Yesterday, I wrote a draft of my blog posting intended for this morning. I like whenever possible to create a first draft, then let it marinade for a bit, then go in and do some rewriting.
You know, tightening, putting in a period here and there where in the original there was a comma. Maybe dropping that paragraph digressing onto my current obsessions with the best chocolate in Long Beach and instead picking up the critical point I forgot in the chocolate moment.
Then this morning I proceeded to make those changes as per the plan. I have to say it was probably the best bit of rewriting I’ve ever done. However, as I tried to post it everything went sideways. In an instant all that work was lost. All that lovely work.
And, honestly, I just didn’t have the heart to rewrite from scratch a second time. So, the poor unsuspecting public was stuck with the original.
And that all set me to thinking…
It was, I believe, Alan Ginsberg who famously said, “first thought, best thought.”
A truth. But a small truth. And, as another wise person once said, “Not always so.”
However, this line has been embraced as a fundamental truth by a lot of my friends. These include people who write and people who speak. Specifically, I’ve heard corollaries from people who teach in the Zen world and who preach in the Unitarian Universalist world. They often praise sponteniety and along with that disparage written talks.
I suggest a different view.
Often the artist who is doing something in the moment has in fact been practicing that moment for years, maybe decades. That simple stroke is not just out of the moment, it is out of those years, out of those decades. Similarly the really good spontaneous sermons are in fact great artistic, if you will, theatrical presentations of something that has been carefully reflected on, outlined, and probably even rehearsed. The duck calmly swimming is in fact fiercely paddling just below the surface.
First thought is often a nice first draft. Spontaneity has a place. And once in a while that first sentence is as juicy as it gets. But, almost always it is in fact going to be a first draft. It almost always can be improved upon. Almost always.
So, here’s my motto as a writer and speaker:
The holy spirit is most likely to descend upon the fourth draft.
My small word to the wise…
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In