Poor Writing

Sometimes we rush into writing a blog entry, excited by the thoughts bouncing around in our heads. Back before the 'net, those bouncy thoughts would have been restricted to either personal letters or notes that would be reread and edited before being seen by many eyes. Nowadays, incomplete thoughts can make national headlines, as seen by the sudden blooming of political blogging and its use (and misuse by plagiarism) by the mainstream media.

Yesterday I had a bouncy thought that made it to this blog, and because it was incomplete, I miswrote it. I didn't make the distinction between what triggered the thought and what I was really talking about clear enough. To my immense surprise, the author of the book that triggered the thought read the entry (and I thought nobody actually read this blog) and took offense. It was my mistake. I didn't make myself clear enough.

More than half the reason I blog at all is to improve my writing and communication skills. I'm sorry I screwed up this time, and I'll try harder to avoid the problem next time. I already see two or three ways I could've written the note to make it clear, I just wish they'd occurred to me at the time of writing and not after I'd irritated another writer with my carelessness. As I said in the comment response to the author, the immediacy of blogs are both the fun and the danger of blogging.