Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Blog Culling

I'm back in!

Into reading blogs and such that is. I stopped bothering about my RSS reader sometime mid-November because of NaNoWriMo. Then Christmas hit. And it took me this long to open that scary program and sift through the 600+ blog entries I had missed.

I also decided to allow myself 20 (only 20?!) blogs that I read regularly. This meant I had to get rid of 73 blogs. You can imagine why I had to limit my intake.

How do you balance intake of internet stuff with writing? Do you give yourself limits? Do you find that other people's blogs help you write?

Since I'm back into blog reading now, I feel a lot more connected to the interwebz and will probably be posting more regularly. I've been trying to have a loose schedule of posting every Monday.

Keep writing everyone!

3 comments:

  1. Being a student, I am kept on a pretty tight schedule, so I really don't have much time for blog reading. I only have a few blogs I keep up with (yours being one of them), so I don't need to really cut back much. Do they help my writing? Hmmm, some do and some don't. It's hard to say, knowing that I sometimes subconsciously absorb information and apply it to my writing.

    What are your latest writing projects? Let me rephrase that. What area are you focusing on most in your creative writing (Ex: poetry, short stories, novels, etc.)

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  2. I'm glad blogs don't take up too much of your time, Gracia. I'm also honored that you take the time to read my posts. :)

    Right now I'm working on structure in one of my novels. I'm hoping to get the second draft done by the end of February.

    But as always, I keep my mind and heart open to ideas that can be set to poetry.

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  3. I'm a blog addict. I have to read blogs, and comment on blogs, and at least once a week - though I've been able do twice a week upon occasion - I have to post my own blog.

    I'm almost always surprised at my blog postings, because they just sort of hit me as relevant, and I do them.

    But for reading blogs I follow? Well, I take two or three days a week to catch up on all my followers blogs, the blogs I follow, and the one's I favorite. I dont' do everyone in a single sitting because I have too many I like.

    And I write on my own novel (sorry revise lately), and am beta reader for a couple friends. And I like to read for pleasure and watch TV sometimes.

    I have a day job, and can't dedicate too many hours to any one activity. So when I decide to read a blog, I read everything back to the date of the last remembered post. And I don't always comment on the blogs I visit, but I'm enlightened by the posts, and the comments if I have the time to read them all.

    For me, blogs are like having a few friends over. Only I'm the only one drinking the wine and eating the Ruffles chips and dip.

    So while I don't get the opportunity to read EVERYTHING I'd like to, eventually I catch up.

    Its like the newspaper; you read what's most important to you, skim articles you'd like to keep up on, and make a mental note to re-read things that caught your interest but you didn't have time to dwell on. You don't throw the paper away - likely you have an area you keep it in stacks - and at some point you take the time to read all the articles you missed.

    Or not, because they got so old you knew something new was out there.

    The scroll button is like a saved paper.

    But, if you miss it long enough, and it was really that good, chances are it will be either re-posted by the blogger, or touched on again by another favorite blogger later on. Some topics are just too essential to miss, and everyone - ahm, including yourself - will eventually want to gather their own research and post on the subject.

    Bloggers are gossipy Reesha, and cliquish. What you miss on one blog will likely be repeated 10 or 12 posts down the line on another.

    My priorities are work (day job, it pays the internet bill so I can blog), write my own stuff, blog. Blogging - following and posting - is essential, but has it proper place in the universe.

    What I learned from Reesha's blog post today: prioritizing isn't easy, and everyone needs a break.

    ........dhole

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