Here’s a question I’d like to address to all you fellow bloggers out there!
How fast do you write?
I don’t mean the number of words per minute you type. What I’d like to know is how long does it take you to write a blog post?
And how do you go about it?
I consider my approach quite amateurish. I either have a ‘brilliant’ idea that I want to ramble on about, and I search for photos to illustrate it (or to render it less boring…). Or I see some photos, I develop a new roll of film and it incites me to write a post.
Either way, even if I have about 20 drafts waiting for weeks and months somewhere in WordPress, most won’t be published. My normal modus operandi is this:
- I just sit down
- I type a post
- I try to correct any errors (I will find many more later when the post is already out there)
- And I hit PUBLISH…
Completely unrelated…. but I needed something to fill the void!
This takes anywhere from about 10 to 15 minutes for smaller pieces like the one you’re reading right now to two or three hours for real long stuff like THIS one.
I guess most bloggers put a lot more thought in their posts, the way I see it. More research too…
I wonder if I do it wrong…
Give me your opinion!
And thanks for reading this irrelevant stuff!
Frank Lehnen Photography 
No, it’s a very good question. I can fully empathise with what you are saying and the ‘difficulties’. Sometimes one has to re-evaluate given the time and energy writing takes up. My own tendency with writing or posting stuff has been to write something then later on get dissatisfied and disillusioned with it all to the point where I delete it. I think that blogging anything much beyond more than pictures has to have a purpose that goes beyond the self and self-expression to make it worthwhile. I keep reminding myself I’m not a blogger, but a photographer… er well, I mean I take pictures. I keep taking them. But much of the time I don’t see the point in posting those either as single images. I wonder if this may be partly to do with the internet and evolving perceptions and expectations of its users. I wonder if anyone else feels the same?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think people tend to look most at the photos. Some will read all you write but the attention span for reading is very short nowadays.
Anyways, I like to write and as you say a photo without anything can be meaningless.
When I write I post immediately. So no second thoughts or regrets!
LikeLike
Yes, I think if I start blogging again it will far be less text and more pictures. No shortage of those!
LikeLiked by 1 person
ah un photographe n’a pas besoin des mots pour s’exprimer…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oui…. mais non. J’aime écrire (et ennuyer le monde avec).
Question de préférence!
LikeLike
If it is any consolation, it takes me ages. The longer posts (mainly reviews) take cumulatively several days of writing time, ammassed over some weeks. These are about 4k words in total.
The total amount of work that goes in to even a short blog post is quite terrifying. For the “state of independence” series I kept a log. Each post was derived from between one and four new films, representing many many hours on the streets plus about three hours of developing, scan and editing time. Add to this a couple of hours to write, cross-reference and fact check the text and there is typically two or three full days of work behind each post.
My writing is terrible. It normally takes several re-writes to eliminate the clumsy initial wording and try to make things clear – and even then there will be numerous errors such as missing, duplicated and misordered words, and even completely nonsensical clauses that are artefacts lost in editing. Fortunately my long suffering partner does a final proof read and catches most of these…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Mark. I really enjoy your posts and I can see how much work and research go into them. Quite complex subject the state of independence.
And then there’s the time that goes into developing and scanning… anyways, great job!
LikeLike
Mark’s series of pictures and write-up on Catalonia is the best kind of photography blogging in my opinion because it brings a purpose back to photography that has been lost. Having said that, it’s not the kind of thing that one is able to do so easily on a regular basis, at least as a hobby.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think writing is something it’s possible to do wrong. Just because there’s a few people out there who do it in their own particular way, and end up making money off this ad copy or that memoir doesn’t mean that folks following a different path are doing it wrong. My rule of thumb is if you want to continue doing something you’re doing it right. For my own blog I take something I have a little knowledge about, or am about to do and write about that. This might end up meaning I scribble it out on a flight and upload from the tarmac a half hour later or type it up over the course of an hour or so as I desperately fumble with a camera trying to make it visually interesting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your input!
LikeLike