When I thought about starting a blog, I considered some of the few blogs I followed. What was it about them I liked? What kept me coming back? Honestly, I’m picky and don’t desire to use much of my discretionary time online (except to check Facebook but that doesn’t count, does it?) so I haven’t subscribed to many blogs, but when I evaluate the common themes among my few subscriptions, I discovered something that influenced my own approach to blogging.

Initially the people I followed posted thoughtful, long-ish posts but infrequently, effectively consolidating the time I would have spent over a longer span into one post that took longer to read, but also offered a more complete and thorough treatment of an idea. But something has been happening lately, and I’ve noticed more blogs with short, one-quick-thought posts (which made me think of Mike Meyers dressed in drag on SNL when he told us to “talk amongst ourselves, I’ll give you a topic: the Roman Parthenon was neither Roman nor a Parthenon. Discuss.”), almost a thought jogger, if you will. And maybe that’s the kind of time people have: just enough to suggest a topic, let it percolate in the mind of a reader, and create a place for discussion of said topic if people wish.

The scary thing about that kind of “format” is that it assumes the blog has lots of readers and commenters (commentators?). What if you put an idea out there and no one says anything about it, or worse, nobody sees it at all? Even if that terrible event occurs, I think it is still worth it if merely for the exercise of taking a thought from inside my head and translating it into words on a page.

I’m going to try and shift my expectation for what my blog posts look like, try to make them shorter (and maybe sweeter) and I’d welcome your responses. This is, of course, ignoring the fact that it is warm here now and my garden is calling to me and spring kids activities are going to kick off soon, but a person can try, right? You’ll hear from me again soon!