8.11.2009

after the flood: wmtc at the mark

I adapted this blog post into an essay for The Mark. You can read it here.

My ability to take long, rambling blog posts and edit them into essays is getting better, and faster. It shows me (again) how important it is to write a first draft with as much freedom and as little self-editing as possible. If I sit down to blog, the words flow. If I sit down to write an essay, I try too hard for a finished product, and get jammed. It's an old story, a common writing pitfall - and a good lesson to learn over and over again.

Of course, the blog post serves a function that the essay does not: venting. The detailed, rambling quality of the post isn't a bad thing - it's necessary. It's just not appropriate for an essay in a less personal venue. On the other hand, fleshing out some general statements with specific detail isn't something I want to bother with on the first go-round, but it helps bring an essay to life.

If you're trying to write essays yourself, you might find comparing the two versions instructive: blog here, Mark here.

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