Confession: Half of my Posts Are Rambles

I'm sure if you've been reading my posts long enough, this isn't actually a secret: I tend to select a topic, ramble pointlessly about it for awhile, and call it a discussion post.

And don't get me wrong, that's basically what a discussion post is. It's not a chance to give some great wisdom to everyone who reads the blog - it's a chance to connect. These posts are a great way to get conversations going, and the comments are often more fun than any other kind of post, because each person gets to share their own opinion and experience.

But, my drafts section just keeps getting more and more cluttered with drafts that were meant to be published, until I reread them - or thought about them for some time - and realized I had not said anything useful. I hate discussing when I don't feel like I'm contributing to the conversation. When that's the case, I feel better off reading what others have to say, perhaps agreeing on their posts, and moving on. I also seem to type posts that go nowhere, because there was nothing to discuss in the first place.

For example, I just added a post about word count to my ever-growing pile. It basically said, "I can write 4k words on an average day. Why have I only written 10k in the past month? What is your word count, followers?" It was boring. I would not want to read posts like that on someone else's blog. And so I deleted it - or, as close as I ever come to deletion.

As a writer, I am in love with words. I like to think that some day I will look back on my drafts and, if I'm lucky, get a post idea from them. Maybe I'll remember where I was initially going with a post before I got off track. Or perhaps, it might just be a fun thing to look back on. I'm paranoid about deleting my words permanently, probably because it's so ingrained in me from fiction writing.

Anyway, a lot of these posts do start off with a direction. I think I'm headed someplace with them. But many times they end up in the never-publish pile.

I can't say that I want this to end completely, though. Sure, it would be nice to have a well-rounded post every time I sat down to blog, but missing out on these posts would mean missing out on ideas. Sometimes, I say something in a post and realize that's what I really want to be writing about. So I save it to my drafts and type up the post I actually want to share.

Other times, they might not be great posts, but they get my words and ideas flowing. Another thing I take from fiction writing when I blog is that you don't have to produce great writing every time. You just need to write consistently.

So I'm pretty okay with my growing list of never-to-be-published drafts. I'm even okay with the fact that I ramble too much. (It's why you love my posts here, right?)

But I do want to know if you guys have this problem as well. If you do, you should tell me: What's the most interesting/funny/your favorite post you've ever not published?