Those of you reading are probably expecting the usual apology for not posting as regularly as I should do. But that’s not going to happen; in fact it’s you the reader that should be thanking me. “Thank you? What for?” I hear all six of you ask. Well, for not posting the whinging piece of self indulgence that I had planned to post here.
I’ve been going through a bit of a blogging slump the past month or so, it started during two or three weeks where I really didn’t stop, no time to eat what you squishy earth people call “food”, no time to speak to the small female earth creature I share a bed with and defiantly no time form coherent sentences. This meant no blog post’s for a bit, and then it got me thinking, why do I keep a blog? Why does anyone? Isn’t it a little self indulgent? In short I wasn’t getting anything from it but the slight guilt of one more task I’m ignoring. I even broke down to the three reasons I keep a blog;
- It forces me to write – well it hadn’t been too successful at that, so that was out of the window
- It gives me a web presence – but being on Twitter was giving me some web presence, enough to keep me in contact with the people I’ve come to call my friends (and not like Facebook “friends”, real ones who use my iron and have seen me pissed), plus Twitter took over briefly as my main vent hole, giving me tiny doses of the internet like a nicotine patch, and like a nicotine patch I eventually weaned off that too.
- The thrill of having people read your words – I started to forget how much I enjoyed even that.
So I there I was, sitting in a pub with notebook in one hand, a pint in another hand, and a pen in the other (yes I know that’s three hands, shut up) And I wrote a large whining post about my quitting the blog and I quote
“Leaving the website as an abandoned grave marker – just another bloated floater in a sea of bodies”
What can I say? I was tired and a little blue.
But then it hit me, you only get out of anything what you put in; I wasn’t benefiting, seeing any worth or enjoying blogging because I wasn’t blogging. I was putting a lot of effort into not blogging so that seemed like the best course. If you’re not part of the conversation, the conversation seems dull and pointless anyway.
So I’m giving it another go – I’m not going to make any promises, like I did before. The only promises worthwhile are the ones you make to yourself. Just keep watching this space.
I really have been busy though, check out my review for whoslaugingnow.org and my profile at rhubarbradio.com ok theres nothing on that profile just yet, but check me out from 7 – 8.30 every saturday night.
Hidden song: He hit me (and it felt like a kiss) by The Crystals – a deranged little classic written by Phil Spector with that enormous production and morally dubious message
5 comments
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December 1, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Shona
Rules are meant to be broken. Alot. The rule of blogging often is one that I breach regularly without fail. But still, the blogging goes on.
Plus, I’d be right peed off if you deleted a blog which contains images of you in your younger days busily commiting some of the most heinous crimes of fashion ever on planet earth. So, this blog stays.
December 2, 2008 at 4:25 pm
hellocatfood
I think the trick is to not feel forced to blog. Yeah, there’s people reading but they wont be disappointed if there’s not posts for a month or two. Better to have quality posts!
January 16, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Olulabelle
Just wanted to say that I also went through the slumpy phase and I think that the key thing is, it’s exactly that; it’s a phase. You can’t be sparky all the time and I think that’s OK. Who says you should be?
But blogging is most fun when you are doing it all the time, you’re right about that.
The more I write, the more I have to say and the more I want to do it.
January 17, 2009 at 11:45 am
Olulabelle
Plus also, writing is brain exercise. A bit like when you go to the gym; the more you go the more you want to go and the better you get at the exercises. Writing on twitter is fun but not mentally challenging. The quality of your writing here is far better and of a much higher standard than it is on twitter or facebook or whatever, because you’re really thinking about what you’re writing. You actually have something to say.
Twitter and facebook make people write facile comments. Blogging stretches your brain if you do it well, which you do.
January 20, 2009 at 1:49 pm
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