blogging tips – Tea Buddy

The blog is a beast! It has to be fed. Regularly. The portions have to be right. The food healthy. No junk. Beware of the dangers of over-feeding your blog! Blogging is addictive. Novice bloggers blog every cough, sneeze and whiff of air that blows through their lives. It’s easy to overindulge the beast and just as easy to starve it. Actually overfeeding will lead to starvation and it’s eventual sad demise. Restraint and portion control are key.

Nothing depresses me more than the cry of a starving blog. It’s like that cute little thing I took for a walk, played around with, then shamelessly ran away when it was watching a squirrel. If you find abandoned blogs crying out my name, please say you don’t know me. I have nightmares about them. It is easy to father a blog, but hellish hard to mother one. It takes time and commitment: two godawful words that make me want to eat chocolate or take a nap.

Is Blog Neglect a crime? What about Blog Abandonment? An ethical dilemma, maybe, but rest assured, the wild, wild web is alive and well. There is still land, lots of land under starry skies above and nobody gets fenced in, even though countless bloggers have wandered off into the sunset, after a joyful ride or two.

But I have a plan folks and laugh not, dear ones…

I will stock a wondrous pantry to feed this voracious blog. I am collecting canned goods to the stock the shelves. The plan is, when the fresh produce runs out, I will pull out the preserves. In other words, I want to prepare for periods of drought, when the brain runs dry and inspiration at a low ebb. I have an index file of blog ideas and articles. Colored index cards, no less. Green for TEA, orange for WRITING and pink for BLOGGING and yellow for OTHERS. I am writing in snips and pieces and filing the posts in draft mode. Is that sheer genius, or what? Before I hurrah myself into self-sabotage – this is the plan, folks. THE PLAN. Not choo-choo train chugging ahead.

If you must know me, I am erratic, unduly excitable and over-anxious. When I do – I do too much. I am the type who laughs till I cry. I have a morbid attraction for chocolate. I love some people so much I want to bring them home and keep them as pets. Not good is it? The middle path, the middle path, Shona, I remind myself. But why is it so hard? Stock up, breathe deep, be patient. I have a nice collection in my blog pantry. Sometimes I wander in, just to admire the shelves. I have to fight the impulse to pull out all the goodies at once. Each post is like sharing a cup of tea with friends. I just have to remember not to bring out all the cookies at once.