Draft Posts
I currently have 98 blog posts sitting in my draft posts folder. Some of these are just a series of bullet points waiting to be developed into longer posts. Others are fully developed articles that just need some polish or minor tweaking. Many are film reviews that I’ve started and need to finish. Some are long and involved think pieces or talking points that have long ceased to be topical. Often these are in response to posts I’ve read on other websites such as Massively Overpowered. The oldest draft post dates back to 2014. The majority are from the last twelve months or so. For clarity, I write all my blog posts via Google Docs but all material is saved to a folder called Draft Blog Posts. When a post is finally completed and published on Contains Moderate Peril, I download it, save it as a Microsoft Word document and move it to an archive folder on my PC. The copy in the drafts folder is then deleted.
I have mixed feelings regarding the content of my draft posts folder. When I’m in a good mood, I view these incomplete documents positively, seeing them as ongoing projects that have yet to reach their respective potential. But on other occasions when I’m struggling with motivation and creativity, they are ignominious reminders of failure or poor thinking. However, irrespective of my feeling, draft posts serve an important purpose. They afford the writer an opportunity to collate their thoughts and see if some potential ideas can be shaped into a coherent post. They present a chance to experiment with writing styles and to see what works and what doesn’t. Writing in this fashion is a great way to improve your literacy skills. It also affords the author time to consider whether or not to publish anything that may be deemed controversial. Not every post has to realised immediately after being conceived. Sometimes you may wish to research a subject further before publishing. Draft posts offer this safety net.
Looking at a selection of posts from my draft folder, there are some that can be potentially purged. There’s one I started about celebrity gaming endorsements, which I began when Megan Fox was paid to promote Black Desert Online. No need to take that further as the story has been and gone. However, there’a lengthy post in development about “tie-in gaming” and how many of the games that are rushed out to capitalise on a movie franchise are often flawed. That still has “legs”. But the post that I’m still stuck on but I refuse to delete is simply called “Is The Party Racist?” and as I mentioned earlier, it’s been sitting there for six years. The Party is a comedy film from 1968 directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers. Sellers play an Indian actor called Hrundi V. Bakshi in “brownface” and therein lies the rub. Although the film is filled with the actors hallmark slapstick comedy, you cannot escape the film’s basic conceit and it is a controversial one to say the least. I still cannot get the tone of this post quite right.
There are some writers who approach their work differently and don’t avail themselves of draft posts. Again, if you’re writing a stream of consciousness then creating a first draft and then revising it kind of defeats the purpose. Some folks also like to type directly into the text editor on their blog. It is very much a case of “horses for courses”. But for those that favour a more traditional methodology, writing a post in stages, via a series of revisions is the way to go. Building up “work in progress” in your draft posts folder can be beneficial. Sometimes we can’t see the “woods for the trees” and leaving a post and starting another is the best way to clear our minds. Furthermore, digging around in your drafts folder when your inspiration is lacking, can sometimes provide you with a post to save the day. So who knows, perhaps the 98 draft posts that I currently have, can all find a purpose after all. Perhaps they just need time and a fresh perspective.
