Tuesday, January 24, 2006

I Kneed To Proof Betr

This post will make no sense at all if you haven't read this earlier one, so you may want to click on the link or scroll down so that you're up-to-speed. As if it's all so linear and beautifully crafted that it actually requires a frame of reference. But anyway.

When I wrote the post earlier this afternoon, I thought it would be a quick little deal because part of the "writing" was copying and pasting from an email. So imagine my surprise when, in the first five minutes after I posted it, I edited it at least 10 times and re-posted the "newer, better" version each time.

I don't understand what has happened to me. I used to be error-free right out of the gate. Now not only do I make mistakes, I do a really poor job of catching them. That simple little post about Sister's trip? It's now in its, I don't know, 142nd round of revisions, and I still see stuff I want to change. It should be "pulls down books," not "pulls books down," but I messed it up in the original email, and with all the James Frey stuff, you just can't be too careful about changing these
things. :-) So I should probably go ahead and cop to the fact that I deleted the name of one of Alex's little friends that I originally had in the email because she was very well-behaved at Books-A-Million and didn't pull down any books at all. Nor did she run furiously. Just covering my bases in case one of y'all runs to The Smoking Gun and says, "She's a fraud! A FRAUD! She changed the facts to suit her purposes!"

Do you see my problem? (you're thinking, OH YEAH, MISSY - I COMPLETELY get that there's a problem). Seriously, I have this odd perfection thing when it comes to writing - pretty ironic when you consider the limited scope of my abilities - and it's driving me a little cuckoo. It should not take a person over two hours to construct a post on pageant memories, of all things. But for me, it does. It takes me FOREVER. I work and work and edit and edit, and then I post it and see 15 things I want to change, so I change them, and then I see an errant apostrophe or a "know" instead of "no," and thus starts the vicious cycle of editing and re-publishing and editing and re-publishing, and I finally just have to throw up my hands and say ENOUGH ALREADY, it's going to have to be what it is...then I walk away, leave it alone, and think about it until I fall asleep.

Oh, it's good to be me. The OCD wheels, they are a-turnin'.

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