UNPUBLISHED BLOG POSTS: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

Time to say a few words about failed blog posts. The ones that fall apart, and never see the light of day. (Still, there's always recycling.)
   It's not that I can't find something to talk about. Just...
   The words fall apart, and you know enough about writing to know when to walk away. Or limp, if you must stagger and bleed at the same time.
   One of my first abandoned blog posts related to a famous writer. He published a book that had a poor reception. And I was going to cover a few points from a certain angle.
   When I did further research, I discovered the uncertainty of the angle. Standing on the edge of the cliff, I wisely withdrew to safer ground.
   Yes, facts stand in the way of a good blog post.
   More recently, I felt I had a few words to say on the tired non-story of digital publishing being likened to a gold rush. While there are facets of digital publishing which resemble aspects of a gold rush, self-publishing e-books is nothing like panning for gold.
   Gold is a commodity. Same goes for oil. Wheat.
   Not the book. A novel isn't a commodity. Even though you may argue contrary to that view.

*

Anyway, I let it go. If my vast readership demands a blog post on the subject, I'll attempt to recycle the piece.
   Then I felt like chatting on the business of stories. The perception of stories by readers who believe the writer has made a mistake in plotting and/or characterisation...
   My starting-point for that chat was the work of C.S. Lewis. Specifically, I looked at Narnia and the revelation in the last book - the character Susan was no longer a believer in that world.
   Many fans think Lewis made a mistake there, in characterisation and incident. (I believe Lewis knew what he was doing. He gave us something a little more memorable, on the way out.)
   This was another blog post that slipped away from me. Facts destroy your argument. Or you demolish a point and somehow there's nothing left to say after demolition - leaving a sense that the point is only half-explained.
   In writing, have the sense to crawl from the wreckage. Some things are not meant to be. You only have to watch movies, to realise that.
   There are blog posts you don't want to write. Obituaries. (Been there, done that.) This blog is about writing, so I don't cover world-shattering events - much as I'd like to, and much as I should, I never set the blog up to be a horse of that colour.
   This blog post is about the blog posts I didn't publish. I've kept it short, to avoid shameless padding. Shameful padding is also right out.
   Yes, we must publish. But we mustn't publish utter crap. Basic crap is also right out. Superior crap is still crap. Superlative crap - I'm lost for words.
   Shit.