Ugly is Mine

I can’t write small, short posts. Even my micro posts are more than 100-150 words. At the same time, for the last couple of years, I have been trying to avoid the verbosity in my writing. Stay on point. Don’t ramble on. I keep telling myself. In one thought, I had identified one symptom for my wordy posts. In an attempt to be structured, my prose became verbose. But verbosity also conveys two other things - lack of effort and clarity. When the same thought is phrased multiple ways, it is not because I fear the reader may not understand. It is because I, as a writer, am unable to decide on the right way to word the thought. I should put in the effort to trim the post down. I instead keep all the ways to say the same thing. At the same time, I am aware that I shouldn’t lose my voice for the sake of conciseness. There is a thin line between aiming to reduce verbosity and reaching for perfection. The perfect, concise voice is generic. Beautiful, but generic. Ugly is mine.