What I Learned From My Purple Star Lenses
September 3rd, 2010
Today I completed an exercise of going back through all of my purple star lenses, adding each of them to a new lens, a purple star lensography of sorts. After I was finished, I realized that I had learned something very important about myself and about crafting lenses.
What I learned isn’t anything new. In fact, it’s something that many of us offer as good advice to new lensmasters on a regular basis. That advice? Make lenses from your heart.
Another way of stating it is to write lenses on topics you’re passionate about, things that mean something to you. The reason that is good advice is that the end result is meaningful and, almost always, of a higher quality than when you write about something to which you have no personal connection.
Of my 14 purple star lenses, almost all of them are what I would judge as very good to excellent lenses. There are a couple that, frankly, I’d place in the “good” category; I’m not so sure they quite measure up to “very good.” And it turns out that the best of the best are on topics that I felt passionate about or had a strong personal connection to at the time they were written. The just “good” lenses, not so much.
Of course I know that I’m not able to judge my own lenses totally objectively, but after three-plus years on Squidoo I know an excellent lens when I see one, even if it is my own. I know how to recognize a “good” lens, too.
My point, which I’m not sure I’m stating very clearly, is that if quality matters to you, if you want to make a truly great lens, then put the money motive on the back burner and choose a subject that is really, truly close to your heart. If just “good” is good enough (and sometimes it is good enough), then settle for a subject that will meet some other goal or objective, such as increasing your earnings.
As for me, from now on I’m going to weigh more carefully my passions and my motives when I choose a topic for a lens and do my best to make each lens purple star-worthy by injecting into it a little piece of my heart.
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