eyes I am able to see my work and edit it accordingly... and I may even start over. And that’s okay! The goal isn’t to get it perfect the first time. Just like my writing, it takes edits and it takes time. And my goal is to stay committed until I feel I’ve done the best I can do. And as I change and evolve in time, that perspective of ‘best’ will change too and I’ll have to edit the site accordingly.