Tuesday, January 8, 2019

When editing is important as a blogger

If when you reread what you have written you cannot really understand the point of why you even wrote something then it might be time to either delete what you have written, edit it and add or subtract from it or completely start over.

I have written before about how difficult it is for me to edit the longer things that I write 4000 to 10,000 words or more. However, the opposite is true of things 100 to 500 to sometimes 1000 words which often are more points of view and don't necessarily contain a life story of me or anyone else or another lifetime or time period somewhere in the universe.

So, as soon as you finish writing something you need to read it either before or after you publish it to see whether you got into your writing what you actually wanted to say.

However, here are some questions to ask yourself as a writer:
1. Was what I wrote clear and concise?
2. Did I get my point or points across?
3. Can the average English reader on earth make sense of what I have written here?
4. Is this worth publishing at my site?

There are many more questions depending upon who you are, where you live, how you make your living etc. but these are some good ones to start with when first reading what you have written.

I would say at this point about 75% to 80% of what I write I just delete because it missed it's mark. The main reason I delete is when someone (a person or a phone call) or something else interrupts me as I'm writing for any reason. Often this changes your state of mind or emotions or physical state to where you cannot get back to what you were doing writing the article. This is the single most common reason I wind up deleting things.

It doesn't really matter how great your idea was or is if you cannot get it across (even to yourself) on paper or digitally right then. Have patience with yourself because often if you cannot get it down right this time there will be another time to get it right if you are patient with yourself. If something is important enough you WILL find time to revisit whatever it is or was.

By God's Grace

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