New Year's blog resolutions
It's a little early for this. But I wrote my other New Year's entry early too. That was the entry that killed off this blog. I wrote it, and spent a fair amount of time on it, and it was actually one of the better things I've written in a while. But it didn't make me feel good. Writing it early turned out to be a good thing, though - for once I waited and considered before I posted something.I haven't been happy with this blog for a while - I guess that's been obvious. It seemed to have become something that was about everything but what it should be about - a place for me to write thoughts I want to communicate to an audience. Strangely (but perhaps not too strangely) writing a post that ended it all reminded me of why I write it. A desire to communicate is one of my defining qualities - I guess in the end I don't want to give that up.
But I do want to do things differently on this blog, or perhaps do them how I used to. There's a line from Bob Dylan, when he talked about how, when he was young, he could just write great songs. And then it went away, and he said he had to learn to do conciously what he used to do unconciously. That's what I want to do. A lot of the stuff I've written on here over the last few months has been pretty bad, for one reason or another. I want this to be a good blog again, one that people enjoy reading, and one that I'm proud to write. I thought about it, and these are my blog resolutions. Actually, I think they're pretty good things for anybody who writes a blog to keep in mind. They're self-evident, but that doesn't mean they're always obvious.
1. I will try to post more regularly, but will not post things just for the sake of it.
2. I will not pay attention to my stats.
3. I will not think of number of comments as some sort of rating out of ten on my writing.
4. I will not worry about who is reading it or what their agenda is in reading it. I guess I'm happy to communicate to anybody who takes the time to type the blog address into their web browser, and who is interested.
5. Without revealing confidences, hurting people, or being excessively confessional, I will try to be more honest in my writing.
6. I will not invert things in my head. My blog is an adjunct to my life; my life is not an adjunct to my blog.
I have gone through and deleted a lot of the stuff I've written over the last couple of months. Probably unnecessary, but it felt psychologically necessary to me.
Anyway, we'll see how this goes.
posted by Nicholas @ 8:46 PM
5 Comments:
just write what you feel! i guess that's why i keep an lj but not a blog; it feel far more private. And even then i end up deleting things and being cryptic.
Fact is that honesty is interesting, and insincerity is boring. But when it comes down to it, it is only a blog. Don't take it so seriously. I read this because i want to know what is going on in your life, but you don't write what is going on in your life, and that is sad for me. I miss you. You should get my xmas card in a few days.
xo b
ps. i am drunk and have made a lot of spelling errors. please ignore.
I don't think you should take blogging as an index of your own writing skills or communicative powers. More a exercise in the perfection of procrastination and imperfection of memory.
Oh, and a way to hear what friends afar are doing.
Hope you have a nice christmas, Nicholas.
harriet
i don't think i take it too seriously, although i do take it seriously. in the end it's writing in public, and i can't not take that at least somewhat seriously, although i do understand the differences between blogging and "real" writing, and the need for spontaneity.
i never intended to have a blog! years ago i built a web page about my writing, because i was depressed and it was the only think i felt good about. and it had a news page on it, that just grew and took over the whole site. and people read it, so i kept writing it. but then everybody started reading it - parents, relatives, people i went to high school with. if i'd known i was going to have a blog i would have at least used a less public domain name. i'm not naturally exhibitionistic, and i never wanted to write an "online diary", although i do understand why people, particularly absent friends, would prefer that to what i do.
i do want to be more personal and less inhibited here, and bree i would never wish to make you sad! i miss you too. but while in a broad sense most of what i write here could be considered letters to absent friends, it's never going to be a daily record of my life, i just can't do that so publically, and i don't have much interest in writing it anyway.
and a happy christmas to you too harriet!
these are good resolutions. make it do what you want it to do. i like it.
you forgot resolution seven: draw a picture of a monkey punching a dinosaur for adam's fantastic blog.
Post a Comment
<< Home