Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Value of Editors

Have you ever felt good about something you have done only to look back at it or see it in comparison to someone else's work and realized that you could have done so much better?  That is exactly how I often feel about my writing.  My current job takes up much of my time and energy and on Sunday afternoons I sit down and begin my blog posts.  This is of course in the midst of multiple conversations, the phone, the laundry, and often a multitude of thoughts vying in my mind for attention. 

Usually the posts I write are things that have been swirling in my mind for a while and sometimes they are a spark of inspiration that shoots by that I attempt to grab and verbalize in a way that will get the point across.

I didn't set out to be a blogger.  The book was finished and I looked for some way to get the word out to people that I had never met, people I cared about but didn't know even their names.  I wanted to reach people who were struggling and didn't know what to do or where to start.

It was my son who recommended that I start a blog.  This same son who knew that I cried when he gave me a cell phone because I didn't want to learn how to use it.  The same son who knows that I can be as dyslexic with computers as some are with reading even though I have worked with computers my entire career.  Yes, I am the one who needs help with the remote control and still has someone start the dvd player for me.  I mix up the words dvd and cd all the time.  What was wrong with the VCR?  I thought they worked just fine.  And, once when I mentioned Bible on cassette to a group of people they all looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language and my daughter had to explain why.

The worst is when reviewing an old blog post that I have been happy and satisfied with and push the "publish post" button that I later go back and see a GIGANTIC TYPO or realize I should have done more editing.  It's really not that I can't write so much that my first draft could use a lot of rework to have the polish I would desire.

So I want to thank you, the readers, for giving me the grace to see beyond my fumbling and see the points of what I'm trying to share rather than merely the clumsy way I sometimes present it.   Thank you for returning time after time and maintaining a subscription.

2 comments:

Practical Parsimony said...

Listen, I am an English teacher and know better and am still horrified at my lack of editing. I kept you on my blog roll for a year when you were not blogging because I thought what you had to say was important, not because you wrote perfectly. Well, neither do I.

I really get annoyed when I say words like "cassette" when I have the image of a different media in my head....grrr. Annoying.

Carol Schultz said...

Thank you. It does still fascinate me how one can overlook a typo numerous times then BAMM it hits you right in the face!