The Process

My mind is basically like a rock tumbler.

I tumble a thought around and around inside my mind until the thought is polished and beautiful and I must decide what to do with it. Sometimes I share it with people. Sometimes I store it away for my own personal enjoyment...and sometimes I write a blog post about it.

I like to make sure that I have all the rough edges smoothed off, so I examine my thoughts from every angle. I try to shoot holes in them, and sometimes I give them a test run on some unsuspecting soul. As a result of this, there are may be a few people who think I'm a genius, probably a handful who think I'm on the verge of heresy, and a great number who think I'm just plain crazy. I've also (quite unintentionally) earned the label of 'radical'...

Anyway, if a thought makes it through this process, I categorize it as possible subject matter for a blog post, and after more days (or weeks, or months) of further thought I may begin to write.When I'm writing, I think about all the different kinds of people who may read my post. I try to think of any way my words could be misconstrued. I try to figure out who it's going to offend ('cause everything's going to offend someone). I ask myself a lot of questions. Is my post more likely to have a positive or a negative effect on the people who will read it? Will it build up the Body of Christ, or tear it down? Why am I writing it? Am I writing out of selfishness or anger? Am I likely to regret writing this at some point in the future? Many, many of my posts get abandoned on the wayside as a result of these considerations. The few that do make it through are read and re-read, and read again. I tweak my sentences, switch words around, double-check shaky definitions. And then, if I'm still feeling unsure about the whole thing, I just save my post as a draft and walk away. Sometimes I come back and post it. Sometimes I don't.  

You'd think that, after all the work I put into them, I'd be heartbroken if I didn't get any comments on my posts. Not true. I seem to get the fewest comments on the blog posts I've put the most work into, but that has never discouraged me. I believe that I would continue to pour time and effort into my blog, even if I knew that no-one was ever going to read it. 

This would be the opportune moment for you to say 'Oh! You actually spend time and effort on your posts? I'd never think it to read them.' I'd laugh, and agree with you because, even after all my work, there are usually several imperfections that stay hidden until after I've pushed that fateful button marked 'publish'. And then, of course, there's always that absolute failure of a post that everyone picks apart. You know the kind. The one that makes a person question their right to a continued existence in the blogosphere. I've had my fair share of those, but I try to just learn from them and move on because, by and large, I like blogging ...and blogging likes me. 

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What does your blogging process look like?

What's your motivation for writing (blogs or anything else)?