SafeTinspector at Crossroads
Posted on July 5, 2006
Uncategorized
The SafeTinspector main blog has brought 325 posts to you so far. Its original mission was to produce experimental written and illustrated comedy.
| I’ve lost readers recently, some of them long-time readers. Its as if I served bad calamari at my own briss, or revealed my true nature before God and man. I think I was getting close to my goal, once. Remember when I revealed my Finger of Doom? Or the time my feet got hot? I was particularly proud of my Advice to an Aspiring Busboy, with what I hoped was its strictly lunatic surrealism. I had fun with numerology when I wrote the 300, but my best, I think, was my three part Dog Priest series. Religious parodies, satire, fake news stories, surreal narratives, rambling rants, I tried to keep things different. Seems every blogger hits a wall, drops out, gets a job or a disease, or becomes a tax accountant. Whatever. None of that happened to me, but I will be the first to say I’ve alienated my readers lately. I’ve lost track of my original mission, and started down the Closure path. I’m tentatively proud of my comedic science fiction story, and have done my best to maintain a steady tone and style while introducing story elements that I find entertaining. I love my characters, love the world, love the story; even if NONE of you read it, I think I might still be writing it. I have to admit, however, that Closure is less approachable than my earlier work…I think. The Closure posts are LONG. No one wants to read LONG posts. Not even me! Who has the time? Blogging is best done in bite size chunks and the average Closure episode is two typed pages long. I don’t know what’s next. I think I’m going to put Closure on its own blog or website. Sure, it’ll probably get four or less readers each issue, but it will free up room here for the stuff I originally wanted to do. But will I have enough creative juice to do both Closure and this blog? I have a baby due in less than a month, work 1.5 full time jobs, and would like to find time to play my lame-ass piano music. (don’t get me started on how depressing a place SafeT’unes has become–even with the incomparable L>T listening so avidly) I don’t know…. but I have to change something. Your suggestions are welcome. |
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Comments
Do whatever you like dude! Post it here, post something there. I don’t think you’re alienating people, I just think your story sucks ass.
By ’sucks ass’ I mean I’ll follow it to which ever blog it’s posted on and go blind reading whatever length post you make cause the stories is well written, funny and interesting.
I guess I can see how some might not care to read a lengthy story that takes place over an extended period of time. Still, I like Closure, so I’ll read it wherever you put it.
My advice is: change nothing. Me, I’ll carry on reading Closure (which I love) and everything else you post. Even if I don’t always comment.
Those word verifications are a problem, though. I laboured through the last one and, astonished, rushed to my bookshelf. Sure enough, I’d typed out the entire text of War and Peace, including the footnotes!
I love Closure. My problem in reading long posts is not limited to your’s, I assure you. The need to be at my housewiffery and preventing my children rendering each other bald/blind/unconscious sometimes leads me to save reading longer posts until the evening, when I can enjoy them better.
Actually, I’ve always wondered how you can produce so much output. Wife, family, and now I learn about your extra 0.5 of a job on top of the one you have. Do you sleep, man?
Don’t feel blue. Closure’s great and as far as setting yourself the brief to produce comedic fiction, you’re spot on. I love your writing. It’s lively, inventive and funny. Wherever you put Closure, I’m still a fan and I’ll still be reading it.
You’re going through a mid-blog crisis similar to mine, Joe. I started out doing humorous stuff only, and it has morphed into more and more serious. As a result, except for a few steady ones, my readership keeps changing.
I think what it boils down to is do what you like best. If you only end up with one reader, who cares? At least you’re having fun, instead of trying to please all the people all of the time.
And you are ALWAYS a great commenter.
SafeT – a confession… you started Closure whilst I was AWOL, and amidst all my catching up on peoples blogs I never started to read them. I do, of course, intend to, but I got so far behind that I decided to wait until you were finished and then print them all out in booklet form. It does, after all, seem to be the kind of thing I would love reading on the bus after work…
But echoing comments above, do whatever you want on this site… it’s yours, not ours! And I am confident you will always find an audience!
Ah come on, I’m just getting interested in the story. I think you are a very creative writter. But, maybe IT’S telling you to wrap it up.
Creative ideas have a mind of their own, sometimes.
Babies are far more important then blogs, though.
Just do what you gotta do!
I agree with foot eater(horrible name, BTW) word verification is a bitch. What do you think will happen if you get rid of it?
325 posts is brilliant and even with the amount of blogs / posts / jobs quality still isn’t suffering at the expense of quantity. People are fickle but I am sure you keep more readers than you lose.
seriously, i would be sad if you left the blogshere.
Besides i plan on posting a nude picture of myself one of these days.
You don’t want to miss that, do you?
Rich: are we talking, like, with a straw or more of a cheek-hickey kinda thing?
Arth:It is for you alone that Boba Fett continues his decapitated prominance in the Closure series.
Foot:How very odd. I got Crime and Punishment. Those crazy, crazy Russians and their petty murder plots.
Sam:Get some helmets with face guards for those kids. Might help, can’t hurt…physically. As for my output, I sleep a solid 5-6 hours a night. I sleep really hard and thats all I seem to need. The volume is more a facet of my hyperactivity. I really don’t stop doing stuff. I wake, shower, blog/play videogames/play piano, play with Sam, feed Sam breakfast, take Sam to school, go to work, read email, do work, eat lunch, work some more, go to my second job, work ’til 7pm, go home, eat dinner, play with Sam, put Sam to bed, watch TV with wife/blog/play videogames, go to sleep, lather, rinse, repeat. Saturday I only work for six hours, and Sunday is primarily reserved for family activities. And NOW you know!
Poops, if I only have one reader, I hope its you, melon rind cat man.
Binty:On a train? ….never thought of that. I’ll change the story to “The Spooky Noodle” to reduce the number of furtive glances you’ll endure.
l>t:Footeater is far worse than you could possibly imagine. If I get rid of WV, I get spam. I no likey spam. I won’t leave. I’m just thinking of re-focusing to return to a more accessible form.
hobbs:My hit counter don’t lie, baby. I’ve LOST readers. I was at almost 50 hits a day, now I’m at around 25. I know of three people I cared for particularly that read regularly that have stopped entirely. But I need to be happy with what I have.
“Arth:It is for you alone that Boba Fett continues his decapitated prominance in the Closure series.”
And don’t think I don’t appreciate it. Boba Fett’s like the damn G-Man. Sometimes I lay awake at night wondering just where he’s going to turn up next.
arth: damn straight!
As I intimated in my comment in “Closure” issue #22. I printed the whole damn thing off and took it home to read (don’t have internet at home at moment due to stupid phone company cutting off line). I am hooked. I (for one) would be disappointed if you were to disappear (only just having found your blog) but if the muse does not flow then you can only cause yourself a mental hernia trying to force it.
I feel blogs are somewhat like pubs (something I used to do a number of years ago). If you run a decent enough establishment you will always have a core of devoted customers. There will be up times and down times. You may find that many of your original customers move on but there is always the “regulars” whoever they may be.
My little blog is only clocking about 7 to 10 visits a day, but I very rarely get more than two or three people actually comment on everything I put there. As I said above I ran through all 22 episodes of “Closure” but only commented on one.
Finally I do have to say that with my analogy of running a pub, I no longer run pubs. If it is time to knock it on the head then it is time to do so.
I have enjoyed reading your work and hope you leave it here for posterity.
meekon5: I’ll be continuing the Closure series. I have the whole thing plotted, and I love the writing. It might be a couple more days, though. I’m trying to cook up a really nice home for the series that will separate it out from the SafeTinspector Main Blog.
…not doing so well, though. Graphic design is NOT my forte!