Staying current

Blogging, they say, is a harsh mistress. I've been informally (okay - read that as "in cowardly anonymity") blogging for most of this decade, and reading blogs voraciously during that time. What I have found is that blogging is not a hobby, nor a pastime, nor a sideline. If you're going to do it and do it to the hilt, it's a full-time job. It's the pinnacle of self-employment as a writer: You must set your own schedule, manage your time, and PRODUCE, PRODUCE, PRODUCE. The ultimate test of a blog is timeliness and prolificity. So what happens to even the best of us who aren't hunkered in a bunker, blogging our fingers to the bone? What happens is that after days of real-world networking, scouting out fresh opportunities, working on various projects paid and unpaid, and oh yes - taking care of our homes and families, we come back to our blog to find that we haven't updated it in a week...two weeks...a month...or more.

Did I mention that I have a vegetable patch in my backyard? Did I also mention that it is currently a wasteland barren as the moon? And before that, a trackless jungle of invasive and poisonous plant species?

This is a prime example of the two direst imperatives of blogging: UPDATES and EDITING. It is necessary that you blog about what you read, heard, saw, thought, felt, and did TODAY, and create linkages, and at the very same time, spare your readers your stream-of-consciousness unschooled and undisciplined rants.

UPDATE and EDIT. These things require a time and energy commitment. The easiest way to do this is to have "blogging time" scheduled in your calendar - first thing upon waking for example, or exactly at noon, or immediately after the dinner dishes have been washed. Otherwise you are in danger of leaving it on the "when I get around to it" pile with the rotting laundry and unspeakable vegetable crisper.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to put on my elbow-length gloves and head into the kitchen. If I don't report back within the hour, please send in a rescue team.