Sat, 26 May 2007

Stream of Consciousness . . .

As I was writing a blog about Star Wars and I went back to edit a portion, I got to thinking about how people create their blogs. I wonder how many of them ever go back to edit their work and how many simply create the blog as stream of consciousness writing?

I am always editing my work. It may not seem so, but I do re-read everything that I write for this site or others -- even these blogs. Sure, some of them are inspired by a spur-of-the-moment thought. Something which I hear or read will strike my fancy and I will create a blog about it. Take this one for example. It was inspired while writing the previous blog about an event that I read about in a news link from the BBC. I hadn't been thinking about the previous blog until I read that news event and wasn't inspired to write this one until I edited the previous one.

(You know, that's another interesting subject. What inspires me to get up from whatever I am doing and record a thought or even create a blog on the spot like this one. Take a look at the Wiki on Thinking for more of my thoughts about this.)

So how do you compose your blog? My bet is that many personal blogs are stream-of-consciousness with very little editing. Most are probably much like personal diary entries, reflecting the thoughts of the author at that moment in time. Corporate blogs or blogs on specific topics are probably more planned and edited -- at least you would hope so. I suspect that many of these are scripted to appeal to the blogosphere, but are really just portions of the corporate communications plan.

Another interesting blog is one which is created to be the actual web page for something. Take for example, Blog of the Nation from Talk of the Nation by NPR. This one is designed to operate along with the radio program and I think in this case that the blog is used more for its comments (talk back) feature that the actual blogging feature of the software.

In any event, the blog is an interesting writing form. Rather than being a chapter in a larger work, or a short story, or article, it is more of a fragment. People seem to, for the most part, write until the idea is exhausted at that point in time. Even in corporate blogs, a theme may be fragmented into separate blogs. Each individual blog entry may not carry a single idea to its conclusion. I suspect that these types of blogs are driven by a corporate communcations type of mentality toward a specific goal, but often, the individual blog is not complete in itself.

I know I am guilty of this. I often create blog entries which don't carry through thoughts to their logical conclusions -- and this may not be a bad thing in all cases. I suppose that a random thought -- read by another -- might spark additional thoughts on their part. They might expand on that idea and, perhaps through a series of such occurrances, something meaningful can arise. I usually compose and publish a blog in a single setting. I very seldom work on a blog over number of sessions to refine the ideas. Don't get me wrong, I have done this, but not often. I think that the blog is a single session, more immediate entry which captures the thoughts at the time. If I rethink a subject, I will sometimes create another blog with my thoughts. I have even been known to remove a blog if, upon further reflection, I decide that my thinking was faulty, but that blog was out there for all to read. (Yeah, I know, who reads this but me . . . but that's another issue.)

But, I ramble . . . back to editing. Yes, I do it. I think others should. The creation, refinement, and editing of the blog tends to occur in a single sitting, so I'm not so sure how effective my editing is, but I do it. I tend to read things like this blog aloud to myself. This can be embarrasing when sitting in a public space, but I try to sub-vocalize in those cases. I find that reading back through my material aloud helps me to get the kinks out of it and make it more understandable to others. When I read aloud, I tend to say all the words. If I read to myself I find that I read what I thought I should have written rather than what I atually wrote.

I think that everyone should take the time to edit their material, especially with the glut of stuff on the web. We need to make sure that what we put out here is the best we can so that others can benefit from our work.

posted 07:39 [/Thinking] permanent link

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away . . .

I don't normally think about my age. But, every so often, something happens which reminds me of it. This is the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. Am I that old!? I must be. I saw the first one when it came out, so. It's interesting the way our minds work. When I view most people with gray hair, I picture myself as much younger. But, the truth is that I am probably older than most of those who are not retired. Yet my mind works such that I have the other perception. It can be a bit of a hinderance, especially when I am negotiating (notice I didn't say arguing) with the other person. Because of my upbringing, I have a natural tendenancy to respect older people . . . but I AM the older person in many cases. I have to consciously think about that. Anyway, happy anniversary to from this galaxy to that one.

posted 07:06 [/Thoughts] permanent link