In the past few months, the whole blogging vs. job that pays me money argument has taken up a considerable amount of room in my thoughts. Granted, my thoughts usually revolve around hockey, Chipotle and if I can get away with another day of not shaving my legs.
What brought about this internal argument was a career change. I recently started a new job that has long hours, lots of travel (to weird places with no hockey teams) and is 100% consuming of my time at work. The perk to my old job was that while some days were high stress, I still had time during the day to read hockey blogs, comment on them, and post on Capital Addiction, even if just on my lunch hour. My weekends are typically spent away from the computer so I dont have much time to post then either.
The question I have been struggling with is what makes a good hockey blogger (who posts the most?), and how do you assauge your guilt over not tending quite as diligently to your blog as you may have in the past? Or in other words, how the heck do I have a crazy job, season tickets to the Caps, soemthing of a social life, and still find time to be a good hockey blogger?
To give some perspective to this argument, I'll note here that I used to post about 1-2 day at least. Currently, I am lucky to post 2 times a week on my blog.
I still dont have all the answers, but in thinking about this, I've come to a few conclusions. Yes, I would love to be paid to write about hockey all day. But I'm not, people still pay attention to John Buccigross more then me, and I have to pay the rent, so life goes on. I havent found a solution to the guilt I feel over leaving my blog without new content for days at a time (the closest feeling I can compare it to is feeling like a bad mommy). My hockey blog is incredibly important to me, definitely not as much as a child, but it remains a fulfilling part of my life.
I've also realized that if I forced myself to post as much as I used to, the consequence would be poorer quality of posts, not to mention some growing resentment towards something that was a valued hobby. As much as I would like to post at least 30 times a month, perhaps its better that I write 15 good posts a month?
As I mentioned, I dont have all the answers on this one. As hockey bloggers who are also mothers, students and career jugglers, many of us are facing this same struggle. I imagine that some hockey bloggers out there, male or female, might be facing the same internal struggle and guilt, so I thought I would share my thoughts on this.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The hard line
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4 comments:
I'm with you, Shmee. I, too, juggle full time employment and family, and I just started my blog. The key - I share the blog with two other people (one being Kerri from hlog). It spreads the responsibility out while allowing you more time for non-blogging stuff. It might help if you find a partner in crime for your blog.
Just a suggestion.
Write for yourself, your audience won't desert you.
Sometimes I just can't do it... the boys have put me in severe depression and I can't bring myself to put the spotlight on their boo boos, or I am tired, or sick, or busy...
I just mostly try for every other day and if I have nuthin... well then thats that. Occasionally I have to beat the guilt back w/ a whip n chair but it gets easier to go with a pattern as time goes on.
Pick something.. 'i will write something every 2 days' might be a good starting point... unless something totally mag happens in between of course.
Shmee, I feel your pain!
Some days it's like there's a war going on between my job, paying attention to Hockey (he's my boyfriend, y'know), trying to have a social life and a few other occasional commitments.
At the start of the season, I worked really hard to not let any more than three days go by without posting something. These days, I'm fitting it in where I can and when the inspiration hits. (Because there really wasn't much to write during that 10-game losing streak other than "Argh! Not again!")
If you have a core of readers who appreciate your take on the Caps sitch, I believe they'll stick around for it.
And in response to the question you asked: I'm a quality over quantity girl. However, I do freely admit to placing "filler" posts that do nothing other than sum up my gut reaction to games when I'm just not my normal, creative, insightful self.
Rambling over!
Don't sweat it Shmee. Most bloggers know how you feel. I (divorced daddy) have a daughter (and dog) to take care of and work six days a week. I also have a broken computer at home, so I have to run back to work after games or whenever I want to post something. I know I could do so much more and so much better, if I just had the time. But, I don't.
Ultimately, the blog thing is for you. You don't really owe anybody anything. Not as long as you aren't getting paid for it. Think of your readers as friends if you like. But, they're not your close friends. Should you feel bad about not catching up with friends you aren't really that close with, every day? I don't think so. That's just asking way too much. Do it at a level you can afford. More importantly, do it at a level you can enjoy!
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