To Blog or Not to Blog

I'm back.  The Christmas cards have been sent out, the gifts which had to get into the mail have been mailed.  We made gingerbread and discovered that Baby Girl is truly a daddy's girl, liking the icing more than the gingerbread man.  We are still all sick but it's an annoying sick, not a worried sick as it was when The Dude had a fever.

Ann D. wrote a great piece on Why She Blogs.  I've been talking to the same reporter (who I'm sure will refer to me as Suzy Schizophrenic as I was all - No, I've never received a bad comment, No, I don't take things personally, No, I don't feel pressure to blog).  I've had my little sulk and dusted myself off. 

But in my brief hiatus, I thought about a few things related to blogging.  When I first started to blog, nobody read me.  And so I felt really free to write whatever was on my mind.  Politics, shopping, Lindsay Lohan.  Whatever.

But then, I started being read.  The Mom Show was interested in taking pieces from my blog.  A documentary producer was interested in some of the content.  Some other websites started to pick me up.  A publishing person indicated a preliminary interest in my stuff.  People I knew, in real life, were reading.  And then there were the emails and the comments. 

Suddenly, I became Very Aware of what I was writing.  I felt a certain pressure to write regularly.  And to write thoughtful, researched pieces. 

I'm intense and extreme and when I find a new hobby, it tends to consume me.  Case in point, when I went through a big Solitaire playing phase a few years back, I started to see the world in its red-black-red-black terms.  If there were two blondes sitting beside a brunette, I'd get agitated if the brunette was not sitting in the middle.  I know, it's a problem.

And, I love the nice things people say.  I think that the comments function on blogs is so important in helping to foster community.  And I like the thoughtful debate which can occur.  But, not everyone plays by the rules.  I see my blog like a sort of home and although I invite people in and encourage conversation, I'm always a little shocked when someone stomps in in their muddy boots and announces that they hate what I've done with the decor.  I debated in college.  I'm used to Roberts Rules of Order being applied.  A certain degree of couthness to accompany the mud-slinging.

But I need to toughen up.

I don't know how one writes as if no one is reading.  I know that some writers claim that they don't bare the reader in mind.  That their writing is internally driven and when it's done, they put it out there into the world and don't really care how its interpreted.

That's so not me.  But, I'm gonna try.

So I've decided to try to go back to blogging lite.  Not every day.  When the mood strikes.  When I have something to say, even if that something is just about Kate Moss or a new brand of chocolate bar...

Did I mention that my J. Crew purses are coming?  After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing.  Oh yes, a Parker bag and a leather tote are en route.  Whoo hoo!   

Comments

[Linsey]

You're back and all is well on my computer. It was my little piece of "me" time before I returned to the insanity that has become my life.
Have a wonderful Christmas Jen.

[Danigirl]

I'm very glad your hiatus was short-lived. It's a drag when blogging becomes like working, but so long as the good days outnumber the bad, I think I'll keep at it, too. And while I love your serious, carefully constructed essays, I think I love the blogging-lite posts best.

[Running2Ks]

You rock, and you should blog any way that makes you happy. Wise people have said that blogging is optional. So, make your home, and invite whomever you want. I'll bring cookies :)

[Diana]

I'm so glad to see you back! I agree w/ Ann too - I have loved everything you've written and have a lot of respect for you as a blogger - you really have put some important issues "out there".

Enjoy the purses! :)

[ceebee]

YAY!!! So glad to see you back!
I agree with Ann... I love reading anything you've written ~ from the lite to the very deep... please don't stop!!!

oh, and so glad to hear your purses are en route ;D

[Katie]

YAY!! I love this blog, read it every day.
Katie

[Andrea]

Glad to have you back!

Readership is like the big pink elephant in the room of blogging. No one wants to admit that they care about it, but it seems to mess with everyone's head on a regular basis. I have no advice, really, except that if people started reading you when you were doing "blogging lite," then it must have been pretty good, no?

[Karen Rani]

This seems to be a popular thing that some bloggers are going through. I say write when you feel like it - otherwise it sounds forced....but I love your writing, so please, just don't stop!

[Ann D]

I have always loved reading anything you've written -- on politics, purses, playgroups, preschools, potties, PPD, and pretty much everything in between. I love your writing style and I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for who you are as a person and a blogger. So post when you want to post and let MUBAR be a no-guilt, no-pressure zone from this point forward. XO