ARTEL Blogging

Meta blogging by blogging on the process of blogging.

Visiting blue jay - he was initially at the far end of the terrace, with another blue jay friend who flew off earlier.  I maintained my distance so as not to scare him off, and he came ever closer; he had no fear.  Little snippets of life, caught while breaking from work - a snippet that does not rise to the level of a separate post or theme; so it seems fitting here, as this whole blog is about shoehorning life where it can fit - and so with this image.

Abbreviate, return to edit later = ARTEL.  That is what I have taken to doing.  No, it's not a particularly professional approach.  And probably only possible because I have no followers, for editing on the fly post-publication seems a surefire way to lose credibility - seems wrong for a reader to read a post and then come back to find it inexplicably changed.  Hmm ...

Having now thought that through, it seems the way to address that, to an extent, beyond indicating that there is "more to come," is to at the very least disclose when a post was last edited.  Then, anyone returning after having already read an earlier version will be alerted that it may have changed.  And the policy of disclosure may discourage me from posting too prematurely, before taking the time to edit, or, more accurately, from making last minute posts to hit an imaginary due date to keep apace of a certain frequency of posts.  Although, even when I deliberate and compose, my process seems to be that I re-read the post on the site (where it somehow always looks different), and then I tweak because I catch something or think of a better word choice.  Ah well, so it goes; there will be edit notes on everything. 

Quantity versus quality.  I would rather be known for quality, hands down, of course.  So there needs to be a better compromise - slower pace, fewer posts, better posts up front that don't require post-publication edits because they will have undergone editing pre-publication, as should have been the process all along.  

Perhaps I should aim for a blog publication schedule of no greater frequency than twice a week?  But how to address current events in a timely manner?  Maybe those should be the exception?  After all, my most prolific year was 2019 - 67 posts; so 104 posts in 2021 seems plenty ambitious, and leaves more than enough room to express all I should want.  Really, can I even contrive of enough quality content for so many posts?  Just because I feel like I am brimming with ideas at this point at the outset of the new year does not mean this pace is sustainable.  Well, I do have a backlog of articles in my inbox that seemed like great launch pads for posts when I read them (or their headlines), but I don't know how far into the well I will want to draw.  We shall see.  Twice per week on Mondays and Fridays could be aspirationally doable, given my current schedule.  Shall we settle on that for the time being?  Let's do.  We'll try it out, see how it goes...

So back to the ARTEL method - putting down, and out, abbreviated posts (bullet posting, if you will) seemed a good way to not lose a thought, to sort of fulfill the content output floor for a running blog in a semi-timely fashion, in the face of time constraints and other demands.  And then, since it's really just been for me, to return later when time blocks are more available to polish it up and edit - in case any third party down the line ever gets a hold of this.  It all seemed workable and acceptable, given the audience of one.  But the goal is to expand that audience, so perhaps some changes to that ad hoc approach are in order?

I don't know; I mean, this whole blog is about trying to balance competing demands and making time and other compromises.  ARTEL is the quintessential example of that, no?  Can we make allowances from standard, more professional blogging if the blog is all about how difficult it is to manage it all - when the whole point is we're all just trying to do our best to keep all the balls in the air?  My process is what it is, imperfect at best - by necessity a rolling target.  Can we accept disclosure of incompleteness and post-publication edits as the middle ground?  Hopefully so.  Because it's how it's gotta be.

Now cognizant of the process, I am already adjusting to drafting in advance of the planned publication date so that there is time to allow a draft post to sit and marinate, be tried on for size.  So maybe ARTEL can mostly happen behind the scenes and pre-publication, and YOU, imaginary blog readers, will never even see it happen.  Ah, goals!