Free your blog from the tyranny of pace
Dan James at 35hunter.com shares his struggles of maintaining a writing pace on his blog:
Amidst the strangeness of the past 15 months or so, I’ve been struggling to maintain a consistent approach both with publishing new blog posts, and responding to comments.
Despite only setting myself a target of a new post every three days, little has changed since then, and I still feel most of the time I’m scrabbling to have a new post ready in time.
He says he’s responsible for setting a pace:
Now, it’s important to note that the only one who ultimately sets the pace of a personal blog, is its owner.
And ponders thus…
However, then the dilemma is, if I publish less, would readers lose interest and drift away anyway, so there’d be a dwindling amount of comments anyway?
My thoughts for Dan:
You have it in your head that you must maintain some kind of specific balance of pace in order to keep your audience (ala readers). When this happens you’re not writing for yourself; you’re writing for Mr. Pace.
Hence the struggle within.
The secret sauce to a happy blog is to write when you feel like it and throw everything else outta the window. Your readers will figure it out (or you can tell ’em you write with the flow).
In other words, screw pace. Make your blog truly yours in all ways. Otherwise it’s not yours. Think of your blog as your own journal (that you happen to have open to others). True journals are immune from the vagaries of time and pace.
Don’t worry about the number of comments you get, either. If you do then you’re writing for comments. Write only and uniquely for you and be free, whether you get 0 comments or 100.
It is when you are truly free that your best writing flows forth.
Personally, I love your blog and I follow it religiously via my RSS reader. I get your stories whether you blog once a month or thrice a week.
I don’t care how often you do it. I care that you do it when you feel like it so it’s not forced. If it’s forced I’ll know it and that’s when you start to lose me as a reader.
Write for yourself, pace be damned. You’ll be happier and so will we.
...if you grok this...
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@alongtheray I really liked this! It was a kind thing to write a sort of reassurance letter :))
@herself Glad you see it that way, Jess! Thanks and hope you are well : )
Thanks Ray for your kind words and support. You are exactly right, one of the big pluses of having your own blog is that you can be in complete control of every aspect.
Also very true that if you feel like you’re writing just to meet a schedule, the quality of the writing is likely to be compromised. Thanks again for your encouragement!
Dan,
I didn’t expect you to pop over to try posting again — I very much appreciate that!
The whole point of blogging is to make it fun to do. The moment it becomes a chore, double ugh. I learned this the hard way. ; )
Take care,
Ray
@alongtheray thanks 🙂 Things are pretty ok these days. Hope you are too!