An "inside baseball" post

Most of us do not care to see how the sausage is made. But a since we have been together here for a long time, long enough that I can now consider myself one of the old-time bloggers, it may be time to share how things are done around here.

I would guess, on the average, I spend about fifteen minutes writing a post. Yesterday, for example, I cranked out the whole thing in one continuous flow. I often have no idea what I am going to write about when I open the blogging post platform.

I stare at the cursor and begin typing. Sometimes I have to do a bit of research, sometimes reading the various news of the day internet posts gets me an idea. On occasion, I actually have an idea that percolates in my brain for a day or two. But usually I just sit down and start writing. The short story I published a month or so ago is an example of the "it just comes to me" method. In all honesty, I think the story became much weaker when I tried to write the conclusion. I should have left it after the first installment or two. Such is the reason I have a whole notebook filled with the beginning of my first great novel. There are about twenty different stories.

I know what you are saying, perhaps I should take a little more time and my stuff would be better. Yeah, you are likely correct, but that just isn't going to happen.

I wrote term papers in college the same way. I did the research, made notes, and thought about what I wanted to write. I usually sat down and scratched away on paper until I was done. I rarely edited the final work beyond minor phrase changes and moving a paragraph here and there. On more than one occasion, when facing a due date deadline, I wrote out longhand as my girlfriend typed the final version. I could usually keep ahead of her, and she was a good typist. A research paper on the Julio-Claudian women of some 15 or 20 pages comes to mind as an example of the write-it-while-she-types-it method. And yes, I got an 'A' on the paper. Thank goodness she could fix my spelling errors and more importantly, read my writing!

I sometimes do the same on a blog post.  You may read one published version and I will make some minor changes as the day goes by. But usually I just crank it out, check the spelling, read it once and send the words to the ethernet. This has been my writing method my whole life and this old dog is not likely to learn new tricks. Even if it would make the content better around here.

We all just have to live with it.  The sausage making machinery at Fat in Indiana is reliable and efficient. Some days I think we offer a decent product; just the right mixture of acid and spice. But in the end, what you find here is free, and sometimes you get what you pay for.