So this post was supposed to come out yesterday, but my neck and shoulder flared up again. It’s so weird how muscle pain works. It starts to feel better and so you think you’re healed only to make one false move (because it doesn’t hurt half as bad as it used to, so I forgot that I still need to be delicate with it, and I picked up something or reached for something, and boom, the big pain is back again) and it’s like back to the drawing board. So anyway, my neck and shoulder feel much better today. There’s still some pain, but it’s very light, yet this time I know not to take that for granted. I have to be mindful not to aggravate it, to limit my range of motion until it’s completely healed.
Now, let’s get into it…
“Did You Miss Me?” posted on August 13, 2020.
Okay, this post kinda made me cringe. I found so many errors, but not only that, I just overall didn’t like it. However, I’m trying not to be so hard on myself, so I’ve forced myself to pick something that I like about it. But first, let me talk about what I didn’t like…
Did I Write That?
The opening was disappointing. Take a look:
What’s up, guys!
Just kidding — I will probably never write that greeting again. It’s so ubiquitous on YouTube, and I watch a lot of YouTube, so I thought I would bring it here.
So I guess I was trying to be cute, or tongue and cheek by using an opening that was often used on a lot of the YouTube videos that I watched. But I was confused by the second paragraph where I mentioned that I will probably never use that greeting again, but in the following sentence I said I wanted to bring it here?… Okay, now that I think about it, it kinda makes more sense, now that I’m explaining it, but when I initially read it, I was like, what? I think it would have been better, clearer if I wrote:
It’s so ubiquitous on YouTube, and I watch a lot of YouTube, so I thought I would bring it here this one time for fun.
I think adding that last phrase would have rounded it out better.
Next, the transition to the third paragraph is a bit jarring to me. First I opened with this little YouTube greeting joke, then moved right into explaining the post’s title with no correlation between the two. To be honest, I’m not sure how to rectify that other than to put an asterisk by the “what’s up guys” and then put the second paragraph as a footnote at the bottom of the post which would improve the flow. That way only people who really cared could venture down to the bottom of the post and get that extra little tidbit of information about the “what’s up, guys” greeting.
Moving on to the fourth paragraph – I read it and was like, what? Here it is so you can see what I mean:
That’s only because attempting to write posts that I spend more time composing rather than the last-minute posts I usually do here, you know, like this one here.
After reading it several times, my only guess is that I meant to insert “I’ve been” between “attempting” and “to write,” but because I was writing so last-minute, it somehow didn’t transfer from my head to the page. But not only that, the way I put, “usually do here,” then “like this one here” is just not the best choice of words. That sentence should have been rewritten.
Another thing I noticed is that the last sentence in the seventh paragraph should have ended in a question mark. It read:
I wonder what’s going on, will they come back.
Then there’s the last paragraph:
Anyway, like I said, I’m still here. So grateful that you are too, and I’ll get back with you.
That feels like an abrupt ending. I would have liked to have more completion.
In addition to these spelling, grammar and sentence structure issues, I feel like this is a woe-is-me post. I feel like I’m somewhat complaining and showing a lack of confidence. I feel like I’m frustrated with myself for not being perfect, rather than understanding that imperfections are to be expected, especially when I was attempting something that I didn’t do on a regular basis.
Now Let’s Skip to the Good Part…
I liked that I used a pop-cultural reference like the “Martin” show. I like that I was trying, which may seem like a contradiction to what I said in the previous paragraph, but it was the lack of grace I showed myself with my trying that is upsetting more so than me trying.
I liked that I referenced current events like Kamala Harris, who had just been tapped to be Joe Biden’s running mate, and the NBA bubble – I was obsessed with watching the vlogs from the players on YouTube. I was particularly fascinated by how regular these high-achievers where. Like even if they were bench warmers that I’d never heard of before, achieving that status was still an incredible feat given the fact that not many people make it to the league.
The thing I Learned About Myself…
I was reminded that I have wide interests and I need to build my confidence.
All right, we only have one more critique. Which post will it be? Join me as I finish this journey…right now.
“Let’s Make it Wednesday,” from April 19, 2022
Okay, this post is the most embarrassing of all five. The missing words and grammatical errors are off the chain.
In addition, once again, I’m writing at the last-minute, explaining why I didn’t have something ready when I promised I would. If there’s one thing I’ve been consistent at it’s underestimating how much time it takes to write these posts. This is not a last-minute job, at least not for me – not yet. Maybe after I do it consistently, I will have the skills to write something that’s more polished at the last-minute, but for now, I need to plan accordingly.
If I’m forcing myself to say something good about this post, it would only be that at least I didn’t leave my readers hanging. But man, oh man, I’ve gotta fix this bad habit. I’ll be interested in going back and reading the posts that, at that time, I mentioned were upcoming. Did I crank those out on time? Did I write them last-minute? Did I write them at all? Maybe they will be the source of my next critique.
Well, that’s all I’ll say for that.
All right, there you have it. That’s the last one. Yay! I did it. I read and critiqued my own writing!
Overall, I’m not surprised by anything I discovered. I think I’m a good writer, I just need to keep practicing so I can get better. I need to build my confidence so that I won’t be so hard on myself. I need to plan better. I always mention upcoming stories that I’m writing, yet it seems like more often than not, I don’t get those stories out when I say I will, and that’s largely due to the fact that I don’t realize how long it’s going to take me to write them. So I think going forward, I will write the story first, before I mention it, so that I can make sure that it will be ready when I say it’s going to be ready. But in the meantime, at least for the rest of this month, prepare to get more last-minute stories. I also need to read more to get better at sentence structure and I just need to keep going.
Thanks for reading.
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