I wanted to get a feel for how many words I've published on Free Refills since I started Season 1, so I did a quick-and-dirty word count on the folder in which I keep the final drafts to the pieces. The total? Somewhere around 40,000 words.
Now, I recognize that it doesn't all read with the hard-edged, gleam-faceted, cut-gemstone quality of, say, Cormac McCarthy. I think we can safely say that no more than 60% of the pieces published here are Pulitzer-worthy. But still. I'm proud of what I've accomplished so far. 40,000 words is about half the length of a novel, all of it drafted and published in a bit more than half a year.
But I still feel a lot of shame every time I bring Free Refills up in my browser to read something and see the ugly default theme I'm still using. It's like I hear a voice berating me: "How *dare* you prioritize the writing itself over making the writing look pretty?"
Dear Voice: You just answered your own question and furthermore you are an asshole.