Tuesday 21 February 2012

Writing

I started a blog post this morning around 0710.  It's now 1145 and it's hardly progressed at all.  I have, however, read lots of blogs, got the washing out, researched the internet for information on the subjects of some of my photos and have indexed and titled some as well.   I've written the odd email or two and a birthday card.  I've done two crosswords and had breakfast and drunk my morning coffee.  All in all it's been a thoroughly enjoyable and lazy morning.  All because I can't go and play croquet or, for that matter, do anything which involves moving my body other than slowly and carefully.  However what sprung to mind was SP's comment that her posts were just done off the cuff and rarely took more than 10 minutes.  It takes me longer than that to decide what the post is going to be about!  And then I came across the following which I'd drafted back in April last year but never posted.

How long does it take you to write your average blog post?  Or your average email?  Or a letter?  Or, indeed, anything.   Of course there isn't really an answer to that question other than responding by asking 'How long is a piece of string?'.  I've just written a post which has taken nearly two hours but that's not the whole story.  I had to download the photos from my camera and my phone.  I was, sort of, watching the TV News and making dinner too and in true AAADD fashion I managed to do (and not do) a number of other things as well.

I was thinking of the time it's taken because in a recent post, Terminology, on her blog, Katherine remarked quoted, in context, “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” It would appear that Mark Twain made the comment.   Apparently, however, nothing is ever truly original because Blaise Pascal (French mathematician and physicist 1623 - 1662), in his "Lettres provinciales", letter 16, 1657 said "I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short (Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue parceque je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte)".

The point of all that rambling is that I spent my career making sure that letters, cases, reports, legal documents, the words spoken by politicians (but written by their civil servants) etc were always clear, precise and, hopefully, open only to the interpretation (or in some cases interpretations!) that were desired.

In many ways I would have to agree with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes in the 1891 novel ‘A Case of Identity’  when he said “It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”

However now that I am supposed to be writing more entertaining prose where, let's face it, no one really cares whether I have crossed the is and dotted the ts (er that doesn't sound quite right correct does it?), I find it very hard to break old habits.

15 comments:

  1. My posts take about the same amount of time as yours do, in the processing, Graham...and, I too, find that I've begun one or two {or more}...only to leave them behind in the unknown draft closet.

    You are moving slowly? I must have missed the reason for that. I can't imagine you moving slowly, you're always on the go ;)

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    1. Thanks Heather. It's good to know that I'm not alone. I've stuffed my back - see last post!

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  2. Well, I am glad you are able to move at all... But wishing you a fast recovery Geeb.
    My posts? The longest time is the shrinking of the images to 35-40 cm (longest dimension) and 72 dpi. I write the words while they are loading, and move them around by copy and pasting. About 20 - 30 minutes? I'm not very efficient. And I am not as up-to-date with my commentators blogs as I'd like to be.

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    1. 35-40 cm seems quite large for a blog post. I just do mine (longest side) to 800 px and medium quality using export in iPhoto. Pretty quick.

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  3. Mine usually end up taking an hour or more.

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  4. Hope you are improving. Quickly. As for a 'lazy morning' that's my idea of a busy one.

    My posts ftake anyhting from ten minutes to three days according to the subject, mood, (at the moment b****y internet connection), health, brain-poiwer, etc, etc. i.e. the piece of string but on the whole I would say ten minute ones are very rare. I'm more like you, I tend to come back to them again and again, often needing to research some minor point which doesn't really matter and only I would know if I got it wrong. BUT which I would know if it was wrong!

    Take care,
    CJ

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  5. Very interesting post! Why didn't I think of that? :-) Well, I have written about writing - allow me to, once again, point you to one of my early posts:
    http://librarianwithsecrets.blogspot.com/2009/04/brewing-caleidoscope.html
    Usually, I am a fast writer, of emails and blog posts, articles in forums etc. My typing is very fast, and it is only rarely that I need to look up a word in order to make sure I am using the right term (depending on the language I am writing in). Sometimes I surprise myself by setting out to write on a certain topic, the general layout of the post quite clearly in my head, and then it takes on its own life, so to speak, and the result is quite different from what I thought it was going to be.
    The posts I take longest for (half an hour or so) are the book reviews; I need time to go through the notes I made while reading it and decide which parts of the book I wish to quote, and normally, I do some research on the author and/or the book's topic and include bits of that in my review.
    Most of the time, though, uploading the pictures is what takes longer than writing a paragraph.

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    1. I've followed up your pointer and commented separately. It was very good to catch up with that far back in your blog life.

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  6. I usually take a long time on blog posts and emails or letters too. Depends of course on the length and topics of them. But even a post with just a photo and a quote often involves both photo editing and a bit of research on the internet. I also tend to agree with Scriptor that what you call a lazy morning would be a busy one of mine! (One reason being that I don't start my mornings as early as you!) I think we're alike in a certain tendency to get side-tracked into research. And having worked many years as a secretary I also recognize the careful wording part! I think that does contribute to always making your blog a good read! Please keep dotting your ts. Some of us do care about details like that! ♥

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  7. Takes me no time at all to type an email. I spent the whole of my working life typing letters, documents etc. etc. so had to be fast, very fast.

    As you know dear Graham, I can talk for Britain once I get going on the telephone so p'raps that is why I email fast!! AND you are such a good listener. Love xx

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    1. Compliments will get you everywhere my friend!

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  8. I usually know where a blog post is going but doing the fiddling about with photographs and what not takes me forever.
    I spent a working lifetime aiming for precision so blogging is quite a release, burbling on.
    I do need to change my glasses though as I'm not an accurate typist and an even worse proof reader.

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  9. Blaise Pascal = wise man. I like that quote. Thank you!
    And my posts? They take as long (or as short) a time as they require...

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    1. The comment of a true lawyer and politician (with a small p)

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  10. Thanks for all your comments. They are most appreciated and I have followed them up where appropriate.

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