confession #2

I almost always have to edit my posts. Not the short quotation ones of course, or the ones based on a photo (and why do I sometimes think of them as cheater entries when it's MY blog?), well, sometimes those too, but not too often. No, it's the longer ones that get me into trouble. And it's not as if I don't carefully check and recheck before I hit the publish button. Or that the grammar police in Word doesn't reprimand me every step of the way when initially writing the post. No, even though I have deemed the entry ready to go, as soon as I publish it I see all sorts of things. What, what's that comma doing there? Or more likely, WHY isn't there a comma there? Hey, I don't think I like that particular word or phrase after all! Yikes, that doesn't sound right—better change the order of those two words. And it's the latter (faulty word order) that happens most frequently (even in this entry), which I then conveniently blame on the fact that English isn't my native tongue. But can I really use that as an excuse when I was so young? I mean, I turned eight upon my arrival in Canada, so it's not as if I didn't pick up the English language quickly enough. In fact, all my siblings did, and the eldest was already fifteen. I concocted a nice little theory years ago that the grammar structure of my native language, Dutch, was already firmly imprinted on my brain (why does the word "imprinted" always bring to mind that cute image of ducklings following some other species member as if it were their mother?) by the time I ended up in Canada, but somehow that probably doesn't wash. Sigh. Oh well, it's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

But I'm getting off track. What I find most annoying about the post-publishing process is that while I know by now that I'll find at least two or three little things that need correcting, I never see them all at once. I hit the publish button, carefully read what I've posted, spot something I don't like, change it, publish it again, and voilà, something else glares out at me! By the time I'm finally done, I've published the darn entry at least three times, and wonder if anyone's noticed. The all-time record though was something like ten changes to one entry (I refuse to tell you which one), and at the end of it I almost swore I wouldn't post anything ever again. Maybe publishing a post is akin to printing it, because I have the same problem in that instance as well. I read over what I've written, reread, carefully check it one more time, print it out, and see, as if for the first time, what I don't like. This means I have to print it again!

Now, what I really want to know is, is it me, or does anybody else experience the same thing? Please tell me that you, too, edit your post as soon as you publish it, and that I'm not the only quirky blogger to do this!

p.s. my grammar check frequently accuses me of wordiness (which I ignore), doesn't like how I often begin sentences with "or", "and" or "but" (which I also ignore), thinks I use the passive voice too much (okay, this I do tend to change), doesn't approve of my refusal to capitalize my titles and postscripts (but I like them better in small case letters!) and generally tells me that my sentences are either too long or mere fragments, but hey, why should I give in ALL the time—don't I edit enough as it is?

p.p.s. whew, so far I've only had to go back in once and change two teeny tiny little things!

p.p.p.s. okay, twice now, but who's counting?

p.p.p.p.s. sigh, three times, but that's it, no more!

p.p.p.p.p.s. never mind....