Thirty days has September,
April, June and November...
Was it really thirty days? Now it's over it feels like fewer - and yet it was certainly more than I expected.
I estimate it took me somewhere between sixty and ninety hours to write a blog post every day in November - mostly in the evenings, seldom taking less than two hours, more usually three. I write slowly, constantly revising and reading aloud what I have composed; adding links, further editing and replying to comments took another hour a day.
But I enjoyed it: the hours at the computer, the time to myself, the planning and researching, and the interest shown by my family. By declaring a commitment I had more motivation to see me through and more support too. 'Leave your Dad alone, he's doing his blog,' was a regular call from the kitchen.
There was much that I missed as I sat here: my hundredth post, twenty years since I moved in with Jane (she forgot too) , bonfire night parties, Strictly Come Dancing... so no loss there, then! But there was also much that I found: new words, new themes, new readers - and a little more knowledge of what works and what doesn't.
In my first piece of the month I wrote about the tension between quality and quantity. I said I hoped to experiment... be prepared to make a muck of it – fail spectacularly if necessary. I don't think I quite achieved that, but I hope I made some progress and made the Bike Shed more distinctive in its way.
I said too that I wanted to use the blog as preparation for the final module of my degree - it begins in January and I have submitted a proposal for my assessments to be based on the writing I produce here. If it is accepted, you can watch and share in my progress.
I have long felt that the writing establishment underestimates the potential of blogs - indeed, I've written about it here, arguing there is an element of snobbery to it. So I was pleased to learn that the Open College are encouraging students to start a blog as a learning journal. We bloggers are making progress; slowly slowly...
A bit like Views From The Bike Shed. After more than 120 posts it has grown from a throwaway notion into something I value highly - enough to spend the equivalent of two working weeks in November writing for it.
Earlier today I checked my blog archive. I was surprised to find that my first post was published on 2 December 2007 - happy birthday tomorrow! I also looked twice at the first words - in one of one's life's amazing coincidences they were:
Where did November go? I seem to have missed it this year.
Being relatively new to the whole blogging process, I have yet to fully work out what I am doing...what I am really doing! At first, it was the opportunity to extravert my many thoughts to unknown receivers and see what happened. Now I think it consolidates my thinking and the feedback I get helps me develop more thoughts. I think I might explode.
ReplyDeleteI am certainly enjoying your blog.
I wss impressed by the constant high standard of your posts - not to mention the width and breadth of the subject matter. Coming up with 30 blog posts in 30 days is no mean feat of inspiration...!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Steve. Would it have been cheating just to blog: It's Thursday and it's raining? It sounds a lot tougher than Nanowrimo.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments on my blog, as you no doubt guessed im a complete noob to this, it will be a while till I try the 30 posts in 30 days, I'd forget on day 29, but well done, got to admire a man who sticks to his guns :)
ReplyDeleteAll the best for your degree course. I look forward to sharing in the fun.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary for your blog..... although I haven't always commented, this usually through a lack of anything I considered to be useful/intelligent/interesting/humorous, I have read them and marvelled at your ability to write with such diversity and regularity.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the title of this one, I completely misread it as NOPROBLEMO.... good job the reminder came from the optician today then!
How did I miss this whole Nabroplomoo (or whatever it's called) thing? That would have been easy for me - I wrote about 27 posts without trying particularly hard. Instead, I committed to a 50,000 word novel in the same month I quit my job and set myself up as a freelancer. Not surprising it never really happened... Well done, although I only found your blog about two days ago, I like what I've read so far!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job blogging through the month, every entry interesting, tremendous variety, but all with your firm, understated style which reinforces the points you make.
ReplyDeleteHurrah Mark - you did it and you should really feel proud of yourself. I feel a bit ashamed that my blog posts take me about ten minutes to knock out - I don't prepare them really - something comes over me and I just open that good old 'new post' page.
ReplyDeleteMy OU tutor encouragesher studentss to have a blog, but we are told not to put any TMA pieces on to it before we have had them marked - the OU plagiarism software will spot that they have been published on the internet and will ring warning bells.
I love the thought of the boys being told not to disturb you whilst you are blogging - I can just imagine them telling their friends proudly 'my dad's a blogger'! (and a darned fine one at that)
Congratulations. I am impressed I had aspirations of writing every day but have gone down to about three times a week now
ReplyDeleteKate xx
http://secretofficeconfessions.blogspot.com/
Blogging can involve the use of hundreds of paragraphs and phrases, but only a few words can some up the ability to enable others to feel something special.
ReplyDeleteYou have that ability... tenfold.
I am so impressed that you have managed to do a blog post a day for a month!! That is some achievement!! (I've not managed to read all of them but rest assured I shall come back and read them when I have a bit more free time!)
ReplyDeleteYour Uni stuff sounds very interesting...I look forward to hearing more about it!!
Happy Blogiversary
C x
Well done Mark! Thank you as ever for making comments on mine. Good luck with all your endeavours. I enjoy reading your blog and all of your writing.
ReplyDeleteOn the down side, it seems we now have to wait longer between your thoughtful posts.
ReplyDelete