Thursday, November 6, 2008

missing the point

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I'm feeling remarkably uninspired. I've got a long list of partially-written posts lined up, but I either can't motivate myself to put in the work necessary to finish them or they're so maudlin and/or solipsistic and/or just plain dumb that I'm cringing at even the thought of hitting the publish button.

What about you -- do you find yourself writing draft posts and then deciding not to put them up after all? Do you have a kind of shadow blog, made up of all the things you've thought about saying, but, for one reason or another, just couldn't bring yourself to share with the world?

33 comments:

Lori said...

No shadow blog. They just stay in my head. But I do have lots of things I don't say on my blog. Which is kind of funny, since the blog was supposed to be the place I felt I could say anything.

LadyofAvalon56 said...

Not only have I done that, but I actually have a second blog on which I write under a pseudonym. That one is more some of those shadowblog style posts.

But I have also written some posts and then deleted them.

I guess sometimes just writing it down is catharsis enough?

Amanda said...

Once upon a time, I said anything and everything on my blog. But then, a couple of family members began reading, and now I feel like I can say very little. I still have lots to say, and like you, I have unfinished posts. Perhaps one day I'll publish them all at once and make their heads explode.

Sigh.

Yo-yo Mama said...

I just went and calculated: 6% of the posts I have are in draft form.

I have no idea how that compares.

thordora said...

oh lord. If I had a dollar for each....

many are just non starters-like the one I keep trying to write about TV on the Radio, and how we've been conditioned to think black men or women in "indie rock" is cute and novel instead of just good music-it just comes out FAR too wrong (and degenerates into SQUEE! I LOVE THEM SO!) Many are bitch fests about people who will figure it out, some are just like poems that will not write themselves.

it's been happening more often lately, as I feel like either everything has been said, or it's just all whining.

(and can I start getting excited for you soon? Is that ok? :) )

Anonymous said...

I do this so often. There are so many things I don't say, hold back, forget to write... so many things I can't talk about online for one reason or another. It makes me feel odd, because I have always been so open on my blog and now I feel like there is so much I am not saying!

Anonymous said...

nope. i am an open book.

Anonymous said...

I happen to have an unfinished post in draft limbo right now. When I finally get back to it, the blogging mojo has left the train station and I forget the whole feel of the post. I usually just wrap it up with something lame and stupid and it makes for a really pathetic post. Wait... all my posts are lame and pathetic. YAY free speech!!!

Aunt Becky said...

I've been struggling mightily these days, and I'm having a terrible time trying to be upbeat and happy on my blog when I'm just not feeling it. Part of the problem, I assume, is that I cannot TALK about some of my current problems.

*sighs*

It's gonna be a long winter, isn't it?

Amelie said...

Much like what Lori said. Plus, there are a few drafts, but they are so raw and the occasion is long gone that I don't feel like putting in all the energy to finish them. Well, you see it in the post frequency, I guess.

Grad3 said...

Usually, if I can't write it, it just stays in my head. Or I talk to L-- it makes me sad sometimes that I can't write what I really think, no one likes ugliness.

Tash said...

Lately I don't have enough that happens to blog about, either IRL or in my head. I find every 10 days or so I have a lot to say, and then it's a matter of timing whether I can dump some of it in a coherent fashion.

Like I said before, if ever you are at a loss for words, your photos are enough to carry my through and make me ponder.

Hannah said...

Anything that makes it to the blog is written all in one go, no revising. It's really just an online diary / record of my kids when they're young.

I have a lot of posts in my head that I don't dare write, because my blog isn't anonymous. You know I've often contemplated starting a second blog for those... but since I barely have time for one, it hasn't happened yet.

Clementine said...

Yup. Tons of unpublished, half-written posts here. Some are too emotional, some are just stupid, and some I'd like to revisit when I have more time and/or clarity.

Christine said...

i wrote something in october that i thought was ok, but since then it has been dry again. i always think i am going to get up and write, but i never do.

i have a second, running blog, but only 1 person reads it.

susan said...

I do this often--and equally often just blog in my head.

Rachel said...

I spent an hour off and on working on a post yesterday that I'll never post. Sometimes it just helps to express the thoughts building up, even if no one else ever knows about them.

Aurelia said...

Yeah, I have a bunch, mostly composed of ones that are full of weird ranty raving bits. They make nooo sense at all.

Sometimes I just leave them there and sometimes I delete them. Gahhhh

Magpie said...

I have ancient posts in the drafts folder - like pushing two years old. I actually published two that were about a year old just last week. Something came along and made the one topical, and the other went along for the ride.

Awake said...

My favorite posts are drafted in my head as I lay down with my daughter before her nap. But by the time I get up (after a cat nap of my own) the words have disappeared.

Anonymous said...

ALL the time!

ewe are here said...

Lots and lots of things I don't say on my blog. Right away. Or sometimes ever.

Such is the nature of blogging, i think.

Have a nice weekend. clear your head.

Ya Chun said...

I think I have the opposite problem - I type them up and spit the onto the www without a second thought. Hm.

Catherine said...

I wish. I tend to type when I'm inspired...which often translates into posts I should have left in draft form.

janis said...

uh-huh. I've got 18 "drafts" that may never get written out or posted publicly and I have sometimes played with the idea of a "virtual" blog elsewhere where I adopt a fantastic identity and write all I want.

sometimes I wait too long and the urge to write is just gone.

Like Tash said, sometimes a pictures speaks a million words. I wish I can take good pictures so I can show those instead of vomitting myself all over the internet.

flutter said...

that photo is so gorgeous

debbie said...

I totally have a shadow blog. It's for all things too personal, too mad, too sad or just too undeveloped to expose. But it makes me feel good to keep up my shadow blog, to get my thoughts out without ever worrying about what anyone will think of or how they will respond to them.

Yolanda said...

Since I can rarely finish or hit submit on any posts, I suppose most of my writing is in shadow. Eventually, I just delete the old post and it's gone forever.

the dragonfly said...

It's all in my head (sometimes it seems that quite a bit of life is all in my head). I hardly ever draft stuff that doesn't get posted...but lately I haven't been posting much at all.

EmmaL said...

I have had a hard time posting for a while now. But yeah, I do have posts that I write and never publsih. A lot lately actually.

Sarah said...

Yes, yes I do that. Plus I too have an entirely separate blog that no one knows about - it's for those things I HAVE TO WRITE ABOUT but really shouldn't send or expect anyone I truly love to suffer through. Why publish that at all? I guess I think somehow or the other if someone out there should need to find my ravings and know they're not the only ones, they will?

painted maypole said...

i rarely draft anything that DOESN'T get posted.

~Denise~ said...

I've got drafts up the buttload. Things I want to say, but then have second thoughts about it. Unfinished posts, etc.

I suppose I could pull one out once in a while when I'm in a funk, but I guess if I didn't post them the first time, I probably won't now.