Usually when I write something on neocities I give it form within the HTML soup web editor. It worked well enough, and forced me to avoid static content generators as the temptation to write more nonsense would overwhelm me if I did.
But now I’ve since learned it’s more preferable to deal with the temptation of writing rather than the consequences of in medias res publishing.
Every word counts when you write. Every word. Even if it’s an obscure blog, and it’s meandering. It still lives in your mind and other minds that come across it.
You can set the parameters of expectation within your own publishings however you want. For the most part, I’ve been pretty lax on the expectations. But there are two expectations I still maintain:
My previous thought-entry here–which I’ve since tried to clarify–failed on both of these objectives. The first version was left in an embryonic state as I usually read through my thoughts a couple of times to “refine” it with a heavy slack on what “refined” means. And reading through usually acts a deterrent to achieve the above expectations. And I didn’t do it this time.
The second version only has a couple of thoughts and I don’t really think it achieves the second one all that well and somewhat fails at the first one too.
The third version finally passes the above expectations somewhat. If I had the choice I would’ve abandoned it if it sat in another editor long enough.
But so came the consequences: having “unrefined” uncouth words settle into the world for a bit which just isn’t okay. Especially since the words violated the second expectation brutally and pointlessly for the first two versions.
Through writing I hope to find kernels of truth, of amusement, of moment reflection before moving onto the next. And reading through the unrefined mess that I usually clean up, I didn’t find anything of that, yet there it was as though it were.
So I’ve since refined it as best I could and wrote these paragraphs to hold an important reminder: words are powerful, words have big effects, and I almost view failing my two above expectations as not only harming myself but for any reader too. So now I’m writing this up in another editor for the foreseeable future.
Words are so important, they shape your everyday thoughts and mindset. So it makes sense to give them some respect and some scratch pad. More often than not one may find the thoughts had no traction, as my previous thoughts didn’t.
It is snug to be able to write without having to deal with HTML tags. Would recommend!