Editorial rigor

From Sally Mann's Art Work, in her chapter on killing your darlings (emphasis mine):

Sure, they’re your darlings, but if they’re not good enough, send them straight to the choppy-chop. Faulkner was right about that, even if he wasn’t the originator of the famous quote...and didn’t necessarily think he needed to apply it to his own writing; if one thing in your creative career will define your work for all time, it will be your editorial rigor.

...nobody makes consistently brilliant work. But the impact of what little brilliant work we do make will be diluted by the mediocre work if it’s out there too...Wait until you have a lot of it, even if it’s decades, ruthlessly cull out the mediocrities, even if you love them, then slip the winches and set the good stuff out to sea. (201, 202)

I’ve been digital gardening for over two years now. Not a long time, but not a short time either. There are a couple things here that run counter to the whole gardening shtick, giving me pause about my blogging philosophy.

I often tell friends to start their own website and that no one will read it at first, which is a good thing. It allows you space to experiment in your corner of the internet. You can selectively send out links to stuff you’ve written (or recorded, painted, whatever) as you grow more comfortable with your voice and what you want your space to be. Unfiltered gardening is ok when no one reads your stuff—good when you’re starting out, but not as good once you’ve written a bunch of stuff. At some point you need that “editorial rigor” as Sally calls it.

There are ways to visually signal the completeness and quality of your work. I can’t remember where, but I saw a digital garden that uses a handwriting font to convey draft status. Those affordances help, but at the end of the day editorial rigor might be required. Don’t even let readers see your mediocre work. Bury it. Choppy-chop.

As I publish more and more writing that I'm proud of or that other people like, I'd like to re-pot my garden to surface things differently. My favorite writing could benefit from cover art and prominence to draw the reader. Same goes for my book website. Surface the best stuff (a brief history of domains, TLD wiki, etc) with good cover art.