Preseason Post: Announcing Blog Season Two

Here we are at the beginning of October, and as promised I am restarting regular posts on this blog. Since this is that new beginning, I thought it might be worth talking about some of what I have in mind for the coming batch of entries.

One of my long-range goals continues to be to build my ability to produce good-quality work on a regular basis. To that end, I’ve committed myself to writing at least one 500-700 word essay per week. Essentially, I’m having a go at making a weekly column.

Last season, I allowed myself to experiment with many different kinds of writing: from short-form poetry to a science fiction short story, from Op-eds to essays. I feel that the quality varied widely from post to post. Some entries were poor enough that I’ve hidden them, others contain writing I’m quite proud of.

I intend to aim for greater consistency, not only in terms of the quality of each post, but also in the regularity of their appearance. I did manage to get at least one post per week up last season, but some were late and some were, I must acknowledge in my editor-hat-wearing view, of poor quality.

I’m focusing on what was most successful in Season One, which is the short essay form. I intend to do an occasional “poetry week,” because I feel that those weeks also went well.

I’ve been less happy about the fiction I’ve posted here, so I won’t use this space for it any longer. That’s not to say that I think the work itself has been poor. This simply seems not to be the proper venue for that sort of writing. I believe a 3,000 word short story is too much of a commitment for the casual web surfer. Also, it takes me longer than a week to hone a fiction piece into a shape that I feel comfortable with. I don’t mean that I will be giving up on the writing of fiction, just that I won’t post any of it here.

Further, although I will not be posting exclusively about it, I have settled on a research topic that much of my writing will be devoted to for the upcoming season. I’ll speak more about that in the Season Opener.

Business:

• I’m moving the publication time for my weekly posts to Thursdays at 5:00 PM. This is for my benefit. I find that I compose these posts over the weekend, and that I need a little bit more time to hone each post. In the past, I’ve allowed myself to continue editing posts that have already gone live. I won’t promise never to do that, but I want to do less of it.
• The design of this site will be getting an upgrade, including a new banner and site logo designed by John Mendelssohn. I’m very happy with what he’s made for me. Here’s a video he’s put together describing the services he offers, in case you’re looking for some high-quality design work.

Season Two goes live Thursday, October 4th, at 5:00 PM EDT. See you then!