Write the Damn Thing Already
I can’t be the only one who reads the front page of their own blog? I’d hate to think I am. You know, you read along to get a flow of what’s happening, to edit the third grade spelling errors, to diffuse any illusions of grandeur. The reasons are as infinite as we are, but the behavior is reading your own front page.
So I’m doing this yesterday. Reading. And I notice this line, “If you’re anything like me, and filter the thought through your own respective lack of artistic talents…” The word respective is redundant. It’s not needed. “Your own” is enough. These type of errors annoy me a little. It’s relative, not annoyed, like, being in a long line while a stoned teenager pays for their new PlayStation with pennies and nickels, but a slight and easily dismissed twinge in my brain.
I’d rather write a post that misses the mark, that pisses off an army of angry liberals, then make those little errors. You know, if I throw a wild pitch so be it. Ball four, guy takes his base, I’ll do better next time, but these things bug me. However, and here’s some insight into how I run this joint, I’m leaving the line as is. While it annoys me, it also appeals to my appreciation of the imperfect. This is a contradiction of sorts, but such are the experiences we create.
Attempts to create perfect little porcelain blog posts are silly. You’d be better served trying to scoop the Salton Sea into a rusty bucket. Write the post as best you can, edit it as best you can, and lay it down. We’re not crafting a book here. No one I’ve come across is channeling Joyce through WordPress, so beat it on out, and leave it be. Or that’s my philosophy around these parts.1
- For the record, if people point out mistakes to me, spelling, grammar, and so forth, I’ll often change them, but this is for the simple fact that I still think there’s a chance if I don’t change them an elite team of Grammar Nazi’s will break into my house near midnight and beat me with rubber hoses and socks laden with batteries. Some of those types scare me.[↩]
Hmm. An interesting question. I generally write, edit, publish and then only rarely read. Partially this is just because editing involves reading the thing at least five times and so I’m not really in the mood to revisit it any time soon.
If I do read it a while later, I generally do correct grammatical errors. They’re typically bigger than your “respective” issue though. Despite my editing I’m usually appalled by the typos and awkward phrases I let through.
But I do keep some atrocious things in tact. I’ve read some of the older things I’ve written: they’re bad. Borderline awful. But I keep them for history’s sake.
So I guess that all means my habit includes a little of both perfectionism and preservationism.
March 13th 2008 - 12:38pmYeah, I know the feeling Dave, of looking back at older posts and thinking, “jesus, am I really that bad,” but like you I let ‘em stick around. Never can bring myself to delete them… I bet a lot of this will have to do with people’s posting routine. For most of my posts I write ‘em, give them a good look over one time, and then post ‘em. So there’s not a lot of time spent with them. It’s different for poems, and long-ish type posts, which I may let sit for a day or two before I edit them, but typically it’s pretty quick. If I get hung up it’s usually as I write the post and centers around wording things different ways, which is more about my voice and tone of the piece.
Thanks for dropping by Dave. It’s nice to hear from you again.
March 13th 2008 - 1:07pm