Just One More Meta Post

Planning and scheduling are often said together, like black and white or salt and pepper. They are often said in that order, a trait referred to by linguists as Siamese twins or irreversible binomials. One of the reasons that planning and scheduling are usually said in that order is that it is the typical sequence in which they are done. First you plan, then you schedule. Often you will find that as you execute the plan to the schedule you may have to adjust either the plan, the schedule, or both. In fact it is uncommon to not do so at least once during the execution of a plan.

I have made a fairly good plan for my new approach to writing. I neglected to come up with a schedule. It is important to establish a regular time when readers of my blog can expect a new post to be available. Consequently, I feel I should establish a schedule for them. I will post a blog post on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. I may write them a day or two before hand but I will schedule them to be posted on those three evenings.

I will vary the topics somewhat. I still plan to write about programming, writing, memories, music, and occasionally other topics that seem appropriate. I’ll try not to publish on the same topic twice in any week or indeed twice in a row. You’ll forgive me this once posting details of my writing plan and schedule two posts in a row.

As I mentioned last Friday, I will occasionally post links to interesting articles or web sites, link blog style. That will happen on the nights between my regularly scheduled blog posts. This post will be on Monday evening instead of Sunday as I just worked out this schedule and I intend to blog again on Wednesday and Friday.

It seems that if one has a schedule, it is easier to execute a plan. I realized after spending the Labor Day weekend doing other things besides executing the plan that I wrote about Friday exactly what it was that was missing. This I take for evidence that you can, after all, teach an old dog new tricks. You just have to prod the old dog to think about what it is he is doing.

Since I shared with you my plan to use the time that I freed up by backing off on my blogging schedule, I find it apropos to share that I need to establish a work schedule for my fiction writing activities as well. I won’t bore you with the details of that except to say that I intend to start using a calendar to block out times that I intend to write and hold myself to those appointments.

Thanks for you patient understanding and I’ll try to make the next several blog posts special. I may even try my hand at micro-fiction.


Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.

The Only Constant is Change

Blogging has come to mean different things to different people. To Dave Winer, arguably the first blogger, it is a platform for writing short commentary on topics of interest to him. He seldom writes more than four or five paragraphs per topic but he sometimes covers three or four topics per day, more on occasion.

Some people treat it like a stream of links to things they’ve found of interest on the web. That is sometimes referred to as a link blog. I’ve never written a link blog. I have enough trouble maintaining my focus on whatever task is at hand to give myself an excuse to spend more time browsing the web.

My blog has evolved to be a daily essay of approximately 500 words. I write it in Scrivener and then past it into the online WordPress blog editor. It is usually a tad longer than Dave’s typical posts. Not to make any claims about relative merit. I can say nothing of substance in 500 words as well as anyone can. Occasionally I write a piece that I feel is particularly succinct and well organized. Most of the time I’m just happy to have checked the box that says I’ve met my commitment to blog daily.

I believe it is important to write regularly. It is the only sure way that I know of to improve your writing skills. But it is also important to constantly reevaluate your goals. I have been struggling to spend more time writing fiction lately. The struggle has been mostly one of schedule. By the time I write a thousand word journal entry, either in the morning before I go to work or as part of a working lunch, and then write a 500 word blog post every night, I don’t get around to my fiction as often as I’d like.

I think it’s time to try a different schedule. I will post link blog style entries as I run across items of interest. Then on two or three nights a week, I’ll post a regular 500 word essay style blog post. I will continue to write every night but on nights where I don’t post a blog post, I’ll spend an hour working on my fiction.

Of course when November gets here, all bets are off. I probably won’t blog more than once a week during NaNoWriMo.  I intend to write a better first draft this year. I’ll have more to say on that subject in December.

I’m also going to have a story included in an anthology published by the Huntsville / Madison County Public Library sometime in the November timeframe. I’ll update here with details when I have them straight.

In summary, I am going to cut back to 750 words worth of journal a day, two or three 500 word essay blog posts per week, and up my fiction writing game. Thanks for bearing with me.


Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.