Methods and Materials of a Sometime Geoblogger: A Case Study

Ha!  Like this post will be anywhere near as scholarly as the title suggests.  It's just that Karen got me thinking again:

I want to know how geobloggers (and for that matter, bloggers in general) find the time and material to blog frequently! I exhaust my blog-dedicated time just reading five or six of my favorites every morning! 

I wonder the same thing meself, actually.  So I'll be asking that question during ye olde Summer Interview Series.  Let's begin with a willing subject: me.

Hullo, me.  How do you find the time?

The answer's simple, really.  I haven't got a life.

I'm not in school.  Job that requires no serious thought or overtime.  No significant other.  Not many local friends, certainly not many I go out with often.  No teevee shows I dedicate my time to (aside from Doctor Who, o'course).  Here I am, on a Sunday afternoon, me day off, pounding away at the keyboard, with no one but the cat for company.

I don't go to the movies.  Don't go shopping until lack of food or other vital items forces me from the house, and then it's just a commando raid, in-and-out at top speed, often with my poor intrepid companion in tow since we're in town for lunch anyway.  It's only in the summer that I get out and adventure, and then only on the weekends.  I've just chosen writing at the one thing that must always come first, and shunted everything else off into the corners.  Not everyone can do that, but they manage just fine anyway - I've no idea how.

Mind you, I haven't got much time for blogging.  I'm writing books (yes, plural), and that means the vast majority of my time is devoted to non-blogging activities.  I've carved out a four-hour chunk of time on Sunday afternoons to write the week's posts, and I spend that week when Aunty Flow's visiting to fill in any gaps, considering I'm no good for fiction writing then.

I've learned over the years that trying to do this on a day-to-day basis doesn't work for me.  I can't carve the day up into such tiny chunks and give everything the time and attention it deserves.

As far as blog reading, I've got some time in between calls at work, usually, and an hour or so a night while I'm scarfing dinner to catch up on whatever else I've missed.  Multitasking is key, people.

So that's how I find the time.  As for subjects... that's usually the easy part.  There's you, my dear readers: you so often say something that gets me going.  Sometimes I'll riff off of something I've read on another blog, or there's a meme going round, or something I've read in a book recently catches my fancy.  Things come up when I'm worldbuilding that demand to be shared.  Important anniversaries, certain holidays, and other assorted special days are always good possibilities.  When I get maudlin and nostalgic, I'll turn that into a post or several.  I've learned to just go with whatever shiny thing is glittering away in front of me, because I can't guess what my readers will like.  Some of the posts I've published only because I'm a raging narcissist or too busy to write better have been the posts you lot like best, so I've learned to just throw it out there.  If it flops, 'tis not the end of the world.  There's always tomorrow.

This present exercise in narcissism has gone on long enough.  I'm turning the floor over to you: care to answer Karen's question?