I Missed My Own Anniversary?
Wow, that’s a sure sign I’m overworked and under rested.
Anyhoo….
I first started my own little blog at the suggestion of The Good Man. I never expected it would become such an essential part of my every day.
Oh Fair New Mexico sprang to life on March 17, 2007.
Five years, two hosting models, 444,000 words and I’m still blogging.
Rock on!
Image via Blogography
Comments
Lucky
Happy annibirtherday!
Karen Fayeth
Thanks, Lucky!
Anji
Congratulations! May you celebrate many more.
Karen Fayeth
Anji – Thanks. I’m still a little amazed at how fast five years has gone by.
Ephraim F. Moya
Chica,
Wow, 444,000 words. You should use one of those writers word counters to see how many different words you used. I think that’d be a neat thing to know.
Just out of curiosity, what keeps you coming back? Cause I know I start and then a couple days later I’m on to something else. Not even twitter keeps my attention and twitter seems designed for people like me.
Regards,
El Viejo
Karen Fayeth
Ephraim – That’s a great question. I don’t really know. I just know that I wanted an outlet for my writing and I set a goal to write a post every weekday, and somehow, five years got away from me.
Sometimes I look back at old posts and think “hey….it’s not that bad”. I’m pretty gosh darn proud, actually, of all of my 1400 posts. Especially because they are almost all original material.
The most common question I get is “where do you get your ideas?” I guess I think the world is filled with ideas. I just take that funny voice in my head that has a running commentary on everything around me, then I cut off a slice and put it in writing.
Ephraim F. Moya
Chica,
One of my pet theories is that one of the tells of a good writer (or a good storyteller) is their membership in the STOA (Slow Talkers of America) See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktYwuw9Mnjo . I developed this theory when I saw an interview with Alex Haley on TV. He is definitely a member of the STOA and a GREAT storyteller.
FWIW
Regards,
El Viejo PhD, FTOA
Karen Fayeth
Viejo – It’s a good theory. Definitely got me thinking. Not sure the theory is universal.
One of my favorite storytellers, Jack Kerouac, was quite a fast talker. I try to listen to recordings of him reading or telling a story and can hardly keep up. Also, Ray Bradbury gets a pretty good clip on when he talks.
So maybe being a slow talker is a good sign of a good storyteller, but being a fast talker doesn’t always mean you can’t tell a good yarn too.
Me, I talk too fast. Always have. Hard to know what that says about me. I talk too loud sometimes too. But that’s another story for another day.
Ephraim F. Moya
Chica,
Many years ago I watched a TV program with and about Barbara Cartland. In that program she claimed that she dictated every book she had written and that she didn’t look at them after she finished dictating. Any editing was performed by her stenographers which she claimed was minimal.
Since then I have found that that was actually true.
Boy! with her output it seems to me that her mind and the words she said were perfectly in sync. ie. Her speaking cadence was no faster (or slower) than her stenographers could follow.
Boy, with me, I spend most of my time editing. By a factor of 5 or 10 times.
How much of your time is spent editing?
Regards,
El Viejo
p.s. This post is not meant to be about you in any way. It’s my curiosity running amok.
Karen Fayeth
Ephraim – For me, I’d say it’s about a 2 to 1 ratio. One part writing to two parts editing.
The magic is in the editing, at least it is for me.
Frank Conway
“The most common question I get is “where do you get your ideas?” I guess “I think the world is filled with ideas. I just take that funny voice in my head that has a running commentary on everything around me, then I cut off a slice and put it in writing.”
I was thinking along those lines while reading the post. One of the pleasures of reading your web log is seeing what your powers of observation will come up with next. Then seeing how it passes from the state of discovery through the interpretation and expression. All along the surprise and delight with which you see things is there, your unique world view, your totally lacking in cynicism irony. Your honest sense of yourself and how that affects the process is always in there. That’s really nice, refreshing.
The consistency is one of the remarkable things, too. You’ve got some powers to draw on, for sure, otherwise you couldn’t be this consistently entertaining — insightful, creative, funny, wise, etc. Congratulations, and thanks.
Karen Fayeth
Wow, Frank. What an amazing compliment. Thank you, truly. I’m both humbled and deeply touched that you keep coming back to read my blog. A tip of the cap and a clink of the margarita glass to you!