Monday 28 July, 2008
Low tide
Regular readers of this blog would have noticed that my blogging, is, well, at low tide at the moment.
There are a few reasons for this. One is that I am spending so much of my working life in front of a computer at the moment I feel less and less able to use the computer recreationally. The thought of turning it on when I get home from work makes me feel slightly ill. The other is that I am trying (though failing) to keep some of my head space for the novel, now that I am working at Meanjin. Blogging and other online games no longer sit high on my list of priorities - though I still read them fairly enthusiastically. The Meanjin job enters into it in another way, as well. Sometimes my blog posts are hasty, ungrammatical and misspelt and I don't particularly want to have to apologise for that - but now that I have a high profile job as an editor I feel more self-conscious about the way I use this space. (Comments picking up errors on a post that I ran on Sarsaparilla a while ago really brought this home.) In retrospect I should have considered using a pseudonym when I set up my site, but it's a bit late for that now.
For me blogging is a space in my life that needs to feel playful. Where I feel less exposed (note retro pun) mucking around is my photography. That might be because I am a total amateur so I really don't care what people think - though it's always nice if they like what I do of course. So, more photos and less words will continue to be the order of the day for a while.
Views from the Floor
Tom says:
You know, you could always start up an pseudonymed site just for the blogging bits. I'd still read...
Di says:
It's nice that you've explained this to your readers. I appreciate your blog whenever it appears and the photos, and your comments about them, are interesting. No need for a pseudonym, I reckon. You are all of a piece and it's good to see the all-roundedness of a writer's life: earning a living as an editor, writing novels, blogging - having to get away from the computer. Maybe you'll come back to the blog in the future? Anyway, all power to your arm wherever it is working.
kate says:
While working on PhD and various other things she was good at, a friend told me she'd taken up drawing, she'd bought a kid's sketch book and some cheapo textas and was delighting in being 'bad' at it. Which isn't to say she was a 'bad' artist, or that you're a bad photographer (I really like your photos) just that we all need some work/play separation, and some designated no-pressure hobby space. If blogging feels like work, there's a lot to be said for taking photos instead.
sophie says:
That's it exactly, Kate.
Mark says:
I have also often wondered if I should have started my blog under a pseudonym – though not so much because I have a profile job (I wish... maybe).
But I do know what you mean about not wanting to apologise for hasty, ungrammatical and misspelt blog posts – especially when one admits to being a editor or writer, or profess a keen interest in editing and writing.
I once had a commenter leave a curt comment that for someone who claimed to list the Oxford Dictionary as a favourite book (yeah, yeah, it was in the early days of my blogging), that I should be able to get the word choice in a phrase right.
I really enjoy your photography (I especially enjoyed your photos from Bali), Sophie, I look forward to more of them.
And to more intemperate, hasty – and yes, even ungrammatical and misspelt – blog posts from you. Promise not to tell MUP on you...
(perhaps you could write your posts on paper, photograph the pages and post them as images…)
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