Fair To Middlin'

The title is a common mid-western response to “How are you?”

“I’m fair to middlin’.”

It’s such a succinct summation.

It’s also how I feel about my writing.

Before you rush to reassure me or give me compliments, it’s actually a great relief to say it.

My writing is fair-to-middlin’.

I’m proud of that.

The relief of it has only come in the last couple weeks with my reading of Stephen King’s book about writing, “On Writing.”

His premise is this:

There are bad writers. Not much to be done about them.

There are great writers. Nothing can stop them.

Here’s how he puts it on page 142:

“…while it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one.”

Those of you who love me tell me how great my writing is, and I love you for that. But I am not a great writer.

I have moments of great. I have written at least one piece of prose on this blog that I am deliciously happy with, and that moment can never be taken from me.

But the day in and out, this is writing that I love doing and I’m proud of, AND it’s fair-to-middlin’, exactly as it should be.

This is not a side hustle. It’s not monetized. There are no links to Amazon products to bring in a little extra income.

Those are not bad things, and I have ideas for some of those things, but this blog, it is purely for joy and memory.

Exactly as it should be.

In case you wondered, here’s my best piece of writing. It’s old so some of you won’t have read it.

With All Its Sham and Drudgery…

I hope you and your day are fair-to-middlin’ at the very least.