For 2008: connect the dots
January 22nd, 2008I will have less time in 2008 and thus will not be able to spend hours each week writing 1000-word-long posts starting with a preamble, developing my arguments step by step, suggesting a conclusion and finishing with my customary epilogue.
And I cannot get round to posting only once a month. I have more than a hundred posts waiting to be written, and the backlog is growing by the day. The only sustainable approach is probably to write my mind more concisely, with posts that will be dryer and with less rhetorical decoration.
Therefore, I will ask my readers to do the job of connecting the dots, of filling the blanks, of fleshing the imaginary skeleton of what I have to say. I will have more pictures to avoid total drought. I hope the blog will not lose its soul in the process.
You’ll find me a happy dot-connecter. Go for it, Mandarine, you can wing it a little!
No problem with dot-connection for me either (I’m no hi-tech geek, but I have some practice with cross-stitch). Or you can write serial posts instead of whole ones (and if the serial is very long, maybe we will catch your inner contradictions!)
Don’t worry. I’ve expanded this one to about ten paragraphs with lots of Mandarine-like musings on the things that keep us too busy to write longer blog posts. Oh, and don’t forget, it takes no time at all to post those beautiful photos you often give us.
Emily: it takes no time to post the photos, but it takes some time to take, download, select, edit, crop, and resample. Probably still less than a real post, I confess.
Smithereens: I had contemplated the concept of serial posts and had voted against at the time. That was a long time ago, in 2007. Things have changed since. I will reconsider.
Charlotte: I had to look all around the internet to find out what ‘to wing it’ means, but I think I now know, and I agree. Thank you for the encouragement.
Winging it is good! Now and then at least. I perfectly understand your changing posting plans, and I plan on cutting back a bit myself, as I’ve got a busy semester ahead of me. Your blog will in no way lose its soul.
I’m curious to see how ‘cutting back a bit’ means for ‘Of Books and Bicycles’. Maybe I will finally be able to keep up and not be under the impression that I am missing so much great stuff?
Having more than a hundred posts waiting to be written is a burden I would love to have! In between connecting the dots, I am going to go over the very early posts that I missed.
Yesterday, I read your wonderful post about the “things you are good at”, and couldn’t believe that I had missed it earlier. Very impressed by your DIY ability in refurbishing the house.
In the new theme I am working on, there will be room enough for older posts on the main page, so that all articles get a second chance.
Just keep going, my friend. We’d miss you too much if you didn’t manage a little something every now and then. Dot joing is just fine.
Oh, it will be more than now and then, I am sure. Thank you for the encouragement.