I love blogging. I love playing with words, and reading comments, and especially connecting with other bloggers, both on their sites and on mine. Like most worthwhile pursuits, however, it isn’t always easy. You see, I’m a perfectionist, which means that almost every new entry goes through each of the steps outlined below (yes, including this one). Sometimes the slow learners even get to repeat a few. And since I’m the helpful sort, I’ll now share with you this handy-dandy guide to creating an adequate blog post, Book Lady style. (Yes, adequate. I said I was a perfectionist, not that I’m perfect. You want perfection? Find another blog.)

Okay, here goes…

1. Write post. Revise obsessively. Publish.

2. Ping search engines, Feedburner, Technorati, and RSS feed readers.

3. Revise post again, wishing you’d caught now-obvious errors before letting God and everybody know you’d written something new.

4. Agonize. Post isn’t good enough. Doesn’t fit theme/voice/sense of humor. Or it fits too well, making it redundant and therefore boring. Everyone will be disappointed and unsubscribe from your feed and remove you from their blogrolls.

5. Avoid removing post from site through sheer will and other diversionary tactics.

6. First comments trickle in. Read and respond.

7. Bask in relief. The post isn’t perfect, but it’s up and it’s been read, so it’s too late to take it down now.

8. Wait one day, again reading and responding to any comments.

9. Begin to think about next post. Should put up something soon, but what? Not to worry. There’s some time.

10. Still some time, but not as much.

11. Cripes! It’s been two (or, okay, three…or maybe four…) days, and still nothing new. Ummm. What to write about? Spend whole day mining every experience, every thought, every conversation for a topic.

12. Fail.

13. Look through the land of half-finished blog entries, searching desperately for a phrase or idea that can be suddenly spun into the perfect post.

14. Fail.

15. Take a shower. Compose new entry entirely in head. Exultations abound — it’s the most brilliant post you’ve ever written. You’re a genius!

16. Towel off, grab the handy notebook you stashed in the bathroom for occasions such as this, and realize you’ve already forgotten entire post.

17. Dress and shuffle to computer. Browse your archives, wondering if anyone would really notice if you reposted an ancient entry, but with a different title.

18. Inspiration strikes! Or you strike it, preferably with something blunt and heavy.

19. Write post. Revise obsessively. Publish.

20. Repeat steps 2-20.

Yeah, I know it’s just a blog, but did I mention I’m a perfectionist? Anyway, I want only the best for my readers. All, like, three of you…

So, how’s blogging go for you? Easy? Difficult? Agonizing?

Update: I posted this exactly six minutes ago and am already on step four. I work fast! Let’s see if the post is still here in the morning…

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