have to admit that I’m rather surprised at some of the web-efforts I follow, and how prompt they often arn’t. Specifically, the well-known XKCD and lesser-known Two Guys and a Guy – I love both strips, but recently they’ve been a little… off… in their publishing schedules. Others (Penny Arcade as well as anything “officially” syndicated) are always there.

And that got me to thinking about my own blogging.

I always blog – maybe nobody reads them (actually I just checked – most of them get about 500 hits or so. Whether that’s actual readers around the world or creepy web crawlers, I have no way of knowing). After every model railroad session (sometimes after an hour or two drive home, or sitting in a hotel room) I’m blogging. After every telescope session (no matter how frozen I am) I’m blogging. And certainly every week I produce a book review and a DOG EAR piece. Think of that – the first DOG EAR went in on June 11th, 2012 and have been popping up every week like clockwork. And it’s tough to do.

I suppose it’s good practice. If you are going to produce whatever art you are going to produce, you do so, no matter how tired or uninspired you are. This weeks’ DOG EAR, I was really looking for something to write about (after 241 of these things, finding new thoughts about writing, its difficulties and my various observations of such) can be a little problematic. Sometimes I’ll get into a rush and have a half-dozen of these things out in front of me, all scheduled out for every Thursday for the next month and a half. Other times (like now, sigh) I’m writing under the looming edge of my own deadline.

But that, in itself, is the lesson here. If you are writing that novel at home, you need to force yourself to write. If you think you write because it’s fun or fulfilling, yes, it can be those things. But it’s also disciplined. And that’s why you should approach it as such. Because I know what I feel, deep down, when I click on XKCD on a Monday morning and nothing is there.

And I don’t want people to think that way about my own efforts.

>>>SO IF YOU REALLY FEEL MOVED BY MY EFFORTS AND COMMITMENTS TO MY ART, YOU SHOULD SUPPORT IT. THIS LINK LEADS TO MY BOOKS. YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO<<<