Monday, May 29, 2017

Ask JKM a Question: Slouching Towards Bethlehem?



A reader and fellow blogger named David writes:

“I’m a blogger too, so don't lie to me.  I know that you have probably thought about this. You've been at this a long time.

A lot of bloggers compose a final post while they are still writing their blogs.

So my question is: have you composed your last post even in your head if not on the screen, and if so what are the contents of it?”



David, are you trying to get rid of me?

Seriously, I agree that all bloggers think about “the end,” even if fleetingly, at one point or another during the lifetime of a blog.   

Sometimes, their blog has lived a very long time, and the author has simply had the opportunity to say everything he or she wanted to say.

Sometimes they write that final post because they are tired or frustrated. 

Sometimes they write it because a better opportunity has come up, somewhere else. 

Sometimes they write such a post for the sake of posterity, I suppose.

Usually, as I said, however, that thought is fleeting.  

But there is something, perhaps, in the very nature of blogging that makes a writer want to have the last word, and grant the ongoing journal some sense of closure…like finishing a (really long...) book, for example. 

I really hate going to a blog I love and seeing that it just withered on the vine, that posts just stopped coming for no apparent reason. 

I always wonder: what happened?  

Is the blogger still with us? What made him or her give up writing?  

Too many really fine blogs have ended in that fashion.

So I do feel that closure is important for both the writer and reader. I am grateful for all the great bloggers I have read over the years who decided to compose that final post, and tell us that they were moving on.

If and when I stop blogging, I know this: I’ll be closer to my destination -- whatever that destination happens to be -- and I’ll be a different person/writer/blogger than I am today, right now.  

So, my final blog post will come at the end of the blog, and hopefully reflect the journey that I have taken, in its last steps.  

Writing it now wouldn't reflect or be true to the journey I described.

So I can tell you, definitively, I haven't written a final post.

Things could always change for me (like the end of Net-Neutrality; the creation of a tiered-Internet that relegates my blog to a slow lane...), but right now, I don't foresee the end. 

If readers keep coming, I'll keep writing..

On that front, my blog audience has changed or rolled over three or four times in the nearly 13 years since I started. Those who read it now aren't necessarily those who started with it. Some folks have outgrown me, I guess, and some new folks have found my work and become regular, current readers. 

The numbers wax and wane. I'll have a great year, then I have a flat year, then a better year.  My blog has never been a big, flashy "it" blog or boutique destination, but it doesn't have to be, either.  I'm just happy to have a platform to write, every single day, and I'm delighted to have a consistent, lovely, intelligent readership.

I am a full-time instructor at a community college for a year now (teaching film, among other subjects), so it has become harder to blog every single day, multiple times, but that doesn't mean that I plan to stop blogging.  Some weeks, I have to rely on a rerun post or too, to get through.

But honestly, there's too much exciting stuff happening, and I enjoy blogging too much to entirely stop. A new Star Trek series, new Twin Peaks and more X-Files (season 11!) are all on the way. 

So I may not always blog 1400 times a year every year from here to eternity, but nor do I imagine just stopping cold.

Therefore, I hope you'll still be reading...and I promise not to spring "the end" on you. At this moment, I have 737 blog posts banked in the queue.

And in the meantime, perhaps I'll devote some mental energy to what my last post might look like...but probably not.  

I'll tackle that on the day the end comes. 

Don’t forget to ask me your questions at Muirbusiness@yahoo.com

9 comments:

  1. John, great answer! I, for one (among many), will still be reading. Your writing here is engaging the way my boyhood subscription to STARLOG magazine was back in the '70s and '80s. So, blog on John.

    SGB

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    1. Thank you, SGB! I look forward to reading your comments every day. And I am very honored by the comparison to Starlog Magazine in our youths!

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  2. John,
    I think I've been reading and commenting for at least two years or more. Sometimes if I watch an episode of something you've blogged about in the past, I'll re-read your review just to read your perspective while the episode is fresh in my mind. In fact, I've been surprised to find that I didn't comment on many of your Lost In Space reviews. I thought I'd commented on every episode, but I think it took me a while to get over my "shyness" in posting comments.
    I most enjoy having a forum to hear other viewpoints and share my own. I love hearing others' thoughts on entertainment which has meant so much to all of us.
    If time constraints become too much and I am no longer able to regularly comment, please know that I will continue to read your blog and I'm happy you're in this for the duration, however long that may be.
    So am I.
    Steve

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    1. Steve,

      Thank you for being such an important part of the dialogue here at the blog. Your comments are always so smart, so in-depth, and add so much to the discussion. I do understand about time constraints. I have not been as good as I would like about replying to comments, for about a year! I appreciate your friendship very much!

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  3. John, I've been reading and thoroughly enjoying your blog for years. I can even honestly say that I take your site for granted. I don't know what I'd do if it suddenly disappeared or you moved on to other things. I guess I'd start reading it again from the beginning! Wishing you many, many more years. Thanks for being part of my everyday life and adding something wonderful. Really when I take a moment to think of it I'm sincerely grateful to read your work everyday. Thank you! Greg

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    1. Greg, thank you for such kind words, and for making me and this blog a part of your "virtual" experience/life. That means so much to me. I appreciate your words of support and fellowship tremendously!

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  4. Such an entertaining question from David. I always enjoy the kinds of machinery questions that probe the blogger or a blog. So I loved the question.

    I also truly related to your answer and I certainly would love to see what other bloggers felt about this question, but John I wanted to say I really enjoyed your answer.

    I applied the question to my own journey as a writer too and I can tell you that I have thought about it for a fleeting moment or two what the end might be, but, like you, no way in America could I write that post.

    This is such a dynamic process and art form and it would seem the very fact writers and artist are constantly changing would speak to the fact most would likely not write that post.

    I know I'm always trying to be true to writing in the moment overall. Yes, some things get written and never posted because I've simply moved on.

    Sorry I couldn't help but reflect a little on this personally and saw some comparisons to your own feelings about it all as a blogger. Thanks for posting this.

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    1. Hi SFF!

      I agree! I think David's question was a great one, because it makes bloggers like us really think about what we are doing, how we are doing it, and why we do it that way. I love when readers send such questions too, because they make me a better writer (I hope). I am glad that you are resisting any desire to write a final post. I hope your journey in writing/blogging goes on. Somehow, it seems easier to let it go, once you imagine the end, and I never want to be at that point.

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  5. Keep up the GREAT work. Even if you are limited in what you can post, you have unique insights into genre film and TV that others choose to ignore.

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