The Pressure of the Blog 28/05/2005 A couple of months ago I was trying to produce a post a day for this blog. I kept it up for a while but eventually it became too much; I was exhausted, empty and unable to think coherently. Fortunately, a planned trip to Vicksburg coincided with this and I was able to recharge over those few days.It did result in a change of tactics, however. When I returned, I resolved to go for one post every two days and not to worry if occasionally there was a longer gap. This has worked well enough and eased the pressure a little.Notice that I said "a little", however. Easy enough to make bold statements about not worrying; not so easy to actually cease to care. Today I find myself under pressure once again, this time because of my last post.Quite frankly, I hate it. "Heroes" was written in haste, without a clear goal in mind but in the hope that one would turn up on the way through. I had a vague idea of drawing some high moral from the whole thing but, when I came to it, I realized that it just wasn't "me" to pontificate in such a manner. So I took the easy route out and wrote a glib conclusion, there being no time left to do anything else (I was committed to an appointment later that day and it was drawing uncomfortably close).As a result, the post just embarrasses me. I wish now that I'd had the courage to admit that it was not good enough and to have delayed it until the next day. But the deed is done and now I suffer the consequences: a desperate need to cover it up quickly with another post. And I suppose it was always inevitable that today, with this pressure on me, I would find myself without any idea of what to write about. It is only what I deserve, I suppose.So I have to resort to the Nothing Post. I have talked about this savior of the blogger before (in A Nothing Blog) and in that post I gave a list of some good blogs that I'd found. But today pressure is on my mind and it makes sense that I should write about it, therefore.Pressure comes from setting goals. Were this blog a personal diary, there would be no insistence that I have something to say on every second day. Were it a collection of links to news stories or amusing discoveries, I could spend an hour or so cruising the net and collecting a few items to link to. But I have elected to produce original and interesting (hopefully) articles on a regular basis with the intention of establishing a readership large enough to be noticed. To do that, I have to keep producing the goods. If I miss a few days, the readers will start to wander off (and who can blame them? I do the same when a blog I'm following isn't updated regularly).The result of this is pressure and that is not necessarily a bad thing. The blog has forced me to be far more productive than at any other time in my life. The practice in writing that it gives me is honing skills that had grown rusty over the last few years when I was working in a job that required every last ounce of energy that I could find. It has also made me consider carefully my initial goals and to re-think them in some areas. The business of blogging is more complex than I had imagined and is developing at a phenomenal rate. There may be unforeseen possibilities in it and this means that I have to keep an eye on the latest thinking on the future of blogging (Syntagma is an excellent source of news in this regard).But the pressure hurts on those days when there is nothing to say. Oh, I've had a few ideas while I was pondering this morning but all of them require time to develop. There was no way I was going to repeat the mistake of "Heroes" today! In the end I have had to resort to this, a Nothing Post. I know full well that it's nothing more than a moan, a railing at the blog for its pitiless demands on me. Just this once I have allowed myself a cry of anguish in public.There will be those out there who will know what I'm talking about and will sympathize. To them I say: use the Nothing Post occasionally - it's great for easing the pressure!
Clive
Ned I thought all my posts were nothing posts. I do know the pressure, sometimes it is easy to say, oh give it another day. Other times, especially when your last post disappoints you, the pressure to "cover it up" is overwhelming. Having said that, your last post did not need covering up. It was interesting and informative, as your posts often are. Date Added: 28/05/2005
Gone Away Unfortunately, if I think one of my posts stinks, nothing will convince me otherwise, Ned. ;) But, who knows, in a couple of months I might even be able to re-read it... Date Added: 28/05/2005
John Evans If writers didn't get an off day, it's likely they wouldn't get a good day either. Sometimes the old batterieis have to be recharged. Actually, I didn't think that "Heroes" was all that bad. It sucked in some good comments and made a point or two about things in general. Sometimes it's good to get away from "issues". My "nothing posts" tend to be plays on words and weaving a load of nonsense from some small point. Some of the great bloggers : Robin Good, Chris Anderson etc., would probably pass over them in silence. But bog-standard posts clear the way for THE GREAT ONE! The Eldorado of blogging. The post that shakes the world. Yes, and winning the lottery is great too. Keep at it Clive, you're up there with the best. :-) Date Added: 28/05/2005
Gone Away Thanks, John. So we all have dreams of doing THE GREAT ONE... Date Added: 28/05/2005
Josh I worry 'bout you Mr. Gone. I worry that perhaps you hve too much invested in your blog, and one day perhaps, you will forsake it altogether as no longer worth the effort. I know how it is to get going on a science project and feel compelled to keep it from beating you, but perhaps the aformentioned 2-day grace period is a good thing, then again, perhaps it represents an unmanageable periodicity. Slow and steady wins the race, right? < br /> This is all by way of saying, of course, that I admire your persnicketation, and I enjoy reading your blog probably more than any other I have come across. in my 4 or so years at this. Keep up the good work, but don't let explicit deadlines keep you from writing the 'good stuff' that we all enjoy so much. Date Added: 28/05/2005
