Archives for December 2005

I wrote this post this past February and as part of my trip down memory lane decided to repost it for general consumption and thought. It seems to hold up.

I just finished reading Mochassid’s latest commentary in which he says

I realized that I wrote some of my most compelling stuff (okay, other than the macaroon thread) in those early days when no one was watching. I have to admit that since then, most of my stuff has been drivel.

It is a common dilemma, something that many bloggers agree with. Mo further elucidates:

I find that this happens with most bloggers. They come out of the blocks with a head of steam and quickly peter out. Many stink from the beginning but others start with interesting takes but stop being interesting shortly after debuting. Ironically, since many bloggers are driven by their desire for hits but peak in hits only after having written everything interesting that they will ever write, most readers are drawn to them only after they descend to mediocrity.

The intrepid Baal Ha-Bayit of Treppenwitz has a solution he refers to as David’s Room. Here is a description:

In a nutshell, the most frustrating aspect of a journal’s early life is that you can’t save your ‘good stuff’ for when you have a bigger readership… because, guess what? That readership is never going to show up unless you have the good stuff out there for them to read.

‘David’s Room’ posits that the first few months of a blog/journal’s life can be compared to someone reading their most intimate prose into an intercom… all the while hoping that someone – anyone – will eventually walk into the room on the other end and start listening (and maybe even talk back).

I am not sure that I agree with the gentleman. I think that initially you may find that you share many of your best stories early on, but it seems to me that any blogger worth their salt requires some time to find their sea legs.

That is, it takes time to find your voice and your place. Blogging is a skill, it is not something that most people can just sit down and do effectively. It requires time, patience and devotion to improvement. It is not merely a matter of having good stories to tell, but it requires a certain skill in effectively communicating your thoughts and feelings.

The blogs that capture me offer a combination of these elements.There are some bloggers who I read solely for their skills as wordsmiths. I think that their stories are junk, I can’t relate to them or find them to be stupid. That is the truth, but I also know that I can always learn from others and I seek out writing that captures me, that grabs me by the balls and says read me.

To use an old cliche, when push comes to shove it seems to me that the blogs that last are going to be those that have authors that are intimately tied to their blogs. I have a love affair with my blog. She is my confidant and my best friend. Non-judgemental and forgiving she listens to my tales of happiness and destruction without question and without comment.

If you want my unsolicited advice, don’t do this unless you are writing for yourself. It is the only way that you can truly be happy At least, at 12:36 am it makes sense to me. Maybe I’ll feel differently during daylight hours.

Night all.