This one goes out to our friend Bill, a.k.a. the Maverick Philosopher, a.k.a. blogger on sabbatical.
It’s going to be long month! 🙂 “Just one little post, one little post!”
Seriously, I completely understand Bill’spain. Blogging can prevent one from following up on and developing ideas all the way through – as in all the way through to publication. I would like to find a way to have blogging feed and encourage my more serious writing. How might that actually work though? This is what I’ve determined so far.
- Resist posting every day. This hurts the readership, I’m sure. But one a day, I’m guessing, becomes twice and three times a day. And that probably entails a lot of web-surfing.
- If you’re an academic blogger, don’t pay to much attention to readership. You’re about truth (let us hope), not the number of eyeballs witnessing your posts. If you really wanted the latter, you’d be posting gossip about movie stars.
- It’s easier to stay at your work when your blog is narrowly focused, like this one. Then at least some of your posts will be somehow relevant to what you’re doing, now or later.
- Develop that idea by doing a whole stinkin’ long series on it. But keep each post short.
- Group blogging is better. Let others drive. Riding still takes time and energy, but less.
- Share the love. Not every post has to be some sort of virtuoso display of your own abilities. Don’t take it too seriously. When you see some fellow blogger doing something interesting, say to yourself – “Mmmm… that looks like some good Linkage.” Then, link it. Quick post. Now back to work.
I’ve thought of posting paper drafts. But that sort of violates the writing standards of this medium… Ladies and gentlemen – other suggestions? Prosblogion dudes?
Related posts:
podcast 105 - Dr. James Spiegel on The Making of an Atheist
Richard of St. Victor’s De Trinitate, Ch. 25 (Dale)
H.O.G. Questions
a new proof of God's existence, with an assist from Dr. Bart Ehrman?
Kimel and Bauckham on monotheism
a real scholar on the so-called "Lost Gospel"
podcast 304 - The Absolute Basics of the Christian Faith
Jesus and “god” - part 11 - Review and Conclusion
Rufinus’s corruption of Origen’s On First Principles – Part 2
SCORING THE BURKE – BOWMAN DEBATE – ROUND 4 PART 2 - BOWMAN
Some of the folks at Prosblogion have been successful in taking posts and developing them into published papers. I know Weatherson has done a fair amount of this as well. This probably works best when you have an interesting idea and you can use the blog as a test balloon. If the idea hits a sweet spot you should get some good feedback that you can use to refine the idea. You can repeat this process as necessary. Then all you have to do is flush out the paper with all the details and background. I also wouldn’t worry about people stealing your ideas. I haven’t seen a case of that yet, and if it were a real worry then you shouldn’t present papers at conferences either.
I think philosophy blogging works best in a group environment. You get to share the load of posting and your fellow bloggers act as an extension of your office environment. I tend to think of blogging and commenting as something like hallway chats in my home department.
Dale,
This is a great question and a tough one. It is probably a good idea to keep posting light, if you’re aiming to publish, and this means group blogging (or lots of discipline like the guys at Metaphysical Values). Every once in a while, post a small part of a paper (I agree, something very small); the comments can be invaluable. There is one other real important point in blogging that I see. Looking around the blogs, you can learn quickly how much reading and work you haven’t done!
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