Monday, December 22, 2008

The Muffyoglb

There comes a time, with any endeavor, when I feel that I've said everything I want to say within certain parameters. Having set myself a goal of tone and style, and having laid down rules for my own behaviour, I have a blast for two or three years and then -- slowly -- my enthusiasm wanes. That's how I felt with the Bollybob reviews and with the old She-Devils radio show.

Unfortunately that's also how I've begun to feel about "The Muffyblog."

When I started the blog I unconsciously chose the approach of writing first-person, experience-based posts in an almost "essay" style. I'd just started my technical writing job and, perhaps influenced by it, I tried to stay away from fanciful things, unfinished ideas, or just plain fantasy.

When I DID write inscrutable posts I fell afoul of my OTHER rule, one more consciously-decided: to respond to EVERY SINGLE COMMENT that anybody left for me. I wanted to be warm and friendly and welcoming. But whenever somebody asked me "what did you MEAN by that?" I felt the need to answer their question, even though I feel that inscrutable posts should NOT be explained.

In addition, I felt that I couldn't just respond to a comment by saying simply "Thanks!" or "I agree," I needed to write MEANINGFUL responses, which became increasingly difficult the more informal the comments were. In short, I felt I needed to write mini-essays to comments that the person probably didn't even expect a RESPONSE to, let alone one that was interesting or entertaining or meaningful.

As my mailbox filled with notifications of comments posted I grew increasingly avoidant. If I didn't meet a quota of at least one post for every day of the month, I felt like I was failing. And I had that nagging, familiar feeling that there were no more posts left in my head because I'd already said everything I'd wanted to.

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The idea of "The Muffyoglb" is a liberation from this. It's a subtle change of philosophy. Rather than needing to write sociological studies of every experience in my life -- and not posting them until I've thought them through to some extent -- "The Muffyoglb" will be a spot for me to post what I feel like posting. I'm sure there will be unconscious rules for what I've posted -- that's inevitable -- but at least they'll be different rules, and hopefully more inspiring to me.

As for the comments, that's where the CONSCIOUS change is: I have promised myself that I no longer need to respond to them. I still crave them, and I'll read every single one of them, and if there are some that I want to answer then I definitely will...but I'll no longer NEED to. Comments will foremost be reader-created addendums to posts, if any are made.

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Thank you for reading "The Muffyblog" and "The Muffyglob" over the last few years! Maybe "The Muffyoglb" will be exactly the same, or maybe it will go totally stagnant, but either way I feel like a weight has been removed from my back...and that's a good thing for me. It's probably a good thing for the blog as well!

7 comments:

Kimber said...

Hey, I'm just glad you've decided not to abandon bloggerland completely. I have to admit, I was in withdrawal there for a few days when there were no posts and no responses to our comments...but I completely understand your new approach. Can't wait to read more of the yoglb! And I hope you still visit me in bloggerland as well.
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Anonymous said...

does a shift in focus necessarily need a remaning?

Anonymous said...

umm, renaming

Anonymous said...

I thought that the whole blogging process was a totally free-form thing anyway. Setting rules for yourself, while providing guidance, shouldn't act as a hindrance to the creative process.

In other words, carry on!

Syd said...

Cool! I wonder why you never became a writer, you obviously have a talent with words, and your lyrics are usually poems.

Anonymous said...

Muffy,

I am enjoying the new posts that you have placed on your blog recently. However, there does not seem to be a way to reply to them. (Yes, I read this post about the changes that you were making. It seemed to imply that reader replies would still be welcome.)

Is this omission of a reply link a technical glitch, intentional, or did I just miss something? Please advise in an upcoming blog.

Many thanks.

Syd said...

Yeah! I wanted to comment on some things.. cool that you're learning bass, can you show us a picture of it? What kind is it?

If comments are gone that's sad, but I understand. Hopefully it's a glitch.