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February 24, 2005
What else should I be? All apologies.
Young as this blog is, I know I already have regular readers. And I know they're sometimes disappointed when they swing by and find nothing new.
I don't know how your average Joe Blogstein or Jane Blogovich finds time to post every day, to be honest. I'm guessing some of them are sporadically employed, or not employed at all; others have a job that allows them to post periodically during the day, either because they work from home or have blog-friendly bosses. Me, I can't blog at my job. Most weekdays, I leave home early and come back late.
What's my groove? Maybe I won't know until I click into it. I'd like to be pithy like Insty or deep like Den Beste, or hilarious like Frank J. Clearly, no one can be all three. (Except maybe Mark Steyn, and he doesn't blog. So there.) For the moment, I'm just being ethereal like EtherPundit.
I'm still finding my way here. For lots of reasons, I don't want to reveal much about myself. I'm extremely reserved by nature, and anyway, I'm not sure the details of my life are of much interest to John Q. Blogperuser. On the other hand, people like to get a sense of whose writing it is they're reading. How much personality is enough? How much is too much? What do I want from blogging? What do my readers and potential readers want? Is this blog a confessional, a soapbox, a rude note passed to a friend in class?
Is it better to do lots of little posts, knowing I'll never have the time to be a real resource or clearinghouse for stories? Or is it better to do sporadic long, bloviating posts, showcasing what scant original thought this Blogger of Little Brain is capable of?
And finally, how much of my personal time can I afford to give up? Maybe it'll end up depending on my traffic. Maybe if I have 5000 visits a day (as I did briefly with my Rathergate anagram series), it'll be worth devoting a good deal of time to, but if I have 5 visits a day I won't bother.
Yet if I don't bother, why would I expect to get more than 5 hits a day?
Woah, dude. It's like a Zen koan. Or a Catch-22. (Is a Catch-22 the Western version of a koan?)
Anyway, comments help. Comments are very encouraging. Negative ones, okay, not so much, but even those are welcome when they show that someone's read what I've written.
No pressure.
Posted by EtherPundit at February 24, 2005 08:30 PM Category: Personal stories
Comments
Hey, what happened to "I'll be refreshed and extra-feisty when I'm ready to come out swingin'"? Your blog is great -- keep it up. BTW, can I buy you a beer?
Posted by: Boris at February 24, 2005 11:17 AM
You are my blog-hero -- keep it up!
I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while, but I am too reserved, and you have already written everything I planned to.
Posted by: B at February 24, 2005 02:42 PM
I'm reading. Keep blogging, please! Your posts don't have to be long and bloviating; I personally prefer short to medium-length pieces (say, up to 500 words). I'm intrigued by your online identity as a conservative with a taste for wordplay, and living in a bastion of liberalism.
Posted by: Joe at February 25, 2005 12:13 AM
Shucks, y'all, thanks!
B, I'm blushin'. It has been a trial to overcome my natural reserve and start blogging, even anonymously, so I know what you mean.
Joe, I usually prefer short posts as well. The thing is, as they say at Apple, "Hard is easy; easy is hard." It's much more difficult to say what I have to say in a simple, elegant way than it is to blather for several paragraphs. And I'm used to having more time to edit out the deadwood. I try to put at least some timely posts here, and by the time I've polished something it might be ancient news. I'm hoping that the pressure of writing more and writing faster will help me learn edit more brutally when I'm thinking, instead of after I've written.
Boris, I can't believe you remember I wrote that! I'm always walking that fine line between refusing to care about the world's insanity, and caring but having the horror of it all suck the words right out of my throat. I'm aiming for that sweet spot where I care just enough to get me going. As far as the beer... I'm not ready yet to meet 'n' greet, but I'll think of you fondly as I swill my next Yuengling or Red Hook ESB. Will that do? ;^D
Posted by: EtherPundit at February 25, 2005 07:57 PM
L'haim.
Posted by: Boris at February 25, 2005 09:25 PM