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…
Sorry to be remiss in responding to comments! Internet was down all yesterday afternoon.
Bookbabie, I *love* to lure others over to the dark side (a.k.a. Blogland). I think it’s because I’m bossy, so I love a chance to tell people how to do something. 😀
Kristen, when we have children I expect to have a neverending stream of material on which to draw for my blog posts. Right now I just have three cats and a husband. People complain if you post about your cats too much, and as for the husband? He’d take it well, but I should still post about him in moderation.
Mizzz_K, I hate when I lose words because I was busy typing others! Such a pain! And LOL on the bits of writing that you never recognize later. Actually, I’ve seen some people post those bits all together for humor’s sake. Hmmm…now there is an idea!
Allan, so jealous! Wish I could do that. I love how you worded it, by the way!
Mary, I’ve tried that, and it never seems to work for me. Instead I just keep repeating it n my head, tweaking little things, and hoping that I have the whole thing memorized by the time I can pull over. Sometimes it even works, too…
LOL, Adam! Sorry. I’ve had that happen to me more times than I can count. It seems like certain ideas seem to infect a lot of bloggers at once and then you see them everywhere.
Thanks for the laugh. I have several of these tendencies as well, but my naturally lazy streak prevents all those ghastly rewrites.
Besides, I’m a big hairy guy from Texas. No one is all that surprised when my posts are full of typos and butchered grammar.
Ha! There’s a reason why my ‘writing blog’ is mostly photos!
I love your list!!!
I tried to warn myself to get a few posts ready before launcing my poetry blog…but I never did. I too do the blog scramble before adding a new post.
oops launcHing!
grin!
Don’t agonize! Your posts are always interesting and entertaining. Although…maybe that’s because you are agonizing… Hmmm. Why not just try dashing something off–something crazy–a discarded idea. Give yourself a free day each week (or every other week) and just type and publish.
We’ll let you know if it’s horrible. 😉
Travis, that’s why I only post about twice a week! It takes too much energy to go through all those steps more often than that!
Angela, I used to do that. And then I started a photoblog, too, which completely defeated the purpose. Now that that’s been hijacked, I should start posting more photos on here.
Thanks, Alyssa. But like you said, if the posts please anyone, it’s probably because I give them (way too much!) thought. Oh, to be one of those breezy people who can just toss off well-worded posts! At least I don’t rewrite my fiction as much as I do my blog, or I’d never get anything finished!
Wow nice blog. I like this even better then the one I was at which redirected me here!
Thanks for visiting my blog btw, I appreciate it.
This is hilarious. I do many of these steps. My inspiration tends to come while hiking, rather than showering…though showering would be better because I do it more often. I also keep notepads handy for when inspiration hits….like in my purse, which came in very handy while Matt and I were on our date night at a restaurant last night. Not sure how crazy he was about that, though he helped like a good sport.
Wow, Adaora. Thanks! I’m blushing now. I enjoyed reading your blog, too.
Allison, I often find inspiration while hiking, too! And my poor hubs also has to wait while I scramble for pen and paper to record some thought or idea. He’s also used to finding bits of scribbled-upon paper all over the house.
Thanks for the link, Bright Meadow! As usual, I checked out your Sunday Roast and you had some great links on there!