Sunday, January 25, 2009

Where Do They Find The Time?


Blogging is hard. Well really, its the keeping up with that takes the effort. If you're like me - on the work/kids schedule - you know that time is always at a premium. As I read through my list of usual blogs I wonder where the authors find the time to write their long, rambling discourses three or four or more times a week. It baffles me. What else do they do all day, to, you know, earn money?

Coming up with subjects for blog posts is never a problem for me. I have no end of half baked scribbles in the queue. Some of them are just titles. No, its finding the time to finish them. It takes me hours, sometimes days, to write a post, all depending on the thought. I can write paragraphs on the way to organizing an idea, only to find later that most of what I've written doesn't follow and I have to start over. Or I forget something. Or I add too much detail.

Then there's the distractions. So far this morning I've had to settle at least a dozen arguments, redirect and give comfort, judge artwork, attend a play, go to the store, relocate our wandering washing machine, clean out the furnace. And this is Sunday - you know, the day of rest.

Then there's the sitting down to do it. This blogging thing is voluntary, right? Sometimes I just don't feel like it. I like to be sure I have something to say rather than filling up space. But that's not what blogging really is, is it?

I also take that stuff from english class very seriously. I mind my dangling participles and my gerunds and my run-on sentences. Every now and then I can turn a pretty cool prepositional phrase. I should have slept through all that like the rest of my classmates, but I couldn't. I'll write and rewrite until it reads just right (the word processor was the one of the best things to ever happen to me). I continue the rewrites even after I've given up and published the post anyway, sometimes for days after it appears on the blog. There's always some little detail.

I'm lucky its snowing out today, otherwise I'd be off in some far-flung corner of the city running errands or riding my bike. As it is, the kids are in Snow Mode: alternating playing in the snow with thawing in the kitchen over snacks and an art project. We'll probably end up at the City Museum today which means I'll have to get organized and pack it up, putting my thoughts on hold once again.

So tell me: where do these people find the time? Maybe if I learn the secret I'll be a blogging wizard - a publishing marvel, and it'll look like I get paid to do this. Possibly? Nah...

2 comments:

Jane said...

You don't like my run-on sentences???!!!!

Sam Sylar said...

yours are beautiful!