The Joy Of A Broken Blog
Stories that are never written might as well be dead.
The most frustrating moments as a writer aren’t limited to feeling the pain of not being to tell the story you want to tell because the words won’t work with you.
Sometimes they come because the tools you use to tell your tales decide to bend you over from behind and violate you in the most intimate way possible.
That won’t make sense to some of you because you don’t understand that writing is like breathing to some of us and what could be more intimate than breathing.
The Joy Of A Broken Blog
You might wonder if I am being sarcastic or snarky but I am not because there is joy in a broken blog but you rarely experience it until you figure out how to fix what is broken.
The blog is like a lover and when you fix what was broken sometimes it almost feels like great makeup sex and you can’t help but float on air.
Ok, makeup sex might not be the right comparison, but the point is there is real pleasure in figuring out how to make it work again or at least I always think so.
But the pain of trying to figure it out can be substantial because the blog is often the epitome of the angry partner who refuses to speak.
It won’t always tell you what is wrong. You won’t always know if plugins don’t work or if your database has decided to flip you the bird so you have to start hunting around, digging in the dirt, begging it to share something with you.
and what could be more intimate than breathing.Click To TweetI thought that 69 Shades Of Grey was the kind of post that would generate some comments. I thought it was pretty good and that it was representative of a form of writing I don’t get to do much anymore.
When your kids reach a certain age the boundaries of blogging kick in and you have to be more careful about the stories you share but that one, well I felt ok about it.
Felt like it needed to be memorialized because that is part of what the blog is about, it is supposed to be a chronicle of our lives.
But I didn’t see many comments and then I received some emails from people who said they had trouble commenting and so I made time to visit it and determined that particular post loaded properly but wouldn’t accept comments.
I don’t know why there was a mutiny, just that there was and that it didn’t affect the other posts I checked.
Spent some time trying to sort and suss it out so that it would work again but I just don’t have the time to get it going the way I want to.
Got one day left before the Traveling Jack show takes off and I have to pack and prepare. Don’t know if I am going to be able to update from the road or if I am going to just leave it be for a while or not.
In the interim I am just praying to the gods of blogging to be good to me and asking my blog to forgive whatever I have done wrong.
I’ll Just Go Find Another
And in a confession or PSA I’ll suggest that when you have a fight with your spouse/partner/lover that you not tell them that since they are being so damn difficult you’ll just go find another because it rarely serves you well.
Not that I really know anything about this…
Good things that blogs aren’t thinking, feeling creatures.
Tim Bonner August 25, 2015 at 1:34 am
I’m forever breaking my blog these days.
I’m almost certainly on the road to where I want to be with it but there’s always another plugin to try.
I’m sure a staging area would be a great idea for testing these things out but then where’s the fun in that?
Fixing what you’ve broken is half the fun, so long as you can fix it…
Jack Steiner August 25, 2015 at 7:41 pm
As long as you can fix it is right. I gave gotten better and learned much by breaking things, but I still manage to tweak it in ways that make fixing it difficult.
Gary Mathews August 24, 2015 at 10:34 am
Is there anything more frustrating than publishing and tagging a piece, getting all your photos edited and then when you go to publish you get the dreaded 404 error!
Jack Steiner August 25, 2015 at 7:44 pm
It’s awful no question about it.
Jens-Petter Berget August 23, 2015 at 10:38 pm
My blog will always be broken. I keep fixing things every week. It might be because I want to, or that I get new ideas or adjust what I currenly like.
At the moment, because I’m finally back from vacation (and living in a tent), I’m thinking that I’ll be publishing short blog posts every day starting today.
Jack Steiner August 23, 2015 at 10:55 pm
I suspect that is part of my challenge too. The frequency with which I tweak and adjust things makes it easier for things to happen.
Jens-Petter Berget August 23, 2015 at 11:13 pm
Yes. I really love to test new things, and when I see other people using something I’m not, I’m always looking closely to see if it’s something I should be using.