Draft Posts
If you write in any sort of capacity, you will no doubt have a virtual folder somewhere that is filled with draft posts. Posts containing ideas that either ran out of steam or never quite coalesced to your satisfaction. Such posts may be just a few words long or a fully developed article. A list of bullet points, a lone paragraph devoid of context or an unedited stream of consciousness. Yet whatever the posts format it remains incomplete or unpublished. Sometimes the reason for abandonment is clear. The premise was wrong, the moment has passed and things have moved on. Perhaps the subject has been sufficiently elsewhere. Hence these posts languish in blogging purgatory. Undeveloped but conspicuously not deleted. Who knows, maybe you’ll return to one or two of them some day. Sadly, the reality is quite different. Once a post is consigned to the draft folder, it seldom escapes. Just like people from poverty.
Such is the unspoken law of draft posts. And like so many informal and nebulous “rules” it’s bullshit. Sure I have some posts in my drafts folder that match what I have just described but that is not the majority of them. The bulk are film reviews, think pieces about gaming and its associated culture, as well as one off articles that took my fancy at the time and may well do so again. Your draft post folder is not the same as the recycle bin on your PCs desktop. A draft post is not exclusively a failed post (although it can be). Often it is just work in progress that has been temporarily delayed because something more pressing came up. Some blog posts are time sensitive and need to be written and published while a talking point is still relevant. Gaming culture is very fast moving, hence you may give such posts priority. A review or a stand alone longform article has no such restrictions and can be set aside to be returned to at a later date.
The reason so many bloggers effectively write off any post that has lingered in the draft folder too long is because we’re conditioned to do so by blogging culture. It’s all part of the ephemeral, disposable mindset and culture that runs through the internet like shit marbling in a rancid block of cheese. However, rather than seeing a draft post folder as the Phantom Zone for blog posts, why not consider it an ideas repository. A creativity bank in which potential material is stored, which can be accessed on those occasional days when you’re shit out of ideas. I currently have 138 draft posts waiting to be used. Not all will necessarily be published but many will eventually see the light of day. The film reviews have no expiry date. Some of the more specific pieces may be repurposed into content for other posts. Nothing goes to waste.
The modern computer tools we use for writing make the process very easy. You can type or speak directly into your phone or tablet or sit for 10 minutes while you have a sandwich and quickly type your ideas into Google Docs. It’s a far cry from writing longhand on paper, or typing away on a manual typewriter. However, because we can revise, edit and start again so easily we have possibly lost sight of the fact that everything written down has potential use. Technology provides convenience and convenience is often synonymous with disposability. But that is not the case. As a writer the fundamental starting point is to get your ideas out of your head and onto the virtual page. Once you’ve done that, waste nothing. What doesn’t work today, may work tomorrow. Therefore, don’t squander ideas, first draft or your miscellaneous notes. Change the relationship you have with your draft posts folder. It is your ally.
