Question: Should Blogging Be Fun?

Have you ever clicked on the "Next Blog" button way up there in the navbar of most Blogger blogs? Try it. It's pretty interesting. You get to see a huge variety of personal type blogs. What really struck me, though, was the number of abandoned blogs. Blogs that hadn't been updated in months, even years.

It just goes to show. Having a blog, and keeping it updated and vibrant, is harder than one might think.

I was responding to an email last week and the following thought sprung to mind: sometimes I am just elated by something bloggy like a comment I receive or a good post I've written; yet hours later, I'll find myself struggling to even begin to write the next post. There's a tension between loving what I'm doing and NOT loving what I'm doing. Does this spell the end to my blogging? Am I doomed to become one of those blogospheric casualties? I don't think so. I certainly hope not. I mean, think of any good marriage. Do you know of any happily-married people who smile incessantly and live in a constant bubble of bliss? Neither do I. Sometimes there are moments of doubt and strife. This is common and normal, right?

And so it goes for blogging. It's not 100% ferris wheels and picnics.

Take, for instance, my newly-designed Tutorials-At-A-Glance page. My husband was showing my blog to someone a while ago and noticed that when you clicked on the thumbnails on my old page, you got an error message. He sent me a concerned email telling me my Tutorials page was broken (I guess he cares...)! It wasn't broken... It just wasn't as straightforward as it could be. So he made some suggestions for improvements. Now I knew it would take a ton of work to change. But I heeded his advice and began making those changes. Yeah... And what a nightmarish hell-job that was. It took me days and days to get a grasp on the html, start a fresh page from scratch, re-organize, and get it up and running. And there's still some tweaking to be done. But it's essentially there now.

Did I enjoy this task? NO! Not even one iota. Am I glad I did it? Yes I am. Because now I have a more navigable, better organized, easy-to-update Tutorials page. I learned something. I pushed my boundaries. And that feels good. It was worth it after all.

I think the time has come to be realistic. Blogging can be darn hard. Especially if I care at all about my content and about making my site any good. It takes time. It takes a hell of a lot of creative energy, effort, sweat, maybe even a couple tears now and then. I love it. I don't love it. Welcome to something worth doing, Michele!

So. In answer to the title of this post: Should blogging be fun? Yes. Darn tootin'. Absolutely. No question. But ALL the time? No. NO! And it would be silly to expect it to be.

Note: The above "tiles" are recycled foam meat trays which I have etched with designs originally created by my three children - Elle, Dia and The Boy - when they were little, and painted with layers of liquid acrylic paints.