I did it! Thirty days in a row with a new post every day. Yay me!
I have to say, I am wiped from the effort. It’s tiring to think of something to write every single day, just for the sake of posting something that has a bit of meaning to it. I don’t think I’ll be doing this again next year. What I am going to do, however, is this – Blogging Without Obligation. I actually came across this a few years ago, and I think I had the badge on my old digs over at Blogspot, but I never carried it over to the new place. Now I am. For those who don’t want to click over, here’s the hows and whys of BWO:
- Because you shouldn’t have to look at your blog like it is a treadmill
- Because it is okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. Short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.
- Because it is okay to not always be enthralled with the sound of your own typing
- Because sometimes less is more
- Because only blogging when you truly feel inspired keeps up the integrity of your blog
- Because they are probably not going to inscribe your stat, link, and comment numbers on your tombstone
- Because for most of us blogging is just a hobby. A way to express yourself and connect with others. You should not have to apologize for lapses in posts. Just take a step back and enjoy life; not everything you do has to be “bloggable.”
- Because if you blog without obligation you will keep your blog around longer, because it won’t be a chore. Plus, you will be doing your part to eradicate post pollution. One post at a time…
Don’t think you’ll never hear from me again. That’s not what this is about. This is about blogging on my own schedule, whatever I decide it may be, however regular or irregular it may be. That was the hardest thing about NaBloPoMo – trying to fit in a blog post every single day. While I know that I can publish posts to come out at a future date, I rarely do that. I generally like my stuff to come out every day. Also, I never keep stuff in draft, because if I don’t put out a post right away, I will look it over and see that it sucks or is just really an incoherent thought. So I don’t use those features because they don’t work for me. So if I don’t get to it, I don’t get to it.
On the other hand, participating in NaBloPoMo did get me thinking about my blog a lot more, and reminded me that there’s a lot more out there that I can blog about. I don’t need every post to be perfect. I was getting too hard on myself as far as what quality I would accept for posts I would publish, and I needed to stop doing that. NaBloPoMo helped, and on that end I do hope I will post more frequently.
So that’s it. I finished NaBloPoMo. And now I will be Blogging Without Obligation.
