Post-hoarding, hazard of the blog trade
About two years ago I wrote a post about how many blog post drafts I was hoarding. Post-hoarding is a strange phenomenon I seem prone to, and this was my description back then:
I didn’t see this coming – it developed slowly, over many years. Although blogging is not up there with digging ditches in terms of labor, churning out several blog posts a day is nevertheless work. It can be a challenge, but for most bloggers””who usually suffer from or are blessed with a hefty dose of ideophoria””getting ideas for enough posts is not a problem. More often, the problem is getting too many ideas and becoming scattered, or in my case researching posts and writing half of them but then putting them on hold because they become too unwieldy. I assume I’ll go back and finish them later on, but then new events happen, new thoughts come, new articles beckon, and the old ones pile up in a drafts folder that grows and grows and grows.
The upshot is that my old blog has about 150 old drafts still on it, some long and almost finished, and some short and mere sketches of an idea. The other day I noticed that the number of drafts on this blog (which I still think of as my “new blog,” although I’ve been here since 2007) was approaching 600.
That’s ridiculous.
At the time, I got the number down to slightly below 300. But last night I checked again and I was back up to 530. Time for some more weeding.
As before, I found that quite a few of the posts were on topics that had seemed really big at the time but are now passé. Those were relatively simple to put into the dustbin of history, or rather the trashcan of my site. But there were those mysterious others, which tend to fall into three categories, and which I have no intention of deleting.
The first group is the Big Topic posts, in which I tackle broad subjects so big that they take a long time to write, involve a lot of research and thought, and mostly are only about 3/4 of the way done even now. They are about subjects such as the philosophy and history of the progressive income tax, a topic that initially sounded dull to me but which ended up being absolutely riveting, complex, and relevant.
The second group concern things that caught my attention but seemed very small and simple at the time, and yet ended up being complex—such as, for example, an observation I wanted to make about the Sorcerer’s Apprentice segment from the Disney feature cartoon “Fantasia.” I initially thought it would take just a few minutes to write, but it ended up growing and growing and growing when I discovered the Goethe text on which the cartoon is based—yes, you read that right, the Goethe text—as well as the ancient origins of the Goethe story. So there are tons of those types of posts, almost-finished but not quite finished, huge and unwieldy and fascinating to me but maybe not to you or anybody else.
The third group of drafts consist of the ones that are too emotional, too tender, too personal, too something-or-other to release into the cold, sometimes-cruel world. I love them too much to let them go. Putting them out there in public feels somehow like a loss, even though I know it’s not.
Pretty strange, I know. But then no one ever said bloggers weren’t strange.
Last night I weeded those 530 drafts down and sent the round number of 100 of them to the trash bin, which leaves me with a slightly-more-manageable 430 (this draft makes 431, but soon it will end up in the “published” category). My goal is to clean house and publish more of them, slowly but surely. That should be even more satisfying than clearing out the closets.
Have you thought about maybe making Sunday a day to post some of your longer form drafts as you often go dark on Sunday? A couple two or three posts a week will help you lower your count and also feed the never dying content beast.
I have a similar problem only it’s with reading as opposed to writing. I hear of a book that seems interesting and I get it, one way or the other (library, used, new, Kindle, etc.) I start reading it and then pick up another one, just to scan it and then get hooked. Rinse and repeat. I can have 4, 5, 6 books going at the same. Truth to tell, it’s probably a lot more than that.
English history, gardening, mysteries, true crime, adventures, crime, cooking, WWII, etc., etc., etc.
I worked in a library for 10 years. Every day I would bring home a few books that crossed the circ desk that seemed appealing.
That’s what started the problem.
Susanamantha:
Same exact thing here.
And more than 6 at a time, too.
12 steps Neo…12 steps. Before you can do anything you need to admit that you have a problem.
KRB
(Being his usual fun loving smart ass.)
This might seem like a facile suggestion, but I make it in all seriousness: get an editor. Get a cold-blooded editor.
For starters, turn over the category II articles. Some of them will see the light of day as they are. Others will come back with a notation: “suggest you add a concluding paragraph or two to bring the _____ idea into focus.”
