Every once in a while when I have some time to spare I think I’ll compose a blog entry and save it to post at a later time. The problem with this is that as soon as I complete the entry, I want to publish it. There is just something about that instant gratification I get when I hit the publish button on my browser window. It feels so good to get it out of my head and out there where others can read and respond to it. I don’t like to wait to publish what I’ve written. I’m pretty sure I could never write a book.
When I compose, I often start out with an idea of what I want to write about. As I write, the subject of my entry often changes and turns into something completely different. This generally happens when it is something I feel strongly emotional about. Most of the time, those entries end up being some of my best writing. It seems that when I let my mind and my memories take over instead of over-analyzing everything I actually am a pretty good writer.
I have always been a pretty straight forward writer. I’m not one to use fancy embellishing words. I just tell it like it is. When I try to stretch it out, it never comes out as well. Because of this, I never did well at creative writing, even though I have an extremely active imagination.
I am a bit of a perfectionist. If I catch a misspelled word after I have published a blog entry, I almost always go back and fix it. I can’t stand to see it on the screen. At the same time, I am really bad at punctuation and tend to overuse commas and under use semicolons. I was fabulous in English and Grammar, but lost most of that knowledge somewhere along the way.
I dream of one day being a well-known writer, whether it be online or in print. I never would have had this dream if I had not discovered blogging. It has opened up the creative flow within me and I can’t seem to turn it off. Some days it hides, but most days it is there, ready to be released.
I do very similar things. Sometimes I write posts and wait to post them, but then I don’t feel like it any more…or I feel like they are “too old” to post. Weird. I also tend to type everything in Word first to make sure I spell things correctly…and then I proof everything before I post it. I’m very very weird.
I’ll often lose sleep over a comma, and the whole quotation mark and semicolon thing? Just shoot me.
I won’t even TOUCH the grammar issue.
What I shoot for is to write how I speak. If I can read it back to myself later, and it sounds like I’m talking to myself, it’s good enough. If I didn’t, I’d lose WAY too much sleep.