There’s a big transition coming up for me with this blog. I have no intention of ceasing blogging, but I do realize that I need to more effectively husband my time. Though most of my posts, even the longest ones, are written in minutes rather than hours, in my new life as a father those minutes are more at a premium than ever. I’ll be on another hiatus this week — spring break — though I will be posting reprints of old posts (2004-2007) every day; starting April 27, I’ll be putting up one-two new posts a week. I have other writing projects to which I need to devote myself.
When W.H. Auden was asked by a Michigan graduate student “What can I do to become a better poet?”, he replied (this may be apocryphal) “Stop keeping a journal or writing long letters.” What Auden explained was that we do our best writing from pent-up thoughts and feelings; if we release that tension in diaries, for example, we might miss out on the chance to do some first-rate work. I am no Auden, and I am no poet. But if I want to write something that gets published somewhere other than on my blog, I need to be willing to give a bit more time to that project. This blog will continue, and fresh writing will appear here regularly — but it might just be once per week.
I saw this coming. I do think it is the right choice, but I will miss daily new Hugo in my morning blogroll.
Like jennyfields, I’ll miss the frequent posting, but I also see that this makes perfect sense. Best wishes to you and your family, and best of luck with your offline writing projects!
Ummmmmm….the link for the ‘feminist cat lady’ post doesn’t work….
You do what you have to. I miiiiiight be able to survive on 1 new post a week. Judging from the responses to your old ones, you can decide how many of those you want to resurrect each week.
I find keeping a private journal helps me put my thoughts into words better, and probably doesn’t hurt the quality of my public output, but you decide what works the best for you.
I respect your desire to spend more of your time and energy on your family, and will look forward to new posts when you have the time to share them.
Also? I completely agree with Auden. I used to do a lot of writing before I started keeping blogs and, at one point, I noticed that the more I blogged, the less “real” writing I did.