first draft

[ironymaiden]

what you see here is a first draft. (with checks for good spelling and html.) it's a choice. i consider lj to be closer to a diary entry or a letter than anything else.

do you polish before you hit "update journal"? do you care about an audience? why?

Comments

[aprivatefox.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth: I polish. LJ is a proto-essay ground for me, generally - but I'm also mildly obsessive about the quality of language that I use, which means that I rewrite emails and insignificant comments, too.

[ironymaiden]

i do rewrite emails. comments depend on the venue; i don't send something to seattle unless i've vetted it very carefully.

do you expect to reuse your essays elsewhere?

[aprivatefox.livejournal.com]

No, but the essay form is how I do some of my best thinking / wordsmithing. I'm frequently concerned with making words do what I want - not only in terms of meaning, but also in fuzzier ways - I try to use light amounts of internal rhyme, and I pay attention to where syllable stresses fall. By writing to that form, I keep in practice. (Or, as lately, by not writing at all, I fall out of practice.)