Gone Away The deadline is good for me, Josh - supplies much-needed discipline. Just occasionaly I do get tired, however, and need a break. Today is one of those! ;) Date Added: 28/05/2005
Gary Clive, No need to beat yourself up. The great thing about a blog is that it's a great place to learn before you become world famous. Some of my best work occurs in pieces that end up quite differently than what I originally intended. They sort of take on a life of their own as I'm writing them. Of course, I have to rewrite the beginning if it doesn't match the end anymore, or else the reader will be confused. Gary Date Added: 28/05/2005
Way Yer hard on yerself, is all. And as it should be, methinks. I read something today (during wild moments of gambling away my blog-life savings) that goes entirely against my grain, and that was something along the lines of, "Write for others, not yourself." And this, after I had just stated the opposite...somewhere...out there...in Blogland. Crap. I forget where exactly. Anyway...Look. Most that complain as you have done do it with no class at all. I enjoyed both yesterday's and today's Nothingness, as far as that goes, but still I hear ya. The goals we set for ourselves should be more than we are able to accomplish, and yet, just damn possible to achieve. Know what I mean, Jelly, old bean? By the by: I am clean and sober now, vowing to stop gambling after deciding the damn thing is rigged, or else I'd be a millionaire now. Right? Say, right? Date Added: 28/05/2005
Mad Blog slave! Blog! Mwhahaha!! Date Added: 28/05/2005
Gone Away Oh, I know that feeling, Gary! Many of mine, especially the fiction, decide to go in unexpected directions and I just follow along, wondering what I'm letting myself in for... ;) Date Added: 29/05/2005
Gone Away Absolutely right, as ever, Way. Especially that about setting goals that are just beyond what we can attain yet are still possible. That's the only way to make continual progress methinks. Thanks, mate. Date Added: 29/05/2005
Gone Away You may laugh, Mad. After all, you have a free content provider, website promoter, forward planner and probably lots more I haven't thought of yet. But how about my Yffi page, hmmm? Date Added: 29/05/2005
Josh Ahh you fixed the technorati doodad, huh? I was wondering if it was my browser size or something, or maybe a justification issue. I didn't like the little image too much on my page, so I just set it to dt#techno img {display : none; } -- handy little feature for counters like that eh? Date Added: 29/05/2005
Gone Away Indeed so, Josh. Darn thing was irritating the life out of me but that's the way they deliver it to you. Mad has been tinkering, I think. The squashed chameleon image I just can't get rid of. Removed it from my Technorati profile but it insists on remaining on the blog page. Date Added: 29/05/2005
prying1 I remember a friend telling me, concerning a machine I was hesitant to operate, "Machines were meant to work for men, not men to work for machines." I think that can be paraphrased to read: "Blogs were meant to work for men, not men to work for blogs." Date Added: 29/05/2005
Gone Away True wisdom, Paul. Now if only I could get this darn blog to agree... ;) Date Added: 29/05/2005
Jodie Gone, don't be too hard on yourself. :) Ned, you either. You always call 'em "nothing blogs" but they really are not "nothing". Um. OK, that was too many negatives for me and now I'm confused. Or maybe it was all the sun earlier today. :D Date Added: 29/05/2005
Abraham Lincoln After you have done all the things in life that I have done and been to places like the top of Mt Surabachi and strolled down the aisles of Heaven with angels, you got plenty to think about and to write about. But it isn't the aisles of Heaven or the tops of mountains like Surabachi that are important. It is how you learned to tie your shoes and brush your teeth and how you finally learned how to ride a bicycle. These are the things that all people can relate to. The other stuff is like the extra candle on the cake that never should be lit. Date Added: 29/05/2005
Gone Away Just having a whinge, Jodie. ;) Feel much better for it too! :D Date Added: 29/05/2005
Gone Away Well, well, pleased to meet you, Honest Abe. And while you were strolling the heights of Surabachi, I was doing the same on Inyangani and Chimanimani. But you are right in that it's what we have in common that counts. Visited your site - very interesting. Date Added: 29/05/2005
Way *waves from one precarious seat atop the Rocket* Date Added: 29/05/2005
Gone Away Well dang, Way, I can't see you! Have you changed the name of your blog? Date Added: 29/05/2005
Way I tell ya what. After riding this wild bronco for the last few days, my numbers are indeed up -- that much I can tell. One or two others have took a sec to leave a comment behind, while the rest just whoosh on by, but for all the time that I have put into riding the Rocket, I see no real worth in BE. Besides, not being able to get listed by now makes me think there are some tinkering secrets I don't know about, so I feel like I'm wasting may time and am about ready to jump ship. It was fun, tho. Now if I could only sell the fuselage on Ebay... Date Added: 30/05/2005
Gone Away BE does have benefits, Way, but they are the kind that you have to weigh against the input required. Out of hundreds of blogs you might see in a few days, there will be a few that would be worth bookmarking. And, as you say, just a few of the hundreds that pass by might leave a comment and some of those stay to become regulars. So it's a huge investment for little return and the decision is only whether to accept that or try something else. For me, at the moment, it's the best traffic inducer I know. The moment I find something less time-consuming or more effective, I'm off... ;) Date Added: 30/05/2005
