Polishing

You have probably noticed that just lately the blog posts around here have been really, really good. You are no doubt wondering just what's going on.

What's that? You haven't noticed that they've been especially good lately?

Well, you'll have to trust me on this one. They have been. You might have something in your eye.

The reason they have been really good is because finally, after a rough few months where my writing was cutting it close with my deadlines, I am once again safely out ahead of my blog writing. I have seven or eight blog posts all lined up and ready to go. This confers a big advantage to my blog post writing. That advantage is one of obsessive editing. If I write a post the night before it goes live there's not much time to live with it, to see how things feel, to see what tiny false notes won't leave me alone and have to be changed before they nibble me apart. But with a post like this one, I have eight days before it goes live. This may sound slightly compulsive to you, but that means I can and do reread this post every 15 minutes for eight days. Not counting sleeping that means I have, or will, carefully read this roughly 512 times!

I'm not saying I change something each of those 512 readings. And the fact is that the vast majority of changes I make during that time are miniscule. But it makes for a kind of polishing. It puts a high buff on my blog posts and subtly improves them.

Maybe I can show you. Here is the original version of this exact blog post, just as it was when I first considered it finished. See if you can spot any of the differences.


Gosh, well, it's still January! Hard to believe! Sure is cold in my basement! I need to get more sleep! I think I'll go make a sandwich!


Well?

You couldn't spot any differences?

Yes, I understand. I guess it takes a professional eye.