In April I wondered if I could, or would, resurrect this blog. I assumed then I should, and maybe I still think so. I don’t know.
Since then I have tried to bring it back. Stephen King describes his muse as basement-dweller. I can relate. I tried. In fits and starts, but mostly feel like I have stalled. Sweeping out a place in the basement for that flabby louse has been more of a chore than I bargained for. I will take King at his word and keep at the grunt labor in part because I, too, am stubborn. Stubborn and hard-headed and determined. I also remember what it was like to gin up posts like the Scoville precis, the Lipscomb bibliography, or even the lighter Foakes Jackson vignette. So even if sometimes I don’t think I can, I think I will keep at it in case I should resurrect it.
In April I lamented the challenge of making time to read and write. Beginning more or less the following week, I did something about it: I carved out one day per week to read and write. My colleague Amanda was so kind and helpful as we worked through the logistics. And most all of that work went right into the dissertation, specifically in trying to gain a foothold in historiography. Some days I spent in other research projects, and some days I spent reading and preparing for my archival work. In April I expected some of that reading to bubble up or otherwise make its way here. It hasn’t, but I still consider it progress.
In November I decisively excised myself from social media. I was not ever a heavy user, so cutting it out meant cutting out only Facebook. I have a post drafted about it. I keep tweaking it and I still don’t think it is worth posting. But…but…cutting even this little thing out has given me some more clarity. Writing remains quietly needy, and this step has helped me say ‘no’ to lesser things and thereby tend the writing fires.
I will also say that I followed Ray Bradbury’s advice and wrote some crappy things. I came close to posting most of them here. But having got them out of my system, I found that much was enough to scratch the itch. So I deleted the drafts. The Facebook post might well be another one that gets deleted. I can’t say yet. But the point is, I got it out and the getting-it-out cleared some mental cobwebs. I consider that another step in the right direction.
Making time to read and write, and read and write, and trying to be disciplined, and patient, and consistent. That pretty much sums up my efforts toward this blog in 2021.
I closed my April post thusly:
I have no other plans than that. I can’t say how often, or what I might write about. Perhaps I might do some book reviews. And they might be reviews of old books. Or reviews of articles. Or drafts of research ideas? Or little side lines that I slice from research papers? Scraps from the cutting room floor? Who knows? I guess we’ll find out together.
Turns out I did more or less just that. Lots of quotes. No reviews, really, although I have not forgotten about reviewing Robert McKenzie’s little book. The big takeaway is progress comes in small steps on my own terms. I still want to do it and perhaps the doing of it will prod that muse? May be. This paragraph still stands as to what I hope I might do in 2022.
Blogging, for me as a writer, was a lot of fun 15 years ago. It was a ‘pull market’. Post something to pull your readers in. It was a new thing and it was fun. Social media and podcasting seems to have sapped a lot of energy from the blogosphere. Seems like social media took a cue from the ‘send me notifications’ functionality and finessed the ‘push system’ where you generate your content then push it to your readers. Readers become much more passive in the reception of content, and much more active in banal methods of responding (the ‘like’ button, and worse, the other stupid emojis). The rise of diverse platforms from Facebook to Instagram to YouTube to Pinterest to whatever the newest thing is this afternoon all seem to have contributed to the overall demise of blogging. I glanced through a few of the blogs I regularly followed years ago and most of them seem totally defunct. In a sense it is easier to talk on a podcast or YouTube. I guess Twitter scratches some other kind of itch. Likely so. I don’t know that it helps with precision. I’m certain it doesn’t always add quality. Maybe that is why I find it more difficult, post-social media, to generate substantive content on a blog. On one hand, the readership here has flagged so I genuinely wonder if the effort is worth it for a small readership. On the other, maybe blogging is so Luddite by comparison I now have to come back, even if only to protest? I wouldn’t doubt it.
Yet the readership keeps coming precisely because of what I posted years ago. It is difficult for me to avoid what seems clear: that what I post, for whomever finds it, is meaningful to them. It seems someone is looking for it, and find it here.
Here are the top ten posts of 2021:
And here are where 5400+ hits from 2900+ users came from:
Here are the top countries:
Still and all, 128,000 total views far surpasses anything I could have expected or dreamed of 15 years ago. I don’t do this for the numbers, if I did I would have filled the blog with click bait and shameless self-promotion. There is plenty much of that out there as it is. Plenty much indeed. I have tried to do something other than that. If you enjoyed any of it, please accept my thanks for stopping by. Maybe we can do some more of it in 2022.
eScriptorium 