Then turn over the category I articles. An editor will help you see what needs to be drawn out with more research or detail, and can also put a big blue “X” through entire paragraphs that can go
As for category III — keep them in your drafts folder. Perhaps with a smaller number haunting you, you’ll get back to them. Or perhaps you’ll move a few of them into Category II and send them off to the editor one at a time.
I am reminded of a sculpture tutor I had once, who described working with a very good student. That student could not let go of his sculptures — every time he reached a point where others would say “hey, that’s great — send it off to the foundry,” he’d tear back into it to bring out more detail or further refine what he had.
My professor finally had enough, and one night at the beginning of the weekend he moved several clay sculptures to the foundry to be cast. By the time his student came in to resume work, they were gone, and probably already invested. The perfect can be the enemy of the good. Even the very good.
Just remember — even the most attentive mother must eventually launch her son into the world. And the great thing is seeing what they become when they stand on their own feet. So too with blog posts, eventually commented on by your readers.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice/Goethe text (proto)post has my vote — hope it didn’t hit the can.
Professional cartoonists are do-or-die to keep a buffer of strips ahead of what’s currently published.
As I recall, that pressure was a factor in Bill Watterson’s decision to wind up “Calvin and Hobbes.”
I’d love to see what you dug up on the income tax. The pros and cons of the 17th amendment is interesting too, though not to the same extent perhaps.
TommyJay:
Some day, I hope.
F:
Those are interesting suggestions.
However…
Editors are costly (good ones are), and the cost would be prohibitive for this particular endeavor. Plus, one thing I like about the blog form is that it’s all mine. I used to have an editor for some newspaper stuff I did, and most of the time they edited errors in rather than out.
Also, I don’t think I have any general problem putting posts or articles out into the world. After all, I publish around three a day (except for Sundays). It’s just that certain ones strike a nerve for me, and those are the ones I have some trouble releasing.
Kae Arby:
Oh, I fully and freely admit I have a problem: I am a blog post hoarder.
No, no, no — don’t get a GOOD editor. Get one that’s cheap, and if you don’t like the final product you can blame the cheap editor!
I’d just say, “Hoard away”.
We love ya, anyway (and besides most of us have pretty short memories, which could use refreshing once in a while by blog post gems)….
As you winnow out those old drafts I hope you don’t discard the ones that may deal with art, music, dance, theater, poetry, and literature. It’s not that politics isn’t important, but no matter how much research and insight you put into those articles, there is always going to be disagreement. They often become flash points that generate ugly remarks, and to what end?
You may have mentioned it, but if not there is a small theme running through many of your posts that could be named transitioning. Maybe it is an offshoot of your own personal experience in politics. That theme, whether resulting in positive or negative outcomes, could be the idea for a book. Just a thought.
Digital storage is inexpensive and plentiful such that there is no significant cost nor technological reason to clean up your blog post closet. Keep them all, or don’t, whichever settles your mind.
…I’d read the Fantasia/Goethe one.
…just being supportive.
🙂
Susanamantha Says:
April 2nd, 2018 at 6:39 pm
I have a similar problem only it’s with reading as opposed to writing. I hear of a book that seems interesting and I get it, one way or the other (library, used, new, Kindle, etc.)
* *
Hi.
My name is AesopFan, and I hoard books.
(first of the 12 steps, IIRC).
However, I never mastered the art of multiple parallel reading except that I can keep 1 fiction and 1 nonfiction going at the same time.
OCD compels me to finish one before starting another.
And pretend you don’t see all the unwatched videos in the other corner of the room….
If you don’t like F’s suggestion to get an editor, how about posting a couple of the not-quite-done ones in a special category and use us as your critique club collaborators?
That’s how a lot of fiction authors operate.
Simple solution, though I know you will not take it….
Delete anything older than 100 days.
parker:
Why on earth would I do that?
The point about some of those posts is that they mean a lot to me. They represent untold hours of work, as well. I wouldn’t throw them out even if I never published them. But certainly, it would make a lot more sense to publish them than to throw them out. So I have no idea why you’d suggest I throw them out rather than publish them.
Slowly but surely, I usually end up publishing them. Throwing them out would create about a year of extra work for me. Makes no sense at all.