(-790 words, a five minute read)

There’s nothing like having a good rest from blogging to make you think about what your blogging life should be like.

I’ve been musing for the past three weeks – between Christmas family warmth and New Year’s ‘Auld Lang Syne’ – about the nature of blogging and why we do it. Reading others’ similar reflections has been instructive.

The new year is a good time to consider such ‘housekeeping’, though, apparently, a bad time to physically clean the house. The Christmas break is just that: a chance to step outside of the blogcadian rhythms that govern us – pretty sternly if other writers’ observations are anything to go by; and there is no finer source of feedback than one’s peers.

What we produce will determine how we go about it. I’ve created several self-published books (Amazon), but most of them were done in the early and heady days of the Silent Eye. Sue Vincent was our nominated ‘publisher’ and all one had to do was send her the MS and await international fame. She is missed… as is the international fame.

So, equipped with a new technique of ‘personal inquiry’, I sat down and let it flow… Looking deep for the reasons behind the reasons.

In no particular order, this is what came back.

1. I write because I want to. It feels good to write; but I also know when I’ve written something good and sometimes, not so good. The problems come when it’s late at night and I realised the confused 1500 word ramble I’ve just spent five hours editing is not sufficient…

2. It’s a creative discipline – and good things come from such focus. Rhythm carries energy with it, which flows in cycles – like tides. As in the old adage “A tide taken at the flood leads on to fortune…” Looking back on my time as a blogger, I feel good that I’ve kept my nose to the grindstone for a considerable length of time. But that adds weight to the need to review what I do and how I do it. Simply ‘carrying on’ sidesteps what could be a wonderful opportunity for a personal refining process.

3. This is a big one: blogging keeps us in a community of fellow bloggers. Not all may be book writers, some may be happy with a life producing their own ‘magazine’ on a regular basis. If so, this further emphasises the importance of a regular cycle of publication. For me, the idea that blog posts can be the equivalent of a good magazine article is important, and provides a model to aim at.

4. We should never forget to entertain. People keep reading our words because (a) they like us, and (b) they feel either warmth, humour or companionship from what we write. That’s a complex mix and does not readily accommodate a ‘one size fits all’ approach. How to work with this is a challenge.

There are some simple practicalities here. Taking poetry (which I love writing) out of the mix, I know from many years experience that my most popular blog posts have been between 500 and 900 words. Longer ones may well be of interest to a few people looking for greater detail, but isn’t that the role of a book, or at least a series of posts?

I have ambitions to return to book-writing, but we’ll see. This is about blog posts published twice or three times per week. That’s a lot of writing, and I need a coherent plan. In this endeavour, I’ve decided I need to model the work on what I would find attractive elsewhere. Someone buying a technical mag is probably happy to find instructive articles of several thousand words, but that’s not what we typically do.

Really, we keep in touch by blogging, don’t we? A group of online friends and ‘colleagues-in-writing’. My posts need to reflect this. 500-900 words is just fine and will be central to my future plans.

Also, I think we should tell people how long it will take to read. I’ve seen this used, before – in other channels, like Medium. It’s polite and helpful. Subjective, but in a constructive way. I did it for a while but dropped it. It can only help, so I think it’s time to revisit,

So those are my thoughts. I’m happy to be back at the keys. Those few weeks away from ‘tap tap evenings’ have been a tonic, and have made me focus on what’s important and realistic. But they’ve also made me realise how important regular blog-writing is.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this evolves in 2024, as I know my fellow bloggers are with their projects.

Let’s keep in touch!

©Stephen Tanham 2023

All photos taken and post-processed on an iPhone 12 ProMax.

Stephen Tanham is a writer-photographer and mystical teacher. He is the founding Director of the Silent Eye, which offers an emotionally-guided journey from personality to the awakening of realised personal Self and its world of Being.

http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk and http://www.suningemini.blog