Saturday 31 May 2008

A Life Outside Blogging?

Some recent stuff such as a comment linking to a goodbye post on Faking Good Breeding (God that name is AWESOME!) has made me wonder exactly how dedicated one must be to have a blog. I don't know anyone IRL who has kept one up, citing a busy lifestyle as the reason most times.

I post fairly frequently, although you can see that the amount of my posts in the (very short so far) lifespan of my blog has been reduced from a crazy 4 to a more subdude 1 or 2 a day. The reason for my mad activity in the first couple of days was simply boredom... I was procrastinating about revision. I do find I get more 'inspiration' when I have a reason to procrastinate.

However I don't think the posting is very much of the reason that people find blogging time-consuming. Surely it is the commenting on other blogs, the reading of them, the photo taking, and also very likely the dealing with advertising, e-mails and moderating comments when they start to get nasty.

And I have to say, I am lucky enough not to have to deal with the last three duties and I find that I was reading and commenting (anonymously) before I started this blog, and the photo-taking is actually one of the thing I love about it. I never used to take photos before but now I'm finding myself enjoying it hugely, even with my shitty old digital camera.

So I suppose what I'm saying is that right now, I'm finding blogging a pleasure which is not reducing my happiness in other areas of my life; it never takes more than 20 minutes a day, and then little 2 minute slots whenever I'm free to read and comment. I'm not sure what I'm doing right, maybe it's just because I'm new and then I'll have to keep up starting new blogs every month to maintain this contentedness. Actually, no I won't... but I will say thank-you to all the lovely people who have written lovely comments and all. Now I'm going to leave before I get unbearably soppy, to have a life I presume.

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I completely agree with you. I really don't find that blogging takes all that much time and it really acts as a short daily release for me and my creativity. Even the reading other blogs and posting is just a fun internet activity for me and it helps to get the creative juices flowing. But as someone who has been on the other side, meaning I blogged for a while and then stopped, I know that sometimes the stress of a hectic life and a feeling of a lack of inspiration can take over, and sometimes its just easier to put the blog away and continue when you are ready. That is what I did, and it looks like so far my idea has panned out, as I have more of a focus now that I am back from my blogging hiatus.

    I wish you luck with your blog and I am going to place you on my blog roll to keep an eye on a fellow newcomer like myself- I feel like we need to stick together!

    -{black, alligator}

    http://blackalligator.blogspot.com/

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  3. I often wonder how long I'll blog, or if anybody would care if I quit. I didn't have a mission statement when I started. Instead, I opted to see what worked, what felt good, and what people wanted. I'm still weighing these things.

    I made a goal of one post per day, and I've held to that for several months. Sometimes I post more, but not less. I've been able to maintain that level of productivity based on the inspiration I receive from all sorts of sources—including blogs.

    I've got 120+ blogs in my Google Reader now, and it's tough keeping up with everything. I wonder where to draw the line. I do love it though.

    I can honestly say I don't know where it's going, but I'm enjoying the ride.

    I hope you keep on.

    Unrelated: I tagged you. Feel free to ignore.

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