About Editorial Depression

I've written a number of posts in the past week which I "deep six'd". If I were to consult a "shrink", I believe he might attribute my actions to "editorial depression". Don't bother looking it up in Web MD, this mental disorder has not been blessed by the American Psychiatric Association. I assure you however, that it is real.  Suffering from "editorial depression" is not unlike suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder. As a matter of fact the two diseases are first cousins and sport the same symptoms.

"Editorial depression" starts as a desire to achieve a high level of quality in one's writings. Such a lofty goal is not compatible with quantity and leads to complete frustration. Frustration morphs into  depression upon realization that the goal is not realistic. Once depression sets in, the "delete" key on a keyboard is overworked. 

The severity of "editorial depression" escalates when one realizes what caused the problem in the first place. There is an old saying among computer aficionado's - "garbage in, garbage out". If the thinking that went into a post is garbage, it should not come as a surprise that the resulting post is garbage

This post is a good example of "garbage in, garbage out". If I dare publish it, it stands a good chance of being deleted. If one is reading this post, the post of course was not deleted. That does not mean that it is not garbage.  All it means is that my "editorial depression" has lowered my goals on quality writing. What is the alternative to quality writing? You've got it, garbage.

The more I think of it, this post isn't as bad as my depression made it out to be. I prefer to think that it is a good example of blogging for the fun of it. After all, isn't that why I started blogging in the first place. WOW! My "editorial depression" is suddenly better. Not cured - just better. As long as I keep  away from trying to solve the problems of mankind, my blogging should be in good shape. Easier said than done I'm sure. Abandoning the temptation to solve the problems of mankind is a tall order. I might find it difficult not to be critical of everything but it's worth a try. It might do wonders for my "editorial depression".


Let me see, all I have to do is to put a bunch of crap into a blog draft. let it sit awhile, rewrite it with some humor and a little satire and out comes some sweet smelling garbage.