I said a while ago that I was going to cut back on blogging and with this being the 2,020th post I’ve made, which matches nicely with the year, this is as good a time as any.
I can’t keep up with the reading and commenting, for one thing, and it seems rude to ignore people when they are kind enough to pop along and have a look at the blog. If I cut down on blogging, I can spend more time of reading and commenting.
More selfishly, I want more time for other writing projects, and I want more time for reading books. In fact I just want more time. Some nights I can write the blog in twenty minutes, as you may have noticed from some of the titles. Other times I take several hours and a number of false starts. Some days the number of words you see is near enough the number that I wrote. On the bad days the 350 words you read may be the distillation of seven or eight hundred I actually wrote. On other days I have sometimes written as many as two or three part posts before getting into my stride. Some of those discarded posts may become full grown posts in time, but many don’t. I’ve just been through my drafts and removed 12 posts which would never have amounted to anything.
My intention at the moment is to write blog posts on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. I’ll see how that goes. My standards or organisation, as you may have noticed, are such that this may end up as any combination of days as I miss deadlines and sleep my evenings away. However, roughly three times a week I will post.
Friday night will be a report on my week, Sunday will be the usual ragbag and Wednesday will be the new day for posts on Collectibles. Probably.
I sent two lots of Haibun off to magazines last night. Having decided to start writing again I thought I might as well get stuck in. I finished fourteen haibun this week – six based on old ones that were hanging around, six based on notes in my notebooks and two just came to me as I was copying out the others.
I have copied them out, rewritten, trimmed, tightened and tinkered, and, finally, selected five to send off. They have gone. I’m now looking to see if I have another three fit to send. The trouble is that after all the work, some of them just seem dull and lifeless. I might have over-worked them, or I may initially have been blind to their faults.
This afternoon I started work on some school attendance medals for eBay, and when I got home I took some pictures of a bee on a teasel – holding the teasel still with one hand and using the camera with the other. I got one reasonable photo out of twenty attempts. Teasel without bees is an easier subject. I now know why we have teasel in the front garden, Julia says they are growing where she put some seed heads down when bringing them back from the Mencap Garden for a flower arrangement. I might have known she’d be at the bottom of it.
London School Attendance Medals 1890s
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The bee and teasel photos are beautiful, Simon. Wishing you good luck with the haibuns you just sent off. You are a good writer!
Never mind how many attempts, that is an excellent bee on teasel photo. That you could hold the plant still with the bee still in occupation is impressive. Your new plan looks good.
Thank you Derrick. We will see what happens. I managed some more bee shots this afternoon.
Sounds like a plan. I’ve never known how people do posts every day, unless they’re retired. I think this sounds reasonable and predictable. I can’t keep up with the reading either, and feel bad, but I don’t publish more than once a week, and lately it hasn’t been that.
It’s a habit. Once you get into the habit it’s relatively easy. However, I need to use my time differently for a while.
I write three days a week, which gives me time to work on other projects. Hope you find the right balance.
I think it will be about right. If it works I might end up as a world famous writer like you. 🙂
Tee-hee!
🙂
It is always depressing to spend some time on a composition and be satisfied only to look at again and find it below par. Many of the best pictures that I have taken turned out to be duds when I looked at them again. I hope that the editors have their thoughts correctly aligned when your efforts land on their desks (or desktops).
There is probably a natural law that states that editors decline submissions in inverse proportion to the smugness I feel when I finish them.
I hope that this law will be temporarily suspended.
Time will tell…
Your very dry wit never ceases to make me chuckle…just write sometimes if you remember and don’t fall asleep
I will try. 🙂