Passion and Polish
- Tuesday, July 16 2013 @ 10:12 am
- Contributed by: Jet
- Views: 1,302
When you’ve first decided to join an online dating site, it can be tempting to just jot down the first thing that comes into your head before you’ve lost your nerve. However, unless you really think you will truly lose your nerve and never come back if you don’t publish a profile that very minute, it can be more helpful to save your work temporarily and revisit it later.
The perks of revision are numerous and broad. First of all, there are the same upsides that there are for editing any work: you’ll have a better chance of catching mistakes if you read it over later. Nothing pulls a reader out of a profile faster than a blatantly misspelled word, or worse, an autocorrect that is completely wrong and inappropriate. Giving yourself even a few hours’ worth of space can save you countless embarrassing moments.
Then there’s the issue of content. When a profile is written in the heat of the moment, the emotion behind that moment tends to permeate the profile. That can be helpful if you were feeling particularly confident, excited and inspired, but not so much if you were despondent, anxious or angry at an ex. Plus, some “spur of the moment” writers might be under the influence of something else, like peer pressure (“Say you like long walks on the beach! It’ll be hilarious!”) or alcohol. By the light of the next morning, you may find more than simple typos: red flags, jokes that aren’t funny, rants, or inappropriate double entendres make frequent appearances.
At the same time, that’s not to say that those first-draft profiles are completely useless. Often there’s a candidness or an honesty to such writing that’s harder to get when you’re carefully evaluating each word. Sometimes those “spur of the moment” writing sessions reveal more of the “real you” than would otherwise surface; other times they’re clouded by self-consciousness, bitterness or beer. Luckily, it’s often clearly apparent later which you’re dealing with - and if you’ve got a gem, the trick is to polish it through editing without wearing away the character.
So don’t be afraid to sit down and pour out your feelings on who you are and what you want; don’t fling it out immediately onto the internet, either. Instead, save those candid writings, but don’t be afraid to view them with a critical eye later. It’s the combination of passion and polish that produces a memorable profile.
The perks of revision are numerous and broad. First of all, there are the same upsides that there are for editing any work: you’ll have a better chance of catching mistakes if you read it over later. Nothing pulls a reader out of a profile faster than a blatantly misspelled word, or worse, an autocorrect that is completely wrong and inappropriate. Giving yourself even a few hours’ worth of space can save you countless embarrassing moments.
Then there’s the issue of content. When a profile is written in the heat of the moment, the emotion behind that moment tends to permeate the profile. That can be helpful if you were feeling particularly confident, excited and inspired, but not so much if you were despondent, anxious or angry at an ex. Plus, some “spur of the moment” writers might be under the influence of something else, like peer pressure (“Say you like long walks on the beach! It’ll be hilarious!”) or alcohol. By the light of the next morning, you may find more than simple typos: red flags, jokes that aren’t funny, rants, or inappropriate double entendres make frequent appearances.
At the same time, that’s not to say that those first-draft profiles are completely useless. Often there’s a candidness or an honesty to such writing that’s harder to get when you’re carefully evaluating each word. Sometimes those “spur of the moment” writing sessions reveal more of the “real you” than would otherwise surface; other times they’re clouded by self-consciousness, bitterness or beer. Luckily, it’s often clearly apparent later which you’re dealing with - and if you’ve got a gem, the trick is to polish it through editing without wearing away the character.
So don’t be afraid to sit down and pour out your feelings on who you are and what you want; don’t fling it out immediately onto the internet, either. Instead, save those candid writings, but don’t be afraid to view them with a critical eye later. It’s the combination of passion and polish that produces a memorable profile.
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