Jaws I am silly. When I write in my blog some times it will be 3 sentences I thought about while washing dishes or it will be some thing from childhood or some thing I saw in the car. I never know whats gonna pop out. Lord help me if a critic was watching...LOL There is/was one story I wanted to put out this weekend for Memorial Day about my Pop-pop. I was going to type out recordings my pop-pop left on tape about his war days at the Normandy Invasion and his day to day life as a M19 gunner. I had it all typed out and it was crap. I am not a writer at all. It was a story I wanted to share to show the men that faught for us all but I can not do his story justice. It will wait a week, month year, until I can get it right. Date Added: 30/05/2005
Gone Away All blogs are valid, Lady Jaws, the personal diaries, the learned journals, the politicals, the lists of links, even the blogger services ones. And what whatever you have to say will have relevance for someone, somewhere. Your idea of writing down the experiences of your father in the Normandy invasion is excellent and well worth blogging. Don't worry too much about style or anything else. The important thing is to write it as it happened - then let us see so that we can appreciate what some folks went through to allow us to live in a free world. Date Added: 30/05/2005
Gone Away Way: A message from Ned and I quote - "Well, reassure him that he has received more comments from BE traffic in the short time he has been clicking for credits than I have in the entire eon that I have been doing it. Very good ones too." She's right. You've done pretty well in a very short time. Date Added: 30/05/2005
Way I guess. But I'm so incorrigible, seeing that the last hour (or was it two?) I found my scraggly self back at it again, and the most maddening thing -- I booked-marked one of the best things I've come across in a long, long while, and dang if I can figure how to retrieve it now. Got to go find the wife, it looks like… Ditto to Jaws...those make wonderful stories. Date Added: 30/05/2005
Way Oh, and I earned 2 whole points. Are we all insane? Date Added: 30/05/2005
Gone Away Yes, Way, we are... To retrieve a blogmark: Log into BE and look down the navigation list on the left. Click on My Blogmarks. This will take you to a list of the blogs you've marked for later reading. To enter one, just click on its picture. Then, once its window has opened, you can get the site into your browser bookmarks by clicking on the Close Frame option at the top. This puts the site in a normal window and its real address appears in the address bar. It can now be bookmarked. :) Date Added: 30/05/2005
Gary Clive, I tried to subscribe to your blog on Bloglines and it said you don't have an RSS feed. Getting one may help your readership. Date Added: 30/05/2005
Gone Away We have an RSS feed, Gary. It's the button on the right at the bottom of each page of the site. If you need the address to input into Bloglines, right-click on the button and hit Properties - that'll give it to you. Of course, I do admit that it's not as prominently displayed as in some sites... Date Added: 30/05/2005
Ned Way, the BE rocket will push up numbers but it is fast and not many are going to read the site they clicked on unless the ride is a slow one. Surf for credits too, to ensure a steady daily stream of traffic. It might take hundreds of hits before someone who is worthy enough to read and appreciate your blog comes along, but that person will be oh so glad they found you. Way you have a top-notch blog, the writing is delicious. It is touching and amusing, heart-warming and honest and downright brilliant. If they don't find you and appreciate you, the rest of us may as well pack it in. I guess I am saying don't give up, you have a return, I have seen it in the comments. Date Added: 30/05/2005
Way I got no current ideas anyway, Ned, so I keep going over to BE just to kill some more time. And your praises make me all tingly...stop that! :p Oh, and that trick you gave worked just as you claimed, Gone. Still, I can't find the guy's URL anywhere, but if you see a site called SMOKE MEAT, A Kansas City Story, stop off there and sample a few of his items. Date Added: 30/05/2005
Gone Away Can oblige, Way. Smoke Meat's URL is http://www.smokemeat.blogspot.com/. Been reading that for quite a while. ;) Date Added: 30/05/2005
Way Aw, yer the magic man. Ta. Date Added: 30/05/2005
Ken I'm sorry to come late to this post, Gone Away, but I took the weekend off, visited an old friend, saw a new Italian film ("The consequences of love" - highly recommended), sat in the sun and read some poems, bought a couple of books and cd's, didn't switch the computer on for thirty-six hours. I've always admired the quality and length of your posts and wondered how you manage it, especially given the way you respond so thoughtfully to every comment you receive, but maybe it's time to give that old frontal lobe a rest? Take care! Date Added: 30/05/2005
Gone Away That break sounds like just what I needed when I wrote this article, Ken. I can hardly imagine being away from the computer for 36 hours! But, in this instance, all I really needed was a good whinge and the article gave me that chance. I feel much refreshed now and even quite like my latest post, the one about Cape Town. ;) Every now and then I do get to take a break and Kathy and I wander off to have a look at another part of America. And, with the size of this country, that could go on for a long time before I run out of places to see! Date Added: 30/05/2005
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