A Work in Progress: How to Read this Blog

Let’s start with a confession, one everyone who follows this blog has been made painfully aware of time and time again: I’m terrible at both typing and editing. Now think of synonyms for the word “terrible,” and find a particularly bad one, then imagine there’s something that means ten times worse than what you’ve chosen – that’s the descriptor you’ll want for my typing and my edits. It’s atrocious. It’s abominable (x10).

In an effort to counter that I’ve hired a friend who I’m paying at the amazing rate of “volunteer” to edit everything I write. His name is David, he’s a saint, his job is thankless, and to make things even worse for him I never give him fair warning that I’m about to post (thus the heaping on of praise with the hopes he doesn’t quit his volunteer position).

What happens when I write is that I get super excited. I’ve made words!! With my brain!! Now in truth, I re-read what I’ve written, and then I read it again; I’m painfully aware of how bad I can get. Then after making multiple edits, I hit the magic “Publish” button while foolishly thinking, “whew, I finally nailed one!” Well, here’s the thing: I’m way too close to my words when I hit publish. I’m so close that I genuinely don’t see the mistakes. I’m hearing my voice, the way I meant to write the words, more than I am critically reviewing what I’ve written. Imagine singing your favorite song, one you know by heart, and then having the lyrics in front of you; however, the written lyrics have a few errors. More than likely you’re simply skimming and you don’t readily see the errors. Heck, you don’t need those lyrics; you already know the song. Well that’s me and this blog.

Usually, after a day I’m far enough away from my words that I can read them more critically, and that’s when my shoulders sag and the heavy sighing begins, because I’m mortified. How did I not see all of the mistakes?

So, with that in mind, here’s how to read my posts: Don’t. Well, I don’t mean “don’t” – please, please, please stick around – I mean wait a bit (or come back). If you subscribe, and you see that email announcing, “The Big Blue Mess has a new post!” you may want to take a second to breathe, and by “second,” I mean “a few days” before taking a peek. Trust me, it’s for your own sanity. If you see a new post announced on FB, the same thing goes – David and I need a day or two to get it all tidied up and more readable for you.

Another Option – Just come in, read away, and be prepared to forgive my errors, my oversights, and my word choices; I promise you that I will get to the repairs in due time (or poor David will – let’s all take a moment to thank him again; he’s the best).

I hope you all know this though, that no matter how poorly I word my posts or even my thanks, that I do thank each of you and appreciate you for taking the time to stop by.