Midweek Musings: Some Posts Take MONTHS to Write!

How long does it take?

Without a doubt, creating what I consider to be a "proper" blog post takes quite a while. All other things being equal, by the time I have navigated my way from idea to final post — including finding and formatting pictures and spell checking and adding tags and all that good stuff — I probably spend the better part of two hours creating any given post.

I Never Claimed to be a Speed Demon!

And then there are those ”other” posts.

These are the posts that start off as a relatively good idea; I write on them for a while, maybe add some notes for paragraphs I want to add further down… and then I walk away.

And then I come back maybe the following day, or maybe the following week, and add something to it and perhaps take something out get a little bit closer to finish and… and then I walk away again.

It's not that I didn't have a good idea and now am struggling with what to write; most of the time it's actually a case of I have an unusually complex subject matter at hand meeting up with my tendencies towards perfectionism... making me revisit what I'm writing rather many times in order to make sure that what I put out actually is fully representative of what I want to say.

And Then, a Few Months Passed...

Earlier this evening, I was revisiting a post I started many months ago regarding the path forward for Hive as a community and a social content venue… and the overwhelming importance of good usability as a key ingredient if we are to have any hope of attracting large numbers of people to our shores.

In that particular instance, I'm already somewhere north of 1600 words and counting and I keep re-reading and debating what I need to take out to make it shorter... but I can't really come up with anything because in order to present a complete picture of something rather important I actually need to add more detail in order for it to make sense.

And that's how I end up with posts that take months to write.

In truth, the piecemeal creative process is not something new or specific to Hive. My writing has always been somewhat like that. I have some ideas that are fairly clear and easy to write out in a single sitting, and then there are those that are rather complex and convoluted and sometimes take about 25 revisits — or maybe more — before they finally become something I'm willing to put my name on.

Occasionally I do wonder whether I'm just taking the whole thing far too seriously. But I think the final sentence of the last paragraph says it best: I have to be willing to put my name on it, and given that aforementioned sense of perfectionism also means that I'm not going to put my name on something I feel is "incomplete" or ill-conceived.

Of course a more "conversational" post like this one more often than not is just a stream-of-consciousness effort… but even then, it might end up getting written/finished over several sessions.

The Freedom to Create for OURSELVES

As much as anything, my "choppy" process is perhaps also a reflection of the fact that my days are generally broken into pretty tiny segments. What I mean by that, is that I seldom have the luxury of sitting down with a three hour contiguous block of time to do something.

I'm sure that's not so unusual in this world where it seems like everything around me happens in 256 character tweets!

But that's really OK. I remind myself that a blog — as a sort of personal journal — is really as much for my own benefit as it is for an audience. Writing — and other forms of creativity — is a catharsis for me, as much as anything. Thankfully my days of "writing assignments" are far behind me, and I am very grateful for that!

It's Ironic...

The "ironic twist" at the end of the post is that those long convoluted and very well planned posts very rarely end up as my most read and/or rewarded.

I could write a whole separate commentary on what that "says," but I'll spare you. In most cases, people just want to be mildly entertained or distracted for a few minutes... and anything that requires the engagement of brain power gets swiped left.

Thanks for visiting, and have a great remainder of your week!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2023-05-10 23:32 PST
0826/2081