rescribo

I have been trying to organize a few ideas for weeks now, to the point that they're moderately publishable.  I mean, this blog isn't anything fancy, but we still have standards.  I end up starting to write about something that has some cool insights to it, and as I write it out, it develops more and more. I start seeing other sides or tributaries to whatever I'm trying to communicate, and then I sidewind my own argument into something different that is also cool and important, but the first thing still needs to be said...and then I have a really long, twisty post on my hands that is a little too convoluted for this format and I have to go all the way back to square one and decide where I even want to go with all this tumult of my own opinions.  I start trying to navigate and edit the run-on post that has erupted forth, and far too often these editing efforts make a less cohesive mess as I take out some tangents and add new ones for context...

So my blog drafts, of which I have too many right now to sort out, look like messes of ideas.  Some paragraphs are written out, followed immediately by another paragraph that is definitely related, but going in a different direction than the first one. I leave that to sort out later, then punch out a quick outline-list of related things that also need to be said, and that give context and buildup to the whole point of starting the post in the first place.  I'm just trying to say this one simple thing, but it has so many contributing factors and implications that I expand it into several themes and so many paragraphs that it overpowers the original idea.

Sometimes I then decide to split the ideas into two related posts.  And then I end up writing about something else entirely.

This is definitely not why I'm writing this post right now.  Except it totally is. X)  Hopefully I get those other ones worked out pretty soon.

Here's what will happen when they do get worked out: I will make decisions about what material to include.  I'll write it out and read through it and add some things, and take some things out.  I'll change words and rearrange a lot of things and end up with a lot of material that just gets deleted.

And then you get to see what actually made the cut.

The stuff that doesn't get posted isn't inherently worse than the stuff that actually does. Sometimes it's really good stuff, but it doesn't quite work out with the direction things are going. A lot of the time it's hard to take those things out. What's crazy though, is how much material is created when I'm trying to create something. How much writing goes on that you never see. How many thoughts are formed just as I'm trying to think through something. And in the end, you get a small sample of everything that has been going on. Hopefully by the time you get it, it's a refined, concise sample that represents the best of what was created.

Turns out this is a totally normal part of the creative process, and you can talk to authors and artists and designers and musicians and philosophers and developers and architects and engineers and carpenters and theoretical mathematicians and physicists and probably even God himself about all of the scrap material they go through before an actual creation comes forth.

Mostly, this is a cool thought.  It's important to recognize that you have to go back to the drawing board all the time when you're trying to make something.  And the more revision and refining you do, the more likely you are to have a better final product.

I'll refrain from any didactic conclusions and just say sorry for the long delay in posts.  They're still getting ready. :)