I write on various blogs regularly. (Okay, some aren’t really meant to be blogs, but use blogging software.) You bash out some text, hit Post and you’re done.

Just try writing for a paper medium though. I’ve been putting together the latest PTUA newsletter, which gets posted out on (recycled) paper to members. 7 pages of fun-filled fabulous facts, plus a cover-sheet. It can be an absolute bugger editing it. Once all the articles are in, they have to be arranged into a semi-logical sequence in the newsletter, any corrections done, and laid out so that they fill the pages. I’ve got a nice template working that has a pleasing 3-column format, and often some of the text will need to be trimmed to make it all fit.

At its worst, it can drive me absolutely spare. Many times I’ve been scanning through it, all looking lovely, then I’ll notice a comma or something missing, insert it at the point it’s needed, and the computer will re-arrange the entire page based on that tiny bit of punctuation. The comma makes the last word on that line bounce into the next line; everything else shifts over, and suddenly the last three words of the article have gone over the page, and you’ve got a page-too-many.

Another thing that used to drive me equally crazy was a bug in Microsoft Word that continually changed the page footer. Seriously, I’d change it, close the Footer window, and it’d change back. Thankfully I found a way around that.

Writing blog posts? Luxury. Believe me, typing as much as you like then hitting a button to publish is heaps easier than trying to fit everything onto a page.