This is a follow-up on the original Being Free.
Having gotten into a bit of a groove of writing (and publishing!) here regularly, I've overlooked one of the things that used to trip me up so often when I was writing to achieve a goal.
Picking a good headline.
Sheesh. It's the bane of my existence.
Every single time it became a rabbithole of overthinking and bouncing around between different perspectives or frameworks to pick the best one.
Impulsively I always have a semi-decent and often catchy headline in mind.
Then I realise it's so personal and abstract that it's likely only catchy to me.
I then remind myself that if I can only be clever or clear, I should probably be clear, which means the next iteration is literal and mundane. (Or just literally mundane.)
It's generally at this point that I involve AI in brainstorming other options. Irrespective of how I try to tone down the objective to gamify my headline for our algorithmic overlords, all of the suggestions are perfectly fine and have equal ability to go viral. At that point, I feel all of the ick.
In the last week, I've just picked the first headline that intuitively resonates with me most.
That feels more interesting and authentic.
Plus, I'm not publishing short-form content here or hiding the majority of my writing behind a click. In both those cases, crafting the perfect headline makes sense.
Instead the headlines here are only signposts to say, "A new post starts here."