Sunday, July 28, 2013

What I learned from short post week

Yesterday the frankly wild week known as "Short Post Week" ended after I think about 25 posts. I had mixed feelings about it all, but now that it's over I can look back and reflect upon what I learned. Thus:


What I learned from short post week and from writing 25 blog posts in one week:


1. Even my short posts tend to run on a bit.
2. Three short posts are usually way more work than one longer post, for everyone involved.
3. Wheat is easily lost in chaff.
4. Editing is not necessarily a sin.
5. The blog is a high art form, challenging and beautiful, like poetry or attempting to set Guinness world records.
6. Though even my most complimenting readers never say "If only you would post more frequently" I can rest assured I stamped out that imaginary problem.
7. Can I say that thing about editing again?
8. If it's short post week you can stop the second you can't think of what to say and it's totally hilarious.
9. Though my posts are presented in a narrative, sequential pattern, that is not so much how my readers encounter them, thus short post week makes my blog look winningly cubist!
10.. I will probably never have another short post week again but will occasionally have short posts out of a feeling of nostalgia and just to sort of show off that I know how to do it now.

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I respond to all comments, but there was a year or so near the start of clerkmanifesto when I hadn't figured out quite how to respond, so didn't. But after that time, whenever I encountered an old comment unresponded to, I responded, even though it seemed quixotic, and likely to never be seen. Every time I see one of these old comments not responded to I think "surely this will be the last of them", and maybe this one is, maybe it isn't. Seven and a half years have gone by. The person who wrote this died and I miss him.

      This is my response to him anyway.

      Maybe all time is one. If so he is also alive somewhere, and I am seeing him haul a boat over the Point Reyes Dunes of grass, or watching him walk towards me for the first time, his hair tied back in a Colonial bow.

      Here we are: We have never been born, then we are long dead, we are old, and young and the universe forgot us and we are the world. All at once, from every angle.

      Thank you for your comment mdnez. Heart to you too.

      Delete

If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.

I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!

One last detail: If you are commenting on a post more than two weeks old I have to go in and approve it. It's sort of a spam protection device. Also, rarely, a comment will go to spam on its own. Give either of those a day or two and your comment will show up on the blog.