When I write each daily post here at RJsCorner, I start out putting the initial “idea” down on virtual paper. Then comes the redoes, edits if you will. That usually happens two to three times before it is posted in the “publish” queue. Every time I review a post there are almost certainly words that I change, They were just not right, and needed to be changed. I find myself doing that even for posts I have written years ago.
Wouldn’t it be nice if life allowed us such redoes in life? Of course the major things that need rewrites are spousal disagreements. My late wife and I had some pretty strenuous arguments about usually unimportant stuff. I hated having disagreements with her, as I would replay them in my mind for hours, and sometimes days at a time. I keep thinking, “if only I had said…”
I am going to let you in on a little secret here about RJsCorner. I seldom respond to your comments until at least a couple of hours after you post them. That gives me time to think beyond my first thoughts. It gives me time to mentally have a redo. One of the things that I admire about my blogging buddy, Bob Lowery, is that he has the right words right out of the gate. Another is that he responds to so many comments each day. I know blog etiquette says you are supposed to respond to every comment, but sometimes there is just nothing to add to the conversation.
Sometimes it bothers me that I just can’t let something go by if I see a way to improve it. Even if no one reads the words, just having them there necessitates the change. But, then I read about Walt Whitman’s famous book of poems entitled “Leaves of Grass”. He published the book in 1855, but continued to rewrite and republish it for another 40 years. It was republished nine times during his life.
If Whitman can do it, then so can I…
RJ's Corner 
I confess that it’s sometimes days before I respond to comments, and this is often because I’m uncertain how to interpret what the author of the comment really intended. Other times the words and sentences are composed in such a way that that it makes no sense to me until I have reveiwed it many times. But most times it’s because it takes me that long to choose the words that I feel will accurately convey what I mean to say. It’s also true of my blogs themselves. Most of what I write never gets published as I find that by the time I’m comfortable that my message is clear, the article has grown to many thousands of words, which then makes them too unwieldy for most readers. If I look in my WordPress folder on my desktop computer, there’s almost 2000 articles that are more or less complete but way to long for WordPress, whereas in the eight years I’ve been blogging, I’ve published less than 600 posts.
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Thanks for the thoughts, Barry. We all go about it in different ways, but I do see similarity in how we accomplish the task of blogging. Thousands of articles too long, you got your work ahead of you. I used to have an unofficial limit of 1,000 words for a post, but moved it down to 500 for the very reasons you cite.
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Thanks for the mention and the compliment, RJ. For whatever reason, the words to respond to a comment just seem to be there when I need them.
You are not alone wirh post rewrites or redoes. I can read a post before it is published half a dozen times and make changes each time. Then, Betty reads it to catch any typos, usually finding one or two.
Writing a post is not a quick process!
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You’re right Bod (I am so embarrassed that I let the post out with your misspelled name). Talking about editing, it is now corrected on the post but will leave the mispelling here for memories sake. So, Betty is your official editor-in-chief. I’m not sure if you can be a successful blogger without also being a wordsmith. But, I do love the process. I wouldn’t be doing it daily if I didn’t. 🤪
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