This is my 2nd posting today. Why? I crashed my computer after completing my last blog. Gone, lost, bye bye. So I had to rewrite the entire posting. I’ve been working with computers since I was 15 years old, so with nearly 30 years of writing with computers, I am no stranger to crashes and loss. One of my first jobs as a software engineer was working for a company that did real time backups.
What made this blog, this writing, stick in my mind more than others in the past? The packers were winning, the baby was crying and my two older children were louder than the loudest sales rep at Broadlook (that is loud). The fact that I could get anything done today was an accomplishment. So I was proud to get anything done at all. When I lost it, I had to do a rewrite.
The rewrite took 1/4 the time that the original post took. The writing wasn’t as good.
This made me think of how important backups are. As I think back over the years, when I lost something in a crash, the rewrites were never as good. I’m not talking about revisions. Revisions can be much much better. A true rewrite is starting from scratch; you don’t have your orginal thoughts and inspiration, it tends to lack something. In addition, rewriting, after you lost your original, seems more like work than inspiration. Maybe that is why I am writing this post. I can’t end the evening with a rewrite.
I’d love to hear the experiences of others. Orginal inspiration vs. rewrites..what are the attributes of each?