For a variety of reasons, I'm considering putting this blog on hiatus.
It hurts to consider, because I've been writing it nearly daily (in one location or another) for more than 10 years. (Coming up on 13, really, if I've done my math right.) It feels very awkward to start a workday without spending a half-hour rambling into the blog first.
But it seems like all I do anymore is throw out a laundry list of activities, or (increasingly, distressingly, and boringly) whine about stuff. I don't really talk anymore. I'm not funny, or interesting, or insightful. I don't have amusing anecdotes or thoughtful critiques or fascinating links. And thanks to an assortment of unpleasant experiences, I can't talk about many of the things that are really on my mind, because those things involve other people who would be excessively unhappy to see them aired.
I'm not fully decided yet. It's hard to give up such a long-held habit. And I know a lot of my "real-life" friends use this as a way to keep track of what we're up to.
But the whining and the laundry lists are boring even me.
This is very much a one-way communication most of the time, but I'm really hoping for responses this time. Give me some ideas or strategies for keeping this going without turning it into the whinefest it's been for the last few months. Or tell me that yes, it's time to hang up the keyboard. I want to know what you're here to read about!
7 comments:
Well, I read every day, and I click a lot when you're NOT posting. I've also been known to use your blog as a way to track something... let's see, I know Liz wrote an entry about this, which happened around the same time as that other thing... let's see if I can find it...
I personally LIKE the laundry list. It makes me feel... normal. ish.
As a note, my captchka thing is osingsex which is just funny.
I'm pretty sure you know this, but I love reading your blog, and getting your daily perspective on some things I also see.
If the blog becomes a slog, I don't think anyone would want you to keep doing it, of course.
I was kind of expecting a photo-heavy Lego entry today, actually. ;)
My captcha word is Mulat, which isn't as funny.
I love reading your blog! As one of your more, ahem, remote RT friends, it feels like the only way I can stay in touch with you sometimes.
Besides, what's normal and "boring" to you is different and exotic to those of us without small people. ;)
I'll understand if you need to stop, but I'd prefer it didn't.
(And I got "iness," since we're sharing.)
That is hard. I do read it every day. But having it be a drag is no good.
I've had somewhat of a reverse problem. I don't write in my blog very often and I don't like that. I made the decision you are contemplating; that I wouldn't write when I couldn't come up with something I thought would be interesting. But that resulted in not writing much at all.
The conclusion I came to was that we are all bad judges of what other people will find interesting to read about. We take for granted the things that we know and therefore dismiss them as something that might be of interest to others because "surely they already know that."
The strategy I have taken (for, you know, like 3 days now, so who knows how it will last) is to share more of the things I read online anyway. News articles, commentary, etc. I had started to do that via twitter last month, but I started finding that there were times I wanted to say more than 140 characters worth of stuff about it. And by sharing more of what I find interesting, I started getting comments online I could respond to via twitter, facebook, or for longer form things, my blog.
But in the end you need to be happy doing it.
And my captcha is "frodwal," definitely funny.
I read every day as well! Being another remote friend it's pretty much how I keep up with you guys. I remember at some point I stopped reading for like a year (not sure why) and then suddenly picked it back up again and had to go back and read all I'd missed.
I guess you gotta do what will make you happy. Sometimes having a place just to vent or say "this is what I am doing today" is good.
My captcha is chysic. Not sure if that's funny or not :)
I don't have much original to add, but I do read your blog every day - you're in my RSS reader even - and I like hearing what's up at the Brooks house. I see Matt every day, but you and Penny and Alex (and Ziggy) much less often. I'll enjoy reading your blog how ever often you post, whether it's daily, weekly, alternate Tuesdays and Thursdays when the crows are facing North, whenever.
If you want to quit writing it because you aren't enjoying writing it, that's one thing. But you're thinking about quitting writing it because you don't think anyone wants to read what you're writing, put me down as another assurance against that.
*quietly starts training crows, just in case*
(indablea. Which sounds like an incantation, when you think about it.)
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