If you see a whole thing - it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives... But up close a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. - Ursula K. LeGuin

Monday, November 7, 2011

The Blogging Process

For those of you who haven't noticed, I've been posting a little more frequently of late.  Actually I believe I posted 30 out of the 31 days of October.  I'm not doing NaBloPoMo nor have I started any personal blogging resolutions (who would start a resolution in October?).  No I have simply started a new blogging process and, so far, it seems to be working.

I used to think of posts and then write them.  Generally this would happen 2-3 times a week.  If I had a post in my mind and I didn't have time to write it I would start a draft (often no more than a title) to come back to another time.  I think in my entire blogging career I completed maybe two of those drafts.  More often, I would end up deleting them after several months.

This was not a great systems because when I am thinking of blog posts I tend to think of a lot of blog posts.  I flirted with writing multiple posts and then scheduling them for every other day but that didn't fulfill my blogging needs.  Once I'm done writing a post I want to publish it right away.  Two days later I might be in a very different mood and that post will seem old and out of sync with my present self.

In general I try to write something everyday.  This something can be a blog post, part of a paper, a review, notes to myself, even an extended email.  There is something critically important about forming written words on a daily basis.  Unfortunately by the middle of the semester this daily practice has been known to fall apart.

So now I've been setting some time aside each night to blog.  If a thought has been floating around in my mind all day than that is what comes out.  If there is nothing there, I open up a blank post and see what shows up.  Of course sometimes I have something rattling around so frantically that I can't wait until the evening to get it out.  Either way it is becoming an important part of my day.

1 comment:

Reena said...

I find whatever strikes my interest that day is what I'll blog about. Some folks are so good about being able to post days ahead of time and schedule them. I envy that but it just doesn't work for me either. ~sigh~