Saturday, April 19, 2008

A Beginner Blogger's dilemma

I started a blog for several reasons. Mainly because I get many ideas about interesting topics that I want to write about/record/reflect upon and I felt ready to move out of the private confines of a diary/my HD into the public forum of the internet.  However, I started this blog almost three weeks ago and I've only made one post.  Meanwhile the list of blog ideas keeps piling up in a folder I carry with me to and from work and add to on an almost daily basis.  What then, is the obstacle that prevents the materialization of my ideas on the world wide web?  It is what I imagine to be the beginner blogger's dilemma: the desire to publish perfectly polished posts and and  lack the time to get them past draft stage. I have ideas in roughly written paragraphs, but not very much time to revise and edit them to perfection prior to public exposure.  And so they sit in my folder and on my HD waiting for the day when I'll have more time to shape them up.  However I get the feeling that if I keep waiting for perfection, these posts will never see the light, and this blog will get stuck in one-entry-maybe-once-a-month mode.  Which is counterproductive to say the least.  And so I've decided today that I'm going to post my ideas as they come, maybe even daily, in whatever form they happen to be in.


This week I have been thinking a lot about a career in editing.  I love editing, more than writing even.  So why am I struggling through my 6th year of grad school instead of working?  Because I never seriously considered making a career as an editor.  I might complain about grad school sometimes, but I am glad that I embarked on this path because although I have no publications to my name I feel like I figured out who I was during my time in grad school, and maybe that is more important. Especially since I don't think I will pursue basic research as a career upon completion of my PHD.  And so Editing!  How does one get a job as an editor, what should I be doing in the meantime to gain relevant experience?  Stay tuned for exciting developments as I explore this new path towards my future...

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