I sat down today to write a post as I haven’t for some time…. as I have said before life gets in the way! …. and I have been pretty shitty with the world so as the old adage goes “if you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything” – so I said nothing; I didn’t even start any drafts…..
When I sat down I had to log and in doing so went to the section of my blog which saves all my posts as well as saving all the drafts I have started….
Well I have almost an many drafts as I do actual posts…. (drafts as in half finished or half started ‘ideas of posts’ as opposed to the game we used to play as kids which for some unknown reason the youth of today call checkers…. just like they call biscuits cookies – and the one I hate the most ‘two times’ instead of twice!!!! I am literally over it, literally!)
I also realised in typing the above that the main draft anyone cares about today is the football and the one they feared the most in the past was the call up for war – how terrible it was based on your Birthday – ‘Happy Birthday you are now drafted”…..
So all these Drafts (not checkers!) were posts I was going to get around to finishing one day… and some were just ideas that didn’t pan out, or I lost interest in that cause, or mostly when I read the draft I had no idea what I was actually trying to say – a lot like this post…..
I think having a draft of anything is perhaps a little like the opposite to the game of drafts (I officially refuse to use the term checkers as of this moment onwards…) – in the game you jump to win, in producing a draft of anything, you stay in the same place to not finish something…..
Okay I know drafts of some things are important, like an important work document which no-one is going to read, exam assignments (see previous), and emails to the boss… but mostly drafts are just an excuse – well my excuse anyway to not do something right in the first place and to write a few words and convince myself I have started….
I remember when there was no back space or delete key and the draft was the document, mistakes meant retyping or rewriting it…. putting the carbon paper in the wrong way (for those under about 30 look up ‘carbon paper’ and then see how it relates the the ‘CC’ box on your email) was just a monumental disaster….
Drafts in those days were in your head and when it hit the page it hit the page for good. I love the word processing abilities of computers but I also understand it has made us slaves of spell check and the back space – thoughts on paper are now transient and actually, mostly thought out on the paper which acts as a direct conduit from the brain without much prior thought (much like this post)….. anyway the point of this final draft (is there such a thing….?) is to say I am revisiting a few of these draft posts that never saw the light of the screen and see what happens…..
Maybe some thoughts, ideas, causes I was passionate about back then, have some value, if not now, in the context that at some time they were important enough to at least start writing about; I may finish a few off in the next week or so.
Which is probably my cue to end.