A Brief Meditation on Blogging

I took some time this weekend to read through some of our old posts here on the blog, and one thing rang true: my work is never finished, rarely clean and satisfying like deeply edited pieces, and always missing something.

By definition, that's part of blogging. I've written about the farm bill for months, cleaning up the filibuster since the election, conservative renewal since... forever, and about the jobs crisis since I started back in August. I write about it, you guys critique and discuss it, and I eventually revisit the idea.

Over time, ideas are gradually refined and evolved. That's really fun, and part of what makes blogging the best job in the world. (I will stand by that).

But there's a dark side to the practice. My prose is frequently weak, spelling and grammar vary on the day, and it never feels like I have the time to deeply dive into any subject, let alone those that really matter. You'll never see a blogger publish a 10,000 word essay on an arcane subject, mostly because taking the time to write such a tome is a huge risk in an era of pageview journalism.

Even this is being churned out in a relative hurry, because I know I can revisit it tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. Because of that perverse incentive, you'll rarely see me write ur-posts - at least here. After all, why would you want to read in a longer and prettier form something that's already been published?

Anyways, just some thoughts from someone who blogs as a full time job. It's fun, despite the frustrations, and I appreciate all of you who read and comment on the blog on a regular basis. You guys are pretty neat.

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Justin Green

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