It’s just occurred to me that this blog is nearly always in a first draft state. Because it’s so easy to write a blog post and then publish it, I don’t think too much, or work too much on most of the posts I write. A post starts with me thinking of of a topic for the post and then thinking of an appropriate title and starting to type. The post might be based around an image, or it might have an image added if I can think of one but usually it’s just an idea and no image is included.
I don’t tend to hold onto a blog post while finessing it. Perhaps it shows? Hence the eternal first draft.
When I wrote the post about the sudden death of my cousin I started it not than long after I got the news. I had to write it down to make sense of it and it’s something I felt like sharing for some reason. I wanted the post to convey the emotion I felt upon receiving the news.
I finished writing it the next day after I’d had time for the news to sink in. So it took a bit longer than my usual blog post to compose. I still don’t know if I did it justice but it’s still really just a first draft.
Posting to a blog is perfect for the instant gratification of writing something and having it instaneously published to add to the body of work that is your blog. Ninety percent of the time a blog post for me can be done within half an hour, usually shorter, and this is including the mulling it over in my head before I even start to write.
But what about the second and subsequent drafts? Is the blog the place for these? For me it’s not at the moment but it might be something to start thinking about if I ever want to move away from the first draft and work on second and subsequent drafts. Whether I ever do this or not I can’t say at this stage, and whether I will start up ‘Semantically driven – the second draft’, I don’t know, but I have nearly three years of posts here. There might be an idea contained within that’s worth pursuing.
The New Parent says
I happened on your blog and have also thought about the posts as a draft. I do tend, sometimes, to go back and rethink what I’ve written. When I feel I can be clearer, I edit. For me, it’s trying to be as clear as I can in my posts and sometimes that first draft doesn’t cut it.
Stop on over if you like a dad’s perspective.