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Quitting?! Me? Never. Okay, so it crossed my mind. Then I realized that in hard times we don't quit, we adapt. Over the past week I've been doing some assessing of my own goals and have taken a hard look at what I've accomplished. I also got some great feedback from readers, which I'll share with you since it mostly came off-board.
My dear friend Amanda had some great ideas about formatting:
Hey David,
I was just reading your post today, and I have a suggestion that I thought might help. Maybe it's not the length of the post that's keeping people from reading, but the way it's presented? It reminded me of what job coaches tell you about a resume - you only have a few seconds to sell yourself; no one wants to read a block of text, they want bullets and titles that stand out so they can see what you're about at a glance. There's one blog that I frequent (http://www.facebook.com/l/29918;zenhabits.net) that takes advantage of his reader's short attention span by doing just this. Here's an example: http://www.facebook.com/l/29918;zenhabits.net/2009/09/the-habit-change-cheatsheet-29-ways-to-successfully-ingrain-a-behavior/#more-4644
Les Edgerton wrote in with this bit of wisdom:
Hey David,
I just wanted to comment on your post about cutting back on your blog. My thought when I see a blog that comes out as regular as your does is, "When does he ever have time to do his own writing?" A good example is a couple of weeks ago, I was gabbing with agent Don Maass and we were talking about Nathan Bransford and his daily blog. We both wondered when the heck did he find time to do any agenting. Well, he does and he's a great agent and somehow finds the time, but I just know I started a blog once and had to quit fairly soon into it as it was eating great chunks of my available writing time up. I think if you post, say once a week, you'd find it worked better for you. I had a similar problem years ago when I was a hairstylist. I'd talk about the novel or whatever I was working on all day long to clients and when I got home at night found I wrote very little. The reason? I was "writing" all day long when I was talking to my clients! Since I figured that out, I quit talking to anyone about what I was working on, including my wife. That helped a ton. Hey, if you think this will help anyone, please feel free to post it on your blog. I just can't figure out how to do that!
BTW, I really enjoy your postings!
And my writing mom, Viki, had this to say:
First of all, a lot of the stuff you've written here has been tremendously helpful to MY writing. There have even been a few of those "coincidences" that what you've written DIRECTLY speaks to an issue I'm having with my story, or my process, or even my motivation for writing at all! So, for me, your blog has often helped me get back to a writing mojo....& it has also made me smile & then laugh out loud. AND, I have quoted it to many writing friends.
And cos of that, I'm probably not truly objective. But that's okay too. Inspiration & direction is subjective, and your blog has provided both for me. I don't think you need to change a thing about it. (so sue me!)
That said, & purely for the sake of trying to at least offer SOME kind of suggestion: Would it be feasible to decide on one subject/thought/theme for each week, then write about it over 3-5 days? Each post building on the last to a conclusion? Giving you an opportunity to expound? Is this a way of telling you that there have been many times that I wanted more? Yeah.
What I learned
Formatting: I need to spend more time on it
Time: I don't have it
Loyalty: Just because some folks are forced to take a break doesn't mean they aren't coming back and I should be here when they return
Length: It's the length of my posts that's killing me
Goals: My main goal is to write and publish, but I'm spending a good chunk of my writing time putting together posts
Comments: Sometime in the near future I might have to abandon this blog theme for one that is better about comments
Friends: I've got a lot of great people out there that love and support me and I appreciate all of them
And the Verdict Is:
I'm going to keep the same format. Five days a week, extras on the weekends if the mood strikes me. The difference is going to be in length. Rather than struggling to put together four fully developed posts, I'll have small thoughts like yesterdays for three of those days and then one post a week will be a well developed article, complete with formatting, witty headings, and pictures. It's all that extra stuff that I try to put into the articles to make them easier on the eyes that really eats away at time.
This should free up time for both you and me to get our writing done. You won't be trying to wade through long posts, and I won't be spending all my time writing them.
Did I miss anything? If so, and you weren't able to comment before, you're always welcome to drop me a line and share your thoughts. If there's something you'd like to see more or less of, say so. After all, it's the feedback that I get from you guys that makes this all worth while.
Hope everyone's lives are getting a little less complicated and that you're finding adequate time for your writing.
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During my break from writing, I still needed to get some form of artistic expression out. Instead of picking up one of my previously developed artistic veins, I ventured into a new one with my wife. We've gone into photography! I know, I know, here we go again, right? Well, one great thing about this new venture is that my wife and I get to do it together.
The choice at that point was either to try and keep struggling on with everything else even though I wasn't 100% or just stopping altogether. I guess it was kind of like being sick. Doctors don't usually prescribe that you stop doing one thing but continue doing everything else when you're laid up with swine flu. They tell you to sit your ass in bed and don't get up until you're better. Well that's just what I did, only I did it mentally. And you know what, I think it worked. I feel much better now. 
