I was checking Twitter last night when I ran across a Tweet from the awesome Sydney Owen:
28 day blogging challenge has officially begun. Thanks @thescottbishop for the idea, needed some motivation to post! http://j.mp/djeV0p
(No, I don’t know how to do those cool Twitter screenshot things, and I’m too lazy to look it up.)
My first thought was, Yay! Sydney’s going to post every day this month! She always writes great stuff! And I’m not sucking up here – there’s a reason that Sydney: Unfiltered was on my Top Blogs of 2009 list. Once you’re done reading this post, you should check her blog out. But I digress.
A second thought crept in: I post almost every day – I started on (and recently went back to) a 7 day posting schedule. What makes this an event? And yes, I do think in parentheticals.
Now I’m not trying to cast aspersions or detract anyone from taking up this challenge, but I’d like to offer a counterpoint: if they’re serious about your site, bloggers should be blogging almost every day. Here’s what I mean:
I read a lot of webcomics, almost all of which are published several times (or more) per week. Some, like PvP, Least I Could Do, and Sinfest are daily strips. And before we get more involved on the subject, I am aware that all three of these strips are run by full-time cartoonists. Instead, I’d like to focus on Sam Logan’s Sam and Fuzzy and Kevin Church’s various comics.
Both Kevin and Sam have full-time day jobs. Sam works on art direction for a couple of magazines, and Kevin…um…I think he said somewhere on his site once that he does marketing, but I also know that he’s a writer. And in both cases, their comics are updated several times per week. In Sam’s case, he is the sole creator. Kevin has several comics that he writes, with different illustrators handling the art chores on each one.
Bear with me here, I promise that there’s a point to all this.
Sam has said on his site that the act of creating a single comic takes around eight hours. He updates three times per week, and takes two weeks off per year, running guest strips during the interim. I would imagine that for Kevin, it’s a bit less since other people do the art, but good collaboration is still very time-intensive, so let’s estimate his input as being two hours per comic. Kevin has three comics, one of which updates three times per week (written review segment not included), while the other two update once per week.
Now, how long does it take to write a blog?
For me, it takes around 25 minutes for a weekday post to an hour (if I’m procrastinating, distracted, or doing a copious amount of research). Links take 15 minutes tops if I’m being meticulous, and JTMSCBAKS and NSS usually take around 20. So the time I spend on blog posts per week (assuming there’s one big post and the rest are normal) is:
(25 x 4) + 60 + 20 + 15 = 195 minutes, aka 3 hours and 15 minutes
Now let’s compare that with Sam and Kevin:
Kevin: 2 x 5 = 10 hours
Sam: 8 x 3 = 24 hours
But they’re cartoonists, and you’re a blogger! You might say. Exactly! If they can find the time in their schedules to devote a solid block to work on their comics, you can do the same for your blog or projects. But they do it for profit! They merchandise! You might add. So I assume that you’ve never seen stuff like Penelope Trunk’s book or Rich DeMatteo’s awesome shirts?
Look, I know we’re all busy. Work, relationships, social engagements, posting to Twitter, hobbies, relaxation time, working on badass dance moves, starting businesses, sharpening crayons… it all takes a lot of time. But sometimes it’s just a case of organization or inspiration.
I’ve discussed how to get creative at any time. There have been a number of posts on time management. There’s been plenty of talk about personal motivation. This is all well-worn territory. So really, everyone can blog every day of the week. It’s just a question of if they want to.
So good luck to Sydney and all of the other people taking the 28 Day Blogging Challenge. I hope that all of you make it.
And for the rest of you: what are you waiting for?
