Why I am bad at blogging.

Slate's got a short guide to blogging, with tips from the experts, that lets me know pretty much what I am doing wrong here.

Here's the headings, and my thoughts:

Set a schedule. Blog often. - I've been aiming for a monthly average of a post a day since June, with one or two longer (i.e. sort of substantial) bits each week. Since I can get compulsive about this kind of thing, this can mean frivolous posts at the end of the month. But I'll try to resist, and just go short if I have to, like I did in August.

Don't worry if your posts suck a little. - I assume that they do. I can't sustain rants. I try to err on the side of brevity, hoping that I can clear things up in the comments if I need to. Some folks can churn out the big rants, but I don't have that skill. I get tired after a few hundred words.

Write casually but clearly. - Been working on this. I've found two clear benefits from trying to keep this blog going. One is that it seems to have helped my writing, but I'm not the best judge of that. The other is that I've new got a searchable list of articles and quotes that I found interesting during the past year.

Add something new. - Ah, here's the big trouble. I just can't maintain my interest in the news cycle. I'm hoping that in the next year I can point to interesting North Carolina happenings that may be new to the rest of the world. But I lack that stock of opinions that the best bloggers draw on; I'm undecided on too many big issues. I've got two or three things that I've resolved never to write about here, and there's a number of others where I just don't have anything to say. Sorry about that.

Join the bloggy conversation. And link! - I am not a very good commenter. I like to ask questions, but my normal reaction to things I disagree with is not, “here's twenty reasons why you're wrong,” but rather, “hmm, that's interesting.” But linking—that's fun to do.

Don't expect instant fame. - I sure don't. The best I can hope for is to find a few interesting people who like things that I like. I've really enjoyed following J.L. Wall's musings on Walker Percy and on religion, and Josh/Moff is fantastic on science fiction and on McLuhan. I'm also glad that Helen's starting things back up on her old blog.

Anyway, to those who read me, thanks for reading. To those I read, thanks for doing a good job, even if you don't read me back, and thereby miss out on seeing my gratitude.