The Devil Is in the Details

I had an art teacher in high school who would walk around the room while we were painting and chant: "The DEVIL is in the details!"

It was his way of reminding us not to get caught up in any one part of our project. While it was a strange way to get his point across, I understand his sentiment. Filling 80 percent of your canvas will be easy, but the other 20 percent is where you'll spend most of your time, analyzing and reworking and agonizing over it. Maybe you'll even paint over something that was already perfect just as it was.

The same can be said of almost any PR endeavor. Eighty percent of a project will breeze by, but it's that 20 percent that'll getcha. You'll rewrite one sentence in a release ten times, or debate which reporter to call for an hour.

There's no grand solution to this problem other than to accept it and be on the lookout for it.

And it is this 20 percent that wakes us up at night wondering, "Did I do the right thing?" Or, as my art teacher might say, it's the Devil getting to you.

-- Alicia