A whiny post, revised for less whining

Okay, so I just wrote a couple of paragraphs whining about being tired, and then I deleted them. Who wants to hear me whining, after all?

What I'll write about instead of whining is what it's like to write in my blog every day. I'm curious how people who blog decide how often to write and what inspires them to write when they do, and if they feel guilty for neglecting the blog for a while, and, if they write regularly or every day, if they long for a break at times.

For the most part, I love writing every day. I find writing a good way to start my evening -- to create a break between my work day and my evening (assuming I'm not doing some work in the evening, which isn't always the case). What I've been doing lately is writing something in the evening and then posting it in the morning. That way, I can look it over and make sure I didn't say anything ridiculous and maybe change a few things if I feel like it. I like waking up in the morning and having a brand new blog post waiting for me to publish it.

I worried when I started this that I'd run out of ideas. But mostly I don't. Mostly I have a couple ideas for blog posts lurking in my brain somewhere, waiting their turn to get out. Okay, today is maybe an exception; if I were still in a whiny mode, I'd write about being too tired to read much and get much out of it, too tired to concentrate and therefore too tired to keep the blogging ideas flowing. Hence this random post. But, really, almost always there's something in my reading that triggers the thought, "blog post!"

I do sometimes feel that because I've established the pattern of writing every day, I have to keep writing every day. The fun part of blogging is having people read me, and even though people who read me would understand if I don't post on a certain day, I'm sure, I do feel that if I don't post, something is missing, something is wrong, something is lacking out there and I have to fix it, people are checking my blog, and there's nothing new. I don't feel that this is a burden, and if I did, I'd do what litlove did, and declare that I'm going to follow some new pattern, one that gives me more flexibility.

Rather, it's a discipline that keeps me thinking critically about what I'm reading and how my cycling is going. And it's not a burdensome discipline, but a delightful one. It's kind of fun to think that there are a bunch of blog posts that I'll be writing in the coming weeks and months, and I have no idea what they are about, but they will get written, and I'll come up with an idea every day, reliably. Maybe that's what makes the discipline of writing every day so delightful: I'm showing myself again and again that I have stuff to say. Given my uncertainties about my interest in writing and my writing ability, that's a good lesson.