Today is the eighth anniversary of normblog. It started life on 28 July 2003. Whereas throughout the first few years I felt as if I'd only just started blogging, that day now seems like a very long time ago. Alert readers may have noticed, also, that once or twice lately I've signalled my difficulties in blogging. Some of the reasons for them are obvious: this particular debate has been had, and one doesn't feel as if there's anything to add; even if there may be, I don't feel like writing about the same thing yet again; just temporarily the 'topics of the day' don't appeal to me; even if I've got something to say, other people are already saying it, saying it a billion times - in the press, on the blogs, on Twitter; and so on. Whatever the case, until very recently I never had trouble finding what to post about; now sometimes I do. Yesterday I came across this post by Andrew Sullivan, in which he says that if it isn't updated at least twice daily it ain't a blog; and ideally it should be updated four or five times a day. I don't agree with Andrew. A blogger can choose his or her own pace. But five times a day used to be standard and easy for me. Lately I haven't been finding it so.
Anyone who's blogged for any length of time will know why the rate of posting on so many blogs begins to fade, and why those who pack in blogging altogether, which is many many people, do so. And how many former bloggers now prefer Twitter, as being much less demanding of their time.
So, on normblog's eighth birthday, I've been thinking about whether it's time for a switch - a switch of modes or of frequencies. And I've decided..... naaah. I aim to keep on keeping on, or at any rate to keep on trying. One modification may arise from the fact that I happen to have, right now, not one and not two and not three, but four, academic papers I want to write over the next while. On some days I may therefore need to compress my blogging time. This may add to the difficulties aforesaid. But apart from that, it's onwards. Towards nine and ten.
