We all still have a way to go.
When is it time to stop learning as a writer? Having worked in the field for forty-plus years, I’ve not yet reached that point.
Fortunately, I have a team of pre-readers who see their task as not to congratulate me, but to point to those places I could have done better. They’re not always right. But when they are, I have the opportunity to learn something.
This past week I’ve been working on a particularly tedious section of the magazine I produce. As I labored to assemble short paragraphs of news from a hundred contributors, I dreaded the next step of placing the edited items into the page layout.
Then I realized I was not limited to the technique I’ve been using the past year and a half. I could try a new way.
If it worked, it could save hours. If not, I’d be no worse off. But if it succeeded, I’d have gained a lot — and also learned something.
Yesterday I gave the technique a shot. It worked. With the effort I save, I’ll have more time to improve this issue, and the ones after that. I still have things to learn.
