Diesel wrote a book that has actually been published. Actually won’t be until next month I think, but can be pre-ordered.
Would be jealous but I like him. Diesel’s book is cleaned up essays from his blog. They are very funny.
My book has nothing to do with my blog so I have to give it my full attention. No blog posting for awhile. No reading blogs. No commenting. I have faced up to my blog addiction, and hope to make it manageable by September.
I have long believed that personal blogs should come with an expiration date.
This blog has had more than its share of successes. I purposely downplayed all the mainstream attention it has received because I was never in this to to be competitive.
It’s not a niche blog. It’s not written for the coveted 30 second attention span. It doesn’t purport to tell people how to do things or why they should be doing whatever. It’s not an image blog. There are many many things Courting isn’t. We’re not a humor blog, but we’re not a whiny one either.
It has been pointed out to me that I’m not a true blogger as I don’t moderate comments. I was a founder of a political blog, have helped people begin blogs–OK I usually send them to Doug, but I point them in the right direction, answer all comments, and sometimes edit posts, or give people the confidence to post. I think that all proves I’m a blogger.
I keep reading mainstream publications that put down blogging and bloggers.
Then why do they all have blogs?
Blogging is hot. Everybody and their grandmother has a blog. Every damn magazine and paper have blogs.
Instead of becoming a new medium that allows for experimentation and cream to rise, it’s just another way of recycling old info, and writers who have already made it.
It’s a medium for the coveted 30 second attention span. Yesterday I was reading a magazine that was touting its new web site. You can chose one from column A, one from column B, etc–all very quick and very healthy. It’s good to know that the old fashioned Chinese menu lives on.
It’s good to know that a medium that is ten years old this year is already entrenched with old media people in a new format.
It’s good to know that there are so many people who will happily tell you how to blog, how to find your niche and how to optimize search engine efficiency. I probably did the opposite of every single thing a blog on blogging will tell you to do, and I still rose to the “top.”
Courting will be three years old in August. I first realized that people actually read blogs that following November.
In blogging years we have been around for decades. And found an audience the first day we hit BE.If anybody wants BE credits, please email me. I don’t know who put so many in my account. I didn’t find that to be a wonderful gift.
Can I be real? Between all the social networks and other things, blogging’s becoming one huge popularity contest. I don’t Twitter. I tried unjoining Blog a Log but there was no opt out available. I find it disconcerting to see my picture in different blogs.
These options are fine for people who blog for a hobby, but for a writer it’s time consuming, tedious, and not worth my time.
“I follow,” “don’t follow,” can go crazy trying to find the code to link all people who comment. I’m sorry, only have BE credits if wanted for comment payment. Blogging linkage has reached absurd heights. That said, link to me–the old fashioned way, in blog rolls, if you like my blog. I was going to say mutual linkage is a good thing, and it is, but I no longer understand the game nor really care to learn it.
I don’t do Face Book or My Space. My niece gave up her account at twelve because she felt it was too Middle Schoolish, and she was in Seventh Grade.
Middle School was the worst experience of too many people’s lives. I won’t begin to go into all the blogging cliques etc.
I have never been a clique person, but always on the fringes of many. I like it that way.
I do know bloggers who were forced to give up their blogs because of gossip or nasty comments. I’m not big on comments because I did get so many hateful ones in the beginning. This fun, interactive experience became scary.
I’m not scared of dissenting points of views. I dislike people who put me down because I’m me. I fell too easily into defending myself, but I stopped.
I have never written to become popular and am not about to now.
I write because I love to write.
I have always thought of Courting as the Parker Posey of blogs. Independent, strong, and not wiling to sell out. Maybe, but the price has to be incredible; the rewards substantial.
I’m tired of everything blogging. Even on days I don’t post I do think about my blog. It overtakes other things in importance when it should be the least important thing.
I’m obsessive and blogging gives immediate gratification. I feel productive even when I’m being counter-productive.
I feel resentful when I’m supposed to prove my blogging worthiness over and over again, as more and more people begin who don’t know my blog.
I can’t and won’t do this. I don’t have the energy, the will or the want to become a “big” blogger all over again.
I’m not nuking my blog. I’m proud of it. It contains a lot of truly horrible posts, some mediocre posts and some truly great ones
I might post in it once a week. But I can’t be held to a schedule or to do the things that I have been doing. I actually put a lot into my fiction posts. I need that energy for other things.
