Wednesday, March 30, 2011

I'm a Bad, Bad, Blogger

I'm sorry. I haven't updated this blog in over a month. I'm not a very good blogger. Most blogs that have regular readers post at least once a week, but I struggle even to meet that number. I'm amazed that anyone still reads this thing (thanks to all 20 of you). I could say it's because I'm busy with work, but the truth is everybody is busy with work (unless of course you are unemployed). Even most retired people I know get busy with work.

I know a blogger who writes lengthy, well written, thought provoking blog posts almost every day. It gives me a blogger inferiority complex just looking at his blog. And he has a full time job and a family. How the heck does he do that?!  I think the answer lies in the fact that he is a university professor with a PhD who is engaged in ongoing research. That's how I think the people with really good blogs do it. Good bloggers are people who, through years of practice, have developed a special amount of self discipline when it comes to writing. Writing takes an incredible amount of discipline. Writing takes more discipline than exercising - which most of us, myself included, struggle to do on a regular basis. I struggle with exercise because I have a lazy body, and I struggle with writing because I have a lazy mind. I would rather read someone else's blog than work on my own, it's just easier.

I'm like the apostle Paul, what I want to do I don't do, and what I don't what to do, I do. In this case, what I want to do is steady reliable blogging, but what I do instead is sporadic blogging.  So what should be done about this problem? I read once (in a blog) that an older more experienced writer gave a younger writer this advice about writing a book, "Aim for one or two crappy pages a day. Don't try to write well, don't try to be thought provoking, just aim for a steady flow of writing - even if it is complete garbage." His point being that if you can just get into the habit of writing, the good stuff will eventually come out, and you can always edit the bad stuff out later.

So that's what I'm going to try with this blog. I'm going to try to have one crappy blog post per week. Even if it's only a paragraph on getting moles removed, or making compost from banana peels, I will have a weekly blog post.

That's my goal. Now if I can just stick with it...