Mozart composed music in his head and wrote them out, complete and without any need for editing. Puccini did the opposite; he wrote out the basic tune and worked at it, editing and re-editing sometimes to the point his publisher could not figure out what was the finished project.
I am definitely in the Puccini camp when it comes to writing blog entries. I write down a basic idea like chicken wire on which to hang the details. Each paragraph fattens up with expanded notions and details.
Then, comes the editing.
This is the part which drives me bats, for no matter how many times I reread my composition, I find further needs for editing or refinement. I am like a fussy florist who is not content with a finished project but must keep rearranging things hoping to make it even better. Worse, I keep finding errors that arise from the continual tampering. I swear some literary gremlin rearranges my words, Even after a piece is published I find – yet again – misspelled words or grammar errors. Perhaps WordPress mixes things up after I click ‘Publish’.
Spo-fans occasionally spot these errors, and tell me, for they tend to be comical. I’ve a fancy to get my 5 years of blogging published into a book, but this means going through every entry looking for blatant errors. I would have to avoid temptation to rewrite things I think ‘need improving’. I hate the notion of reading five years of blogging and see only the typos and syntax errors.
Year #6 is coming up next month. Perhaps I should try more “write and publish and be damned”. It would certainly be less time consuming not to pick at the blemishes.

21 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 23, 2012 at 7:34 PM
Sky Clad Therapy
And, I my good Urspo am too lazy, too distracted to focus on editing when writing my blog posts. I do edit, but only because my word processor suggests a grammatical lapse. Yet I am a writing for publication, I do work over and over again to the point of utter distraction and wondering what I was actually trying to say.
January 24, 2012 at 4:55 AM
Ron
I agree with you Sky. I only edit when my spell check indicates a misspelling. When I have edited I tend to lose the meaning of the message. So I let the words fly where they may.
January 23, 2012 at 7:35 PM
Aunt Barb
I’ve been wondering : spelling and grammar are one of my many fortes. But I didn’t want to put on my grammar Nazi uniform. My children state that I have turned them into a similar ilk. My grands, especially, Mags, tries to convince me that spelling does not count..NO! She and I are in a cross-generational tug-of- war
Thought your British spelling was an affectation, but it isn’t consistent. But I just love you and knowing you via this method.
January 23, 2012 at 8:04 PM
anne marie in philly
meh, let it go…we loves ya any way you choose to write!
January 23, 2012 at 8:11 PM
Buddy Bear
I hadn’t noticed your “British” spelling” of which Aunt Barb speaks. I’ll bet it is actually “Canadian spelling” which is a hybrid of British, French and American.
January 23, 2012 at 8:51 PM
Urspo
Growing up so close to Canada (it was to the SOUTH for Pete’s sake!), we had a lot of Canadian exposure with word choice. Process is often pronounced ‘pro-cess” not ‘praw-cess”. etc.
________________________________
January 23, 2012 at 8:27 PM
Peter
I do know my English isn’t always right, or the order of words, but who cares. I blog so I am.
January 23, 2012 at 8:35 PM
Jay
I figure that about half of the numbers on my counter represent me going back in to make corrections that I find after I have hit “Publish” – I kind of feel that I am running out of things to say.
January 24, 2012 at 2:44 AM
Rick/CJ
Like with a fine painting or photo, you gotta know when to stop touching up and photo editing. But it is hard to do when you’re a perfectionist.
January 24, 2012 at 4:53 AM
Ron
Dr. Spo,
I am of the Mozart Camp. I write as my thoughts emanate from my brain to the walls of my skull to my fingers on my iMad keyboard. A friend told me once “You write as you think.” He didn’t mean it as a compliment. I took it as a compliment. I find if I reread and edit my thoughts/words, I lose some of the spontaneity of my message. However, just because I “write as I think” doesn’t mean other styles are wrong. We each have our own style. I always enjoy reading your blogs so you must be doing something right. Keep doing what you’re doing and when you publish that book of your blog postings sign me up for an autographed copy.
January 24, 2012 at 5:42 AM
tigerchanter
I tend to do a little of both. And I usually only use spellcheck if a word doesn’t look correct to me. Otherwise, I just send them out into the aether!
January 24, 2012 at 6:39 AM
Arnie Lewis Tharp
There will ALWAYS be blemishes. What concerns me is that someone, anyone, has take the time to point them out to you.
January 24, 2012 at 6:49 AM
Will
I am forced to edit because Blogger frequently takes my carefully composed posts and diddles with type face, font size and color. It is very frustrating — I have to go into html and change font size from small to normal, whatever color has been arbitrarily chosen to black, and recreate my paragraphing; merely going into edit mode, highlighting the changes and clicking the type size and color buttons does not work — Blogger apparently has its own ideas what my posts should look like.
As to proof-reading, I try to put out a comprehensible text but when Fritz reads it for the first time, he always pints out things that need further work, proving yet again that typing is NOT my best skill.
January 24, 2012 at 9:47 AM
domanidave
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
― Mark Twain
Your posts don’t give the slightest indication that you obsess over them (compliment), consequently you have needlessly outed yourself!
January 24, 2012 at 2:39 PM
jmcanuck
I wouldn’t sweat it – it’s not like you’re giving us recipes and get tablespoon and teaspoon backwards.
Wait, are you the one who had me add 8 tablespoons of BLADDER to my scotch cookies? They didn’t come out good at all.
January 24, 2012 at 3:04 PM
rodger
Haha…that’s part of the reason I quit blogging…too much time writing, editing, rewriting even the simplest of posts. Mark on the other hand just publishes without proofreading and get annoyed when I point out the errors. So…I don’t blog and I don’t correct.
(I have to admit I do miss it though)
January 25, 2012 at 6:34 AM
Urspo
All the same; I very much miss your writings and hearing how you are doing – edited or not!
________________________________
January 24, 2012 at 3:47 PM
Laurent
Time flies 6 yrs already, my and you do not look a day older.
January 24, 2012 at 5:47 PM
Mike
Just let ‘er rip — I spend my (work) days obsessing over words and edits and making sure eveything is just so. It’s nice to have a chance to “just write” on my blog. Life is short – miztakes happin
January 24, 2012 at 9:51 PM
JustAMike
Dr Spo, I too, am a Pucciniite. Oh, the pain!
January 25, 2012 at 9:21 PM
Ron
One of my few skills is typing (Mom forced me to take two years of typing in high school during the Fifties when it was definitely NOT THE THING TO DO for a young man) thus I can type as fast as I think. Maybe faster.