I need to find the joy in blogging again. There isn’t any now. It feels like a gigantic chore, but one that I actually pay to do.
I need to feel free to say what I want to say and I always find myself holding back as I’m afraid of offending somebody or some cause or something. That doesn’t go for the US federal government.
There are archives that go back to 8/04. I actually wrote a poem. Nobody read my blog so I felt free to do whatever I wanted to do.
I haven’t been following its stats for a long time. Blogging stats are the most easily manipulated thing–and I speak as somebody with so called great stats.
I feel sad about blogging. It felt as if it were an amazing medium that would let people do what they enjoy the most and/or are good at.
I do believe that I’m a good writer.
Blogging gave me so much hope. It did allow me to believe in myself and to dare to dream. There were false starts. I care passionately about the quality of my writing. I was willing to start, stop, start, but…and then I had to blog.
Where once blogging felt so free, it now feels as if courses are given so most blogs will read the same.
A few people have read all or parts of my book. They will tell you, if prodded, that they were amazed by the differences. A blog isn’t a book. I have always known that. I have a dawg and I have a___. He will tell you, if asked nicely.
I haven’t been able to sit at a computer for twelve or more hours a day, seven days a week for awhile.
This makes me feel as if I’m a slacker. I’m not, but….
Recently I noticed how much of my life I was neglecting for my blog. It just feels so damn productive when it it’s anything but
I’m writing a memoir and it’s a good one. I can be found at the nearest Starbucks or Dean & DeLuca for the rest of the summer.
Pia
I’m not sure if I’ve ever left a coment on your blog before, perhaps a year or two ago, but again, I’m really not sure.
I have however run across it many times and have enjoyed some of your posts. I remember when I started blogging in 2004 yours was definitely one of the “big blogs” at the time and I enjoyed it.
Anyway, I do hope you don’t stop blogging completely, unless of course you just don’t want to anymore.
As for myself, I was never real big, although I admit that when I first started I was obsessed with getting “out there.” Now I just do it for fun, hardly get any readers and am quite content with that.
Anyway, good luck to you.
Since I have been blogging it has always been a popularity contest! I enjoy reading your blog (in the beginning at AOl we called them journals) and hope you continue on. I have been limiting myself to only 1 and 1/2 hr. daily on the internet. So far its been pretty cool, much more time for reading and wondering if I should get another job. lol…don’t want to, but must. My blog has suffered, but who cares! Take care and can naot wait to hear your book has been published!
Pia, It was inevitable as more people became aware of blogging that this would happen. I suggest just doing what you have always done. Doing what makes you happy and disregarding the rest.
The world will be one big blog one day, and you my friend would have been there at the start… will be there for some time yet.
I hope.
I too have been spending less time reading blogs and writing in mine. More out of necessity than anything else, because life does interfere at times.
It’s all good.
I started to copy things to comment on… and then realized how long my comment was going to be and stopped.
I hate the middle school clique of blogging. I don’t want to go back to middle school. I don’t want it to be a popularity contest. I just want a place to write, and see written words. And I think that deep down, that’s what you want, too.
Your book will be amazing when it’s done, Pia. And someday, you can get back to blogging if you want. Honestly though, you’ll probably be so busy having people ask YOU questions for interviews, you won’t have time 😉
Best of luck, Pia. I read your blog on occasion and I’ll probably check in occasionally to see if you’ve posted anything new. Perhaps if you take the time to step away from it a bit, you’ll be able to enjoy it more.
Take good care of yourself.
This was the best post of yours I’ve read so far. As someone who only started blogging last year, I can only dream of a world without Technorati and MyBlogLog. Hell, I even started my own blog directory (humor-blogs.com) because all the other directories I found sucked. There are so many “awards” and shout-outs and ads that it’s virtually impossible to tell what blogs are worth reading. That said, all of this crap is an unavoidable part of the landscape these days, and I just do my best to roll with it. I do feel some pressure to come up with good posts now that I’ve got a decent readership, but I’m still having fun with it. I hope you find your fun back. Maybe start another, anonymous blog?
