I see Joe is dwelling on his blogo-past. I glanced at my archives and find I recently passed my blogo-birthday without even noticing it.
On May 4 2008 I launched Works Well (blogonym: Barrett Bonden) based on a pig-headed policy to write only about technology. Two years passed and this became an artificial restriction: elsewhere I'd be lording it up about Joyce and the Resurrection symphony, then coming back to toasters and Phillips-headed screws.
Various convulsions occurred including a misguided attempt to write verse. Those posts are rarely visited now - they are far too salutary. Eventually I did what I should have done in the first place: write novels. I'm on my fourth now.
Given my actuarial expectations, I should have closed the blog and concentrated on fiction. But I discovered this wasn't my decision to take. Any more than one might cut the throats of friends in order to save on giving dinner parties. Beyond my family circle my social circle is out there in blogoland not here in Hereford. Out there are people I know, like and refer to. All of them my superior in one way way or another. Humbled, I have put away the knife.
I see I have posted 811 times not including those I deleted following a belated discovery of my lack of judgement. These days I am far less controversial, less in-yer-face, duller, older. I look back far too often as I am doing now. An almost extinct volcano occasionally offering sympathy rather than the mailed fist.
With a following wind I may get close to 1000 posts this year. Lucy, with whom I discussed this, won't but that's because her approach to blogging is more elegant. The best decision I ever made was to limit my posts to 300 words.
PS: Forget Wimbledon grunters, beautiful game bottom feeders, pelota, tauromachy, toxophily, bear-baiting, Acapulco cliff diving and mud snorkeling. Today, the Tour begins and the Rs become distant
A most interesting post, Robbie. I enjoyed travelling through your blog-life as seen from your perspective, reviewing the successes and what you perceive to be your failures. Without wishing to come across as too 'flaky' or abstruse, I do discern some kind of inner struggle that still demands more research and answers. I look forward to seeing how it all continues.
ReplyDeleteI had noticed that your 'mailed' fist has begun to evolve into an open hand offering friendship and accepting kindness. Your words resemble more and more your kind looks.
ReplyDeleteI hope I don't come across as too 'schmalzig' (greasing a piece of equipment so that it works better, to one's benefit).
Shoot - I'm ready.
Congratulations on your blogday or blirthday, Roderick, always an event to celebrate. We should be proud of keeping on with anything that is mostly enjoyable for ourselves and others, shouldn't we? A habit worth nurturing, n'est-ce pas? And I admire your discipline in establishing the 300-word rule - wish I could think of some rules to establish for my blogging, ones I could actually keep.
ReplyDeleteTom: One inner struggle (with blogging) is based on balancing two needs: satisfying oneself and producing something others may be interested in reading. The initial tendency is to force material down readers' throats - the equivalent of shouting down a dry well. When this doesn't work there's a tendency is to resort to bland populism. The penultimate stage (the one I'm in now) is to avoid repetition. Beyond that is moribundity. All rather sad, really.
ReplyDeleteEllena: The fusion of face and prose style - an interesting theory. But don't forget, I smile rarely.
Natalie: I don't know anyone else who practises maximum wordage. Perhaps it's a journo thing. I find it a comfort: a rhythm develops. Faced with a draft that has run to 330 words and needs cutting I pass through two stages: (1) Can't be done! Every word's essential! (2) (Post cutting). It's... actually... better! A sort of religious experience if you like. A mortification of the flesh which bringeth intellectual tranquillity.
Is someone suffering from post-holiday blues, I wonder. Cheer up Robbie! This too shall pass.....hopefully.
ReplyDeleteTom: Is my comment really bluesy? I'm disappointed. I thought it was a cool-eyed take on reality.
ReplyDeleteThe sort of response that may qualify me (eventually) to respond to the stuff you're posting about these days. And I went to all that expense having my facetiousness surgically removed. Is this a coded message from you saying I should write more about Phillips-headed screws?
No, it isn't a coded message asking you to write about any form of technology. Technologies come and go, but other - and therefore more important things - continue forever. I actually did like this post very much because it seemed to me that you were touching on matters that were higher in the mind/heart pecking order than technology.
ReplyDelete