I Am A Lousy Blogger (just sayin')

I am incredibly impulsive. 

That limits my success as a blogger.

Blogging best practices are to stick with a single theme, idea, or topic and write consistently within those parameters. Recently I decided to go that route and began re-orienting my blog along those lines. That explains all the clothes posts for those of you who suddenly thought, “Huh. This is new. I’m not sure I care about clothes.” For those of you who enjoyed the clothes posts, I’m happy you did.

I made that decision quickly and ran into it headlong. I shared some of the thoughts from my recent writing and even let you in on my year-long project. I was so excited about it. I just wanted to share.

Here’s the problem: I don’t want to blog about clothes all the time. I spend between eight and twelve hours every week writing about clothes. I don’t really want to come up with something new for this space.

I know, I know… Why don’t I just post the stuff I’m writing? Well, honestly, because it’s not ready. I’m not ready. I need more time to digest what I’m studying and to sort through what I’m writing. A book about clothes may sound simple. But a book about clothes and God is not.

Bottom line—I like to write casually about random things to stretch myself as a writer. I do not and have never seen the blog as a place for finished writing (although I do see it as a place for mostly polished thinking). For me, blogging is an exercise.

When I tell people I’m a writer, I’m not really referring to the blog. It’s writing, sure, but it’s not my best work. It’s my workbook. It’s doodles in the margins of my musing. It’s a place to wander and sort. I don’t edit blog posts much. I don’t research for them. I just write stuff. 

I know of bloggers whose best work is their blog, who pour their creative energy into making it a platform and developing a community among their readers. That’s why they have thousands (or millions) of readers. Also, probably because they’re really great writers. :)

Part of this post is inspired by pride. Which is bad. But I’m writing it anyway because I feel some level of responsibility to my readers. I don’t have a baseball stadium’s worth of people reading this thing, but I do have a hundred or two of who drop in faithfully. To you I want to say, I’m sorry for yanking you around. I’m sorry for being distracted and inconsistent.

But, just so you know, I won’t ever be an every day, always-focused blogger. And now that you’ve been warned, I don’t have to feel guilty about it.

From now on, I will blog casually and freely.

I will write stuff. I’d love for you to read it.