I think that our blogs represent both more and less than what we really are. In that respect it will never capture for others the real “us”. It is an open diary but one that we color to suit our own purposes and ideas of what we want others to see. As far as making a profit from it, that’s not going to happen. I use my blog to help me focus on things that interest or annoy me in my life. Step back a little and look at why you are truly blogging and you will perhaps get a better handle on where your blog should be going. I blog for myself, not for others. I enjoy hearing from others but would be happy just knowing that there is a small piece of myself out there for people to discover some day.
AHH I found you! *links* I shall read all the time. YAY!
A stirring ovation, Pia. Blogging is great until it starts to feel like work but you pay them. One thing I’ve noticed is many, many bloggers after a year or so either quit or slow down and then many of them come back after a few months off. You’ve done well to hold out this long.
I would miss the Parker Posey of blogs, But I’m willing to let her see other people.
I love Parker Posey – I love Courting. But I also understand the feeling of trying to balance and how something previously done for joy of writing can turn into a chore. Especially in your case, and your book must take priority.
Count me as one who you sent to Doug. But not before encouraging and chatting and sharing – all spirred on by a very Pink cover story.
I’ll stop by for a latte when you need a break 🙂
It’s completely up to you whether you stop blogging or not, of course … but (IMO) it’s wrong if you give up writing altogether – something you seem to be so passionate about! Even if you only when you bloody-well feel like it and not for publication, keep writing – just for yourself! 🙂
Break free some more. Let’s see a poem tomorrow! – And I would love ANY additional BE credits you are tossing about. somacow on BE, if you feel so inclined.
Good read, as always.
I can relate to a lot of this post. Blogging does feel like work sometimes. I, too, am obsessive, so that I’m not relaxed until I have what I feel is a decent post published. And I’m only relaxed then for 24-48 hours.
I think you have to feel free to take a break once in awhile. We’ll be here when you return.
Sometimes I thinking blogging, for me anyway, is kind of like taking a bunch of useless electives in college. I’m going to class, I’m meeting girls, I don’t have to get a real job, yet it’s not getting me that much closer to what I really want.
On the other hand, I never would have rediscovered my love for writing had I not begun blogging. So maybe it’s a stepping stone.
I found your awesome blog via Blogexplosion!
Really great stuff here…
I bookmarked this.
I would really appreciate your opinion or comment via posting a comment on my blog if you get a spare moment 🙂
Hey! You rose to the top because you are obviously a great blogger. I don’t waste my time reading crap, thank you very much.. 😉 I really don’t.
My own blog just hit 3 years, and I think for a few seconds there I had a 3 year itch, but it passed. I see your blog, and my own, and several others I could mention, in a whole different class to most of the 30 second crowd. And you know that’s true. We have to do what we do, it’s not in our nature to say no to what is not just a passing fad, but a calling. Writing, for me, whether it’s a blog or not, is like breathing, even if the odds of a good post aren’t all that great against the fluff I post sometimes, it’s worth keeping up for those posts that I know are inspired, and deserve all the hits I get. For the fluff, oh well, you can’t win ’em all.. 😉
But I still can’t resist the magic of the randomness of it all. You just never know who might stop by, and what they take away as valuable.
Real writers write for themselves because they have something to say. We’d all love for an audience to react to it… some way. Even reacting poorly is bringing out some reaction in someone.
Freedom of speech and thought. You are the original patriot!
So I suppose the first question I have to ask is when you wrote this post, unless of course I missed it. How long have you been on an unofficial break? The reason I have to ask is not because I don’t care, but because I’ve been going through a blog lull, going through the motions type thing myself. Lately I’ve been posting out of obligation instead of expression- not a good thing. So I’m not abandoning it completely, but I have distanced myself quite a bit. I think it’s good to get away every now and again. Hope you’re doing well regardless!:)
Gee, now it looks like I was saying this was a great post because you pimped my book in it. Let the record show that you added that stuff later, and let it also show that I really appreciate it. Thank you!
I still love blogging, but I blog less.
“When I have nothing to say, my lips are sealed.
Say something once, why say it again?” -Talking Heads
Anyway, I’d like your BE credits if you are giving them away.
Please do not tell me my grandmother has a bog.
It’s good to take a break now and then. Blogging is one of those things that comes and goes. No need to apologize, just come back when you feel like it. Good to see you.