delete column?

I wrote an entire column on Monday on the bus. However, it sucked. So yesterday I wrote another, on an almost entirely unrelated subject (inventing a new winter holiday-bad, how to make effective New Year's resolutions-good), which I think is going to fly.

I approach this particular column, which is opinion-based, in a very different way than I have been working on my Bright Livelihood sample columns. Obviously, it's easier to research and structure a documentary column (even if I have to invent a slant) than to "research" a column that's about what I feel.

Also, I should add that I worked for the publication that I'm doing the opinion column for for three years as an editor. I have a (largely unconscious) tendency to act as the "community thought leader" that I once thought I was. It's hard not to preach.

This isn't the first time I've rewritten a column and liked the result better. I am realizing though, how much pre-writing legwork (or thought work) makes a difference in whether I have to rewrite at all.