I am asking myself and yourself -I do not really know. It’s almost a year since the last post on this blog.
Posting on a blog should be a quick, painless activity, a hobby, something to put down your own thoughts and reflections. It appears I can’t do this anymore. On one hand, it seems to me anything valuable I could write about, has been written better by someone else. It seems to me my own thoughts are not as useful as to deserve to be written down.
On the other hand, the few times I get I have something interesting to say, I get clogged in a work of rewriting and sourcing etc. that makes it positively dreadful. I have several “to do” post ideas, but so far none comes to fruition. It is sort of perfectionist, which is kind of unusual for me (Or maybe not?)
I am actually writing this to help myself, to break this inactivity cycle and get back on the horse. However I also ask you: Do you have similar issues? How do you overcome them? Does it even make sense to want to overcome them? Let me know.
I didn’t quite get your ‘the few times I get I have something interesting to say, I get clogged in a work of rewriting and sourcing etc. that makes it positively dreadful.’ point. I have a blog myself, in which I write everything that would not deserve an academic paper (and therefore doesn’t deserve the time that I’d spend drafting it carefully or sourcing stuff) or things that would deserve a broader and more thorough analysis, which I save for later (when I’ll have the time to draft it properly and reference it) or I know I’ll never have the time for (in which case, anyone can feel free to take the idea, draft it better and source it).
As per ‘it seems to me anything valuable I could write about, has been written better by someone else’, my brain refuses to consider this relevant at all: worst case scenario, I’m practicing my writing whilst readers can take their pleasant asses wherever someone has actually written the same thing better than me. Then again, I’m a lawyer, if I weren’t positively convinced that no one does things better than me I’d be in trouble.
>>>I have a blog myself, in which I write everything…< <<
I didn’t know you had a blog! I’ll have a look 🙂
In any case, I don’t get how what you say about your blog is relevant to my case. Could you clarify?
>>>my brain refuses to consider this relevant at all: worst case scenario, I’m practicing my writing whilst readers can take their pleasant asses wherever someone has actually written the same thing better than me. < <<
My brain, alas, considers it very relevant. Your argument is compelling but that’s not how I work. I’ll try to make it work for me. Thanks a lot.
>>>In any case, I don’t get how what you say about your blog is relevant to my case. Could you clarify?<<<
Sure. Basically I think that the reason why I used to enjoy your blog so much, notwithstanding the fact that I'm far from being an expert in literally any topic you've ever covered, is also your main weakness – namely, your posts are so well-thought and carefully drafted that they look like they've been peer-reviewed. That would lead me to think, if I were you, "why don't I just write a proper paper and try to get it published somewhere, rather than a blog post?". I sort of have a rule (sort of because it just came natural) that if I blog post takes me more than 90 minutes, perhaps I have a potential research paper on my hands, and therefore it's not due in a blog (conversely, if I can write it in 10 minutes, I'm probably getting a piece of rubbish out there, and since my real name is in every post, it may not be a fantastic idea). Having said this, I consider my blog as my notepad: not doodling, but not "too good" either. I surely understand your point – you may have noticed that I seldom post more than 3-4 times a month myself – but you may be taking the "not doodling" part to the extreme.
>>>That would lead me to think, if I were you, “why don’t I just write a proper paper and try to get it published somewhere, rather than a blog post?” < <<
Heh, that’s kind of my reasoning. I would prefer to have such posts in more official venues. Yet I do not have access to a variety of venues able to accept every possible commentary of mine. If this happened I’d be most happy.
>>>that if I blog post takes me more than 90 minutes, perhaps I have a potential research paper on my hands< <<
Not what happens in my field, unless there are journals I’m not aware of.
FORZA NAPOLI
I can so understand with your thought in this article. It often happens to me that I want to write about something and I don’t due to the same reasons you described.Thanks for sharing the thought though