How many things have I written on here? This was the thought as the young writer continued to look through the seemingly endless groups of files on the mobile computer. Though only an amateur blogger, the enthusiast loved to keep a copy of everything they had written, in the event they would need to pull a reference or, in this case, resurrect an abandoned idea.

Oh, I remember this one. But … wait a minute … why wasn’t it published?

This was quickly becoming a regular occurrence for the content creator. Over a dozen fully completed, but unpublished articles had been found on the tiny machine. Upon reading the title alone, the blogger had recalled not only the post, but the reason for writing it and its intended audience. Unfortunately, the time for publishing the thousand-word piece had passed. Even though it could have been considered one of their better works, its message was now months out of date.

Pushing the mild frustration aside, they continued on. Somewhere in these semi-organized blog article directories rested the half-written post that was about to be brought back from the perpetual purgatory where information was considered nothing more than abstract data.

Ask any long-time blogger about the number of posts they’ve abandoned, and you’ll probably hear a different answer every time. Nick over at RomanDock had asked this last week because he’s noticed an uptake in abandoned thoughts and, after unsuccessfully leaving a comment on his site, I thought that it might be worthwhile to explore this idea.

The reasons we might abandon a post tend to range from incoherence to being too emotional and everything in between. Looking just at the posts that have been ignored, set aside or unpublished from the various sites I’ve managed has shown that, more often than not, an article will fall prey to the killing floor if it explicitly defames someone or seems to be more angry than useful. Of course, there is the argument that most blog posts serve very little purpose, however, that’s a different subject altogether.

So, circular writing aside, what are some of the reasons people might hold back a post? I asked five people I regularly work with to answer this question and they all answered along the same lines: name calling, rage writing, superfluous circular references (incoherence), and memory.

Name Calling

Many people that have had the opportunity to blog under one pseudonym for any amount of time typically gets one or two people calling them out on one topic or another. This is to be expected and is sometimes the result of someone who’s trying to direct more attention to their site. However, depending on how we respond to a blatant attack on our character or personal beliefs, we can do more damage than good. It might feel good to hammer out a really good post backing up our positions and beliefs while simultaneously referring to the instigator as everything from an obtuse octogenarian to an idiot; it does little to add credibility to our own image.

Often times a good blogger will double-check their post as though they were a first-time reader to make sure that an article doesn’t seem too damning or detrimental to a site’s growth. When it comes to posting something that might be seen as fast-paced or racy on other sites, I often have someone sit down to read it before hitting the publish button. Maybe we didn’t really care how other people took our words when we started writing online content, so long as they placed our site amongst one of the better ones. However, while this methodology might work for some sites, it will not work for many.

Rage Writing

Much like name calling, rage writing is a terrible situation where someone sits at the keyboard and hammers away about a subject while still seeing red. Expressing our emotions might be considered a healthy way of releasing the frustration and pent-up emotions we might be feeling, but when an audience could be the size of the whole planet, this might not be the best way to solve our problems. It’s for reasons like this that people have often told us not to hit “Send” or “Publish” when we’re angry. Instead, it’s better to wait until we’ve calmed down to re-read the post (or email). Perhaps when we’ve regained our composure, we’ll be in a better position to decide whether or not our raw thoughts should be shared with the world. But how often do we remember to do this when we’re angry?

When I asked this question to some of the people I work with, the answer was not quite what I was expecting: 90% of the time. If one out of every ten angry posts can get through some of the more professional people that I regularly talk to, then it would be interesting to see just how often this might happen with the rest of us.

Superfluous Circular References (Incoherent Thoughts)

How often have you sat in front of the computer to type out a blog post without any real notes only to find that every paragraph seems to say the very same thing? How often have you read a post the day after it was posted only to shake your head and wonder how you managed to put together such senseless dribble? We all have days like this, but it’s important that we double-check our work before actually putting it online.

One of the most common ways to accomplish this goal would be to never write a post for the same day it’s going to be published. Instead, write for the next day, or any other point in the future, with the understanding that it will be read and edited at least once before the scheduled publication date. I’ve been doing this for quite some time, and I know of at least two other professional bloggers that have suggested this on their sites. While this will not result in professional-grade articles or better comments from visitors, it will allow us another opportunity to go the subject we’re about to share with the world.

Memory … Or Lack Thereof

This could be the biggest stumbling block for many people who want to become a little more professional with their blogging. Articles are written on various computers throughout the day and saved on a memory stick or some other location. When they’re ready for release, they’re either moved to a special folder or emailed to ourselves so that we remember to post the article somewhere online. Unfortunately, because of a phone call or a stray conversation, we often forget a critical step and what could be a great post gets lost in limbo. Depending on how often we double-check our “staging directories”, we could let these posts sit for months at a time.

This is certainly a problem in my case, as there have been dozens of posts for numerous sites left unattended for too long, and now they’ve become stale. It’s a sad state for the posts and, perhaps, a sad event for the author. How many of us have tried for months on end to become a better writer only to have some of our great work lost to the sands of time?

We are our own worst enemy … and an overloaded memory or burdened multi-tasking capacity can reduce our chances for success ten-fold.

Okay … Now What?

It’s important that we know our weaknesses and learn from our past mistakes. In the case of forgotten posts, we can often recycle them one way or another. With rage writing, we can get the anger and frustration off our chests, then come back later to take some of our raw emotions and phrase it more elegantly or to serve some constructive purpose. Name calling can be difficult to set aside because it’s something that many people have done since kindergarten, which means a conscious decision to take the high road must always be made. When it comes to incoherence or a poor memory … well, we can only strive to achieve something better.

How do you ensure the quality of your posts? Is there a checklist that you perform before hitting the “Publish” button? Do you have another set of eyes double-check the quality of your writing? I’d be curious to know how you get around some of these common problems.

As an aside … I have forgotten to post 38 articles in the last year alone, with six of them being guest posts. Only three of them can be recycled in any fashion, and one must wait until spring before it can be shared with the world.