Over the past year, this blog has become a library of echoes. You all don’t see it, and that’s kind of the point. I’ve acquired quite a collection of drafts. Many of the posts are about things I felt very strongly about in the moment, but then the moment passed, and I am no longer sure I was making the point I wanted to make. I still feel strongly about the topics, mind you, but the firey passion I had is no longer there.

Occasionally I’ll look through the posts again, give them a reread, and sometimes I even feel inclined to finish one. Every time I try this, though, I find myself trying to rewrite large chunks of the post. I’ll rewrite this or that sentence. I’ll move this paragraph over here. No, that’s not the right sentiment for that section, let’s rephrase that. By the time I’ve run out of steam, I still have a draft on my hands, but now it looks a little different. Now I’ve left myself an echo of an echo.

A solution I’ve been thinking about, much in the same way I think about finishing my drafts, is to leave what I’ve written. I could add a dividing line to show that there’s a break, and then write out my current thoughts on the subject. Hopefully I’ll be more succinct this time and get all my words out before I get distracted. This would give me a chance to say what I wanted to say, to put it out there to the world, while also having some hind-sight clarity about the point I wanted to make.

I realize this could be jarring for a reader, but to be frank, it’s just the way my thought process works. If anything, it would give the reader a more honest glimpse into my mind. That is the goal of my writing after all.