To blog or not to blog...that is the question

I would like to discuss.

In the last few days I have been thinking about this thing we do called blogging - the whys, the hows and the who fors. 

Why have I been thinking about this? Because blogsters, three of my very dearly loved blogs have decided to take a break, re-think and re- evaluate. I am of course talking about Absolutely Beautiful Things, Villa Anna and Lily- G - although I see that Judy has decided to re-enter the blogosphere on a part time basis. Judy, all I can say is you have made my morning and I am soooo happy you have reconsidered.

I think I feel a sense of personal loss at their surprise departure because if it weren't for these three Ozzie girls I don't know that I would have ever attacked, negotiated and conquered the google template and started French Essence. I am an old dog learning new tricks here and it is from these girls that I have felt encouraged, inspired and ready to tackle this arduous sport called blogging.

I first discovered 'the blog' and how it worked several years ago when Anna from Absolutely Beautiful Things, Judy from Lily-G and Anna from Villa Anna decided to review, My French Life and as they have such an enormous following in blog land it meant that many other blogs found out about my book and the word spread... the rest is history - I am now finishing a second book and have become a committed blogster. I believe that these three girls were my greatest publicists and without them I never would have had such success with my book or started blogging. I cannot ever thank them enough and sometimes words just don't do the trick. This is one of those ocassions.

Which brings me to the reason why I blog. I began blogging as a way to keep my writing alive and as a way to keep myself creatively challenged between projects. I wanted to keep a connection with My French Life readers and to post about the things that are dear to my heart but don't necessarily make it into an official publication. That was then, but now, blogging has become so much more for me. I still find it creatively stimulating and a challenge to think of something each week that will entertain  - anyone who knows me understands that I like a challenge - but most importantly I have found real connections with like minded souls. I have laughed, cried, gasped and pondered with so many of you that I consider we are now friends, not random keyboard tappers in cyber space; in time we will no doubt become really great friends and in truth we blog for each other.

Enough said, you get the picture, I am loving blogging but the 'how to blog' is the important part of my rant today.

To blog well is time consuming. It is time consuming because an idea is born and that has a gestation period all of it's own; the idea requires photographs which in turn means time searching or time editing and then the formulated idea has to be loaded into the vehicle that takes you live. This is significant time out of busy lives. And then there is the commenting. We all want comments and comments are the barometer of posting - Was it interesting? Did it visually excite? Is anybody reading this? Comments answer all these questions - loads of comments and we are flying high; no comments means a re-think and a new post from a different viewpoint. To make comments, to respond to comments and to answer emails is also time consuming but blogging is about sharing ideas and feedback - without this blogsters, it would be an unfulfilling and solitary business. Not in the spirit of the sport at all.

What I am getting at here is that all this can mean pressure, with a capital P. It can become a pressure to find new and clever ideas, it can be a pressure to make the perfect comment and it can be a pressure to find the time to do all of the above. Oftentimes pressure is a necessary evil to get a job done but there are degrees and then there are degrees. I sometimes feel the pressure and I am pretty sure there are many of you out there who do too.  Is this what happened to my favourite girls?

I won't stop blogging and nor do I want anymore of my blogster pals to stop either, so when and if you feel the pressure breath deeply, relax and worry not if a post isn't clever enough, pretty enough, or perfectly spelt and grammatically correct. When and if this happens to me I might even take a few days off, a week or perhaps two  - venture outside away from this Apple temptress of mine and breathe some fresh air. I know that we will be understanding of each other if the posts are few and far between from time to time